U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his three-nation tour of Africa Sunday by visiting a museum in South Africa commemorating how the country’s Black youths helped to end white racist rule.
Blinken’s visit to Africa is seen as part of a competition between Russia and Western powers for support from African countries over the war in Ukraine. His trip to Africa follows recent tours by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and French President Emmanuel Macron.
South Africa is one of many African countries that have maintained a neutral stance on the war and have not publicly criticized Russia.
After an early morning arrival, Blinken visited the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto township, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, which honors a student killed in 1976 when protesting South Africa’s regime of racial oppression, apartheid, which ended in 1994.
Blinken laid a wreath at the memorial accompanied by Pieterson’s sister, Antoinette
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