Speaker of US House of Representatives to visit Ghana

On Jul 27, 2019

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, would be in Ghana to hold discussions with Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, Speaker Mike Oquaye and other senior government officials.

This is according to a press release from the US Embassy in Accra copied to ghanabusinessnews.com.

Aside discussions with Ghana’s President, she will address Ghana’s Parliament on Wednesday July 21, 2019.

“In Ghana, our delegation looks forward to high-level discussions on key issues such as regional security, sustainable and inclusive development and the challenges of tomorrow including the climate crisis,” Speaker Pelosi is quoted as saying in the release.

She would be also accompanied by 13 Congresspersons. These are, James Clyburn, John Lewis, Bobby Rush, Sheila Jackson Lee, Barbara Lee, Yvette Clarke, Hank Johnson, Marcia Fudge, Karen Bass, Terri Sewell, Frederica Wilson, Joyce Beatty and Ilhan Omar.

The delegation would visit the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, to observe the 400th anniversary of the First Enslaved Africans Landing in America.

“As the founding chair of the International African American Museum, which is being built on Gadsden Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina where approximately 50 per cent of enslaved Africans arrived in this country, it is particularly meaningful to me to join the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and many of my African American colleagues in visiting Ghana’s ‘Door of No Return,” Congressman Whip Clyburn, is quoted as saying in the release.

“I consider this to be a fitting and proper way to commemorate the 400th year since the enslaved people were forced to leave their homeland and sent in bondage to the New World. I seek to pay homage to the sacrifices of our African ancestors and honor the contributions they made to building the United States of America,” Mr. Clyburn added.

Nancy Pelosi is the first female Speaker of the US House of Representatives and the first to address Ghana’s Parliament.

By Gifty Danso