The late Queen visited every member state of the Commonwealth of Nations except Cameroon and Rwanda, which only joined the organisation in 1995 and 2009. 10.09.2022, Sputnik International
The late Queen Elizabeth II was one of the most widely-travelled heads of state in history — but the African continent played a special role in her life.During her lifetime, the Queen visited 53 nations of the Commonwealth, the association of Britain and most of its former colonies. She also paid state visits to several non-Commonwealth nations during her 70-year reign.KenyaThe then-Princess Elizabeth was in the East African nation of Kenya — then still a British colony — when she succeeded her father King George VI as monarch on February 6, 1952.She and her husband Prince Philip were staying at the Treetops Hotel — literally built in the branches of a tree — in Aberdare National Park when they received the tragic news of the King’s sudden death from a heart attack. Elizabeth had been standing in for her ailing father on a trip that was meant to continue to Australia and New Zealand, but was naturally cut short.South AfricaThe Queen first visited South Africa before her reign in 1947 with her parents George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother) and her sister Princess Margaret. The country had not yet become a republic and was a year away from the harshest period of apartheid.Following the end of apartheid, Elizabeth returned with Prince Philip for a six-day tour in 1995, starting in Cape Town, followed by Port Elizabeth — where she was greeted by a crowd of 100,000 people — then Johannesburg and Pretoria. She was accompanied by President Nelson Mandela to events on five of the six days, and described the trip as „one of the outstanding experiences of my life.“A road bridge in the centre of the financial capital Johannesburg was named after Queen Elizabeth. Nowadays, it meets the Nelson Mandela Bridge at its northern end.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recalled on Thursday that he met Elizabeth at the 2018 Commonwealth meeting in London, where they spent some time reading letters that Mandela had sent to the Queen.“The Queen’s commitment and dedication during her 70 years on the throne remains a noble and virtuous example to the entire world,“ Ramaphosa said.UgandaThe Queen’s first state visit following her coronation in 1953 was to Uganda, just one stop on her round-the-world tour that spanned two years. She spent a day in Aden, now a province of Yemen, beforehand and then flew on to Libya afterwards.
