Boston University’s African Presidential Center (APC), also known as the African Presidential Archives and Research Center (APARC) was led by the former US Ambassador to Tanzania, Charles Stith, who began this organization with the intent to chronicle and facilitate developmental growth in Africa. The Center worked with fifteen democratic African countries: Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia.

This Center focused on five major programs that offered particularly unique insights into contemporary trends and developments in Africa. With the President-in-Residence program, a former democratically elected African head of state took up residence at Boston University and spoke at various venues throughout the United States. The Public Papers/Private Conversations Project was an oral and documentary history project focusing on current trends and development in Africa. The African Leaders State of Africa Report is comprised of reports presenting the perspectives of select African heads of state relative to their respective countries and regions. It is an annual report that allowed the Center to disseminate the African point of view to those involved in creating policy and shaping opinions about Africa. The African Presidential Roundtable was a gathering of former African heads of state, policy makers, and public sector leaders. Discussants came together on a yearly basis to deliberate on issues of growth and development as they pertain to the continent. The APC American – African Universities Collaborative was a partnership between the Center, HBCUs, and African Universities that was designed to provide students at partnering institutions to the full range of APC programs.