Queen Elizabeth II was actually Princess Elizabeth when she first visited Africa with her parents. And she was in Kenya – staying in the famous Treetops hotel – when the news of her father’s death arrived and she became queen.
During the 70 years that followed she visited the continent many times and shook the hands of countless African leaders.
But what was it like to actually meet the queen in person?
For Africa Daily @Kasujja speaks to the former president of Botswana, Ian Khama, and Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the traditional prime minister of the Zulu nation, who share their memories.
“He announced me as the President of Zimbabwe… she said to me ‘don’t worry about that introduction, he’s new and I think he just got overwhelmed by the occasion’… She knew I wasn’t the President of Zimbabwe, she knew who I was. She made a nice, pleasant excuse for him”.