African heads of state are gathering in Washington... (Associated Press) 
 
 President Barack Obama offers a toast at a dinner for the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit, on the South Lawn of the White House,Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. Text Size - 
 
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 reset President Obama opening remarks at Africa Leaders Summit 
 
 “I stand before you as the president of the United States and a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa,” the president said at the dinner, to applause. And so for us, the bonds between our countries, our continents, are deeply personal.” 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Barack Obama touts Africa deals in U.S. catch-up game) 
 
 The six-minute toast was a marked contrast to the president’s speech earlier Tuesday afternoon, when Obama discussed the growing economic and trade relationship between the U.S. and Africa. Obama toasted to “the new Africa,” a lyric borrowed from a song he said he first heard in Senegal and later quoted as a reference to “the Africa that is rising and so full of promise,” according to White House pool reports.
– President Obama isn't known for getting particularly personal at the podium, Politico notes, but in a speech at the US-Africa Summit, he offered up his own story. "I stand before you as the president of the United States and a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa," he said in a toast at a dinner last night. "The blood of Africa runs through our family. And so for us, the bonds between our countries, our continents, are deeply personal.” Obama discussed his memories of visiting Africa with his family, and he applauded "the new Africa, the Africa that is rising and so full of promise," the AP notes; the words referred to a song he heard in Senegal, Politico adds. He also referred to slavery, recalling a "painful past" and of "standing with our daughters in those doors of no return through which so many Africans passed in chains." The dinner was held on the White House's South Lawn because the crowd of 400-plus couldn't fit indoors; guests ranged from the presidents of South Africa and South Sudan to Jimmy Carter and Robert De Niro.