WALES' FIRST BLACK LEADER'S MESSAGE TO RACISTS

9 months ago
18

Zambian-born Vaughan Gething has become the first African to lead a European country, Wales.

Welsh parliamentarians voted on 20 March to replace First Minister Mark Drakeford, who stepped down after five years. A few days earlier, the Welsh Labour Party chose Gething as its leader. His path to First Minister was clear because the party holds the most parliamentary seats.

Gething, a trade-union lawyer, was born in 1974 in Lusaka, Zambia, to a Welsh veterinarian father and a Zambian chicken farmer mother. The family moved to Wales, where he joined the Labour Party in 1992.

Not all have welcomed Gething's election in the tiny country, where white people made up more than 90 per cent of the population as of 2021. Social media trolls soon went into overdrive. However, Gething said he is up to the task.

African leaders in other predominantly-white countries have served ruling-class interests. Do you think Gething's election is progress for Africans? Let us know in the comments.

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