Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. (seated, left) with former Ghanian President John Dramani Mahama (far right).
Reverend Jesse Jackson welcomed former Ghanian President John Dramani Mahama to the Rainbow PUSH Coalition on Saturday, October 28, where the former Ghanian president welcomed African Americans to come to Africa and invest in the land.
Mahama was president of Ghana from July 24, 2012, to January 2017. He succeeded John Atta Mills, who died in office.
Also serving as vice president of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, in 2016, Mahama contested re-election for a second term, but lost to the New Patriotic Party candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo. He is the first president of Ghana to not win a second term.
Mahama told supporters this time he knows he will win and asked for their support. He appealed to African Americans to come to Ghana and invest in the land. Mahama said transportation to and from Ghana is improving. The election in Ghana will be held on December 7, 2024. He called for unity for this election.
He thanked Reverend Jackson for all he did in Africa. “You are very much respected in Africa,” he said looking at Jackson, who in 1997 was appointed special envoy for democracy and human rights in Africa, by former President Bill Clinton.
Jackson was instrumental in helping to end apartheid in Africa and fought for Africa’s inclusion in trade with the U.S.
When Jackson was special envoy for democracy and human rights, he told reporters, “Africa has been on America’s front burner from the beginning” and referring to the African slave trade, added, “It subsidized America’s development” and established the foundation for America’s international trade.
Mahama said Ghana has more “slave castles” than any other place where the slave trade was held. They have become a tourist attraction and a history lesson as well.
Also present at Rainbow PUSH Coalition was Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3rd), who earlier this year went to Ghana with members of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Foundation. She told the Chicago Crusader she will be working on forming a trade coalition with the government of Ghana.
While there, Hunter said she saw “severe poverty. We saw ordinary people, middle-class people all living in the same area. There is a lot of room for improvement. I look forward to returning to Ghana.”
Part of that improvement is Hunter’s leading the charge to forge a partnership between Illinois and Ghana on educational and business development projects. Hunter said Ghana has agriculture, theaters, the arts, music, and entertainment all venues for potential partnerships.
When asked if it is time for African Americans to go back to Africa, Hunter said, “I don’t know about going back home. We met a large group of African Americans from all over the country who live there. They are working there, teaching, have businesses, everything.
“A lot of Greek brothers and sisters, the fraternities and sororities are over there. They are working and supporting one another, and that’s a good thing. There is a lot they can learn from us in Ghana, and there is a lot we can learn from them,” said Hunter.
Makeda Smith, CEO/founder of Savvy Chicks in Real Estate also attended the Rainbow PUSH Coalition broadcast and later asked questions of former President Mahama about the accessibility of African Americans investing in land. “In December, we are taking 20 people to Ghana,” she told him.
Later in an interview with the Chicago Crusader, Smith said, “We are going to be exploring how to invest in real estate. There are other opportunities in other areas like agriculture, the cocoa barn, pineapples, where they can make money while they are in Africa. This is also for those African Americans who are looking to go back to the actual continent.”
When asked why African Americans should go back to Ghana, Smith said, “It is our history. It is what our ancestors had endured, what they had built.” Echoing what Mahama said during the PUSH broadcast, she reiterated, Ghana has more “slave castles” than in other place where Africans were captured.
“When we go in December, we will visit these slave castles and dungeons that were left there,” said Smith. She was referring to Cape Coast Castle one of about 40 slave castles, large commercial forts that were built on the Gold Coast of West Africa, which is now Ghana, by European slave traders during the Atlantic slave trade.
“That is one of the places we are going to visit,” Smith said. “We can see the Door of Return, where our ancestors walked out the door and they never returned. We get to return to the continent, and we get to return as business owners, as real estate agents, as accountants, as professionals within the U.S., but we are coming home to Africa.”
Asked why it is important to teach Black history, Smith said, “It is important for me to teach about Black history because it is our culture. As a real estate agent and someone who has been in the business for 20 years, I’m standing on the shoulders of my ancestors who made sure we have opportunities today.
“If we don’t take the opportunities that they sacrificed for on yesterday, then where will it leave the generation that is to come, our future bloodline,” said Smith. “For me as a real estate agent, there was a point in time where the National Association of Realtors did not allow Black people to be a part of that association.
“We had to form our own association, which is called the National Association of Real Estate Brokers and instead of calling ourselves Realtors, we call ourselves realtists,” Smith stated.
Jackson met with the visiting Africans in the Reverend Clay Evans Chapel at PUSH headquarters after the Saturday broadcast. He invited them to attend the upcoming Rainbow PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund’s 27th Annual PUSH Wall Street Project Economic Summit in February at the New York Stock Exchange.
Mahama later on Saturday, October 28, held a major fundraiser during the National Democratic Congress USA chapter, which held its first regional conference at the Holiday Inn in Rosemont.
