Asante King Otumfuo Osei Tutu II in Washington D.C.

by SADICK ABUBAKAR

The 16th King of the Asante people in Ghana, His Royal Highness Nana Otumfuo Osei Tutu II delivered a keynote address at the U.N. High Level Forum on Culture of Peace at the United Nations General Assembly on September 13, 2019. Prior to the U.N. keynote, he addressed a gathering of leaders of the diaspora in Washington D.C on September 9th.

His Majesty was invited by the African Union ambassador, H.E. Arikana Quao, to speak on the economic future prospects of Africa.

In his address, the Asante king echoed excerpts from Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois’s book The Souls of Black Folk – “An American, a Negro… two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” – as he philosophized about the conflicts of duality of black people living in the diaspora.

He also highlighted some causes of contemporary Africa’s woes, including, but not limited to, unfair global financial structures that prey upon weaker institutions and countries, and the failure of political leadership to capitalize on vast resources of the continent.

He also compared and contrasted the conflict in the ideologies of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who envisioned a mass-scale migration of black people back to Africa, and W. E. B. Du Bois’s contrary view on that.

The Asantehene reiterated the need for the diaspora to channel its resources to make Africa highly competitive on the global scale.

He acknowledged the need for Africa to translate its rich resources into economic growth for its people and encouraged the diaspora to step up its advocacy and efforts to make the economic growth agenda a reality.

“As the custodian of the vast land of the Ashanti kingdom, I have an open space and will welcome any one home,” he emphasized.

He cited the growth and progress of the Ghanaian economy from its Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status of yesteryears through to an era of free senior high school education for all its citizens.

He acknowledged the great work of leaders of other African countries in striving for better and decent lives for their citizens.

He also referenced the recent visit by a congressional delegation led by Nancy Pelosi, in which she thanked Ghanaians for the inspiration they rendered the Civil Rights Movement.

This, His Majesty referred to as “Our History” which binds us in an unbreakable brotherhood of African people the world over.

He challenged Africa to address its economic challenges and look at it as a collective struggle, because “as a people we are in it together.”

Posted by on Sep 20 2019. Filed under top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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