US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to a resident of a refugee camp on the outskirts of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on August 11. [China Daily]

On her longest trip yet as secretary of state, Clinton crisscrossed the continent for 11 days from an AIDS clinic in rural South Africa to the war zone of Democratic Republic of the Congo to a roundtable with Nigerian faith leaders.

She took President Barack Obama's message - urging Africans to stand up and take charge of their future - to the dusty roads and towns of Africa.

"Condi would never do this," one of Clinton's aides let pass to reporters traveling with her through Africa, according to the New York Times.

Clinton, who ended her trip on Friday in the small Atlantic archipelago of Cape Verde, tailored the theme to each country - urging Kenya's rival leaders to reconcile and warning Nigeria that corruption was threatening the government's very legitimacy.

"The Obama administration both in the president's speech (in Ghana) and in my visit, have given a message of tough love," she said during a press conference on Friday with Cape Verde's Prime Minister Jose Maria Neves.

"We are not sugarcoating the problems, we are not shying away from them, our emphasis is to help to channel the hopes and aspirations of the people of Africa, in a way that changes the direction of their countries."

She didn't have it easy

While Clinton faced little outright hostility on her trip - in Liberia, she was greeted by hundreds of cheering women calling her "our iron lady" - she faced some tough questions though.

Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga bristled at US "lecturing," although a US official dismissed his remarks as public posturing. In Nigeria, This Day newspaper quoted the ruling People's Democratic Party condemning Clinton, saying she was being misinformed by political rivals with an "axe to grind."