The two events this week juxtaposed the best and worst of Africa at a time when its leaders want to finally move past perceptions of the "dark continent" rife with war, poverty and disease.
Those problems exist, as demonstrated by the Ebola crisis threatening to spread beyond the epicenter of neighbors Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
So does evidence of galloping economies and prolonged political stability in countries across Africa, a point emphasized repeatedly at the Washington gathering hosted by America's first African-American president.
5 reasons Obama's Africa leaders' summit matters
Trade, not just aid
Leaders who once came seeking aid now make deals for trade, citing statistics to boost their case.
Six of the world's fastest developing economies are in Africa. Burgeoning middle classes offer growing markets for foreign goods.
To Senegal President Macky Sall, the summit "should allow us to confirm the change of perspective towards a vision of Africa" from a continent that "used to need aid."
He cited the evolving perception chronicled by The Economist, which ran a May 2000 cover with a picture of a gun-toting African above the phrase "the hopeless continent." Eleven years later, the same magazine's cover heralded "Africa rising."
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