Michelle Obama meets Nelson Mandela

Michelle Obama, accompanied by her mother and two daughters, visited the 92-year-old former president and anti-apartheid leader, at his home in Johannesburg.

She earlier visited the Nelson Mandela foundation offices, viewing a display of archival items including Mandela’s prison desk calendars and notebooks.

Mr Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, put her arms around Michelle Obama’s daughters as they were shown various historical documents.

The foundation quoted Obama as saying after viewing the display: “You are doing very important work.”

Michelle Obama and her family arrived in South Africa on Monday on her second official solo journey abroad.

Read more: Why is Michelle Obama such a hit wherever she goes?

The first lady landed at a military airport in South Africa’s capital Pretoria where was welcomed by US ambassador Donald Gips and his family.

Her two daughters were given large blankets with colours of the South African flag to wrap up in as they got off the plane.

She will make stops in Johannesburg and Cape Town and later in the week visit Botswana.

Michelle Obama will also go to the island where Mandela was imprisoned under apartheid and Soweto – South Africa’s biggest black township and site of bitter battles with apartheid police in the 1970s and 80s.

Read more: Nelson Mandela and South Africa's journey to freedom

In Botswana she will meet President Ian Khama and women leaders. She will also see a nature reserve.

The race for the White House

Her trip comes as the United States starts gearing up for the 2012 presidential election, when her husband, President Barack Obama, hopes to hold on to the White House. Pictures of Mrs Obama in Africa could appear in the campaign to appeal to black voters, a critical voting bloc for Obama’s Democrats.

White House officials said her visit would advance her husband’s foreign policy goals.

“This trip by the first lady is very directly connected to the president’s agenda in Africa and the Obama administration’s foreign policy in Africa,” Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security adviser told reporters last week.

“It’s no coincidence that she would be visiting countries that have embraced democracy, (and) in many respects, have shown that not only does their democracy deliver for its citizens, but it can provide a positive example for the neighbourhood that these countries are in as well.”

The first lady’s previous official solo trip abroad was to Mexico.