Africa's Dreams Begin to Take Root Clinton's Trip to Still-Troubled Continent Highlights Growth of Democracy, Markets

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The main streets of Mozambique's capital, Maputo, are still named for Karl Marx and Mao Zedong. But they no longer show a socialist direction in the government, the path taken by most African countries when the post-colonial era began in the 1960s.

Today they are just signposts of a disastrous past that Mozambique wants to put behind it as it embraces free-market capitalism and democracy, Africa-style.

President Clinton came to Africa on a trip that ends April 2 to celebrate the "African renaissance," a term coined by South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki. From Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) to Dakar (Senegal), democracy is gaining strength, business is growing, …