Melania Trump handed out teddy bears to sick children on a paediatric ward in Ghana on Tuesday as she began an African tour that the White House hopes will detoxify her husband’s image on the continent.

By focusing primarily on childhood health and education, Mrs Trump’s five-day swing through four African states, her first significant solo trip abroad as First Lady, is meant to cast American diplomacy in a gentler light.

Her husband, Donald Trump, caused anger in January when he reportedly disparaged some African states and Haiti as “shithole countries”.

The outrage was probably greater among the president’s critics in Washington than in Africa, where some opposition figures gleefully seized on his alleged comments to berate their leaders.

Even so, Mr Trump’s abrasive style of leadership has won few friends on a continent that embraced his predecessor, Barack Obama, with pride and genuine affection.

Mrs Trump’s arrival in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, was therefore unsurprisingly subdued. Although she was greeted by song and dance, as is customary for dignitaries visiting sub-Saharan states, there were few crowds on the streets, where the mood was more one of indifference than either excitement or overt hostility.