Ghanaian MP Samia Nkrumah, daughter of the first President of the Republic of the Ghana Kwame Nkrumah, has been honoured by Egypt’s Culture Ministry. While on a short visit to Cairo, Ms Nkrumah was last Sunday 28 May awarded the shield of the Supreme Council of Culture by Egypt’s Culture Minister Helmy al-Namnam. In the attendance of her brother Gamal Nkrumah, a journalist at al-Ahram Weekly; Dr Anwar Mugheith, head of the national Centre for translation; and Dr Helmy Sharaawi, they discussed ways of cultural cooperation between Egypt and Ghana.
“I am grateful for such warm and generous welcome accorded me in Egypt,” Ms Nkrumah said.
Ms Nkrumah’s visit to Cairo came in response to an invitation by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to discuss preparations for the African Culture conference, scheduled to be held in Aswan in September 2017.
“The role played by the Council of African Studies in Ghana University should be reactivated through interaction with Egypt and its Culture Ministry,” Ms Nkrumah said. She confirmed she will be attending the African Culture conference.
“Egypt is taking steady steps towards Africa,” Mr Namnam noted, “especially that Aswan has been chosen as the capital of African culture and economy this year.”
Dr Mugheith sad that the National Centre for Translation was endeavouring to propagate African culture in Egypt.
Samia Nkrumah was MP for the Convention People’s Party (CPP) from 2008 to 2012, and the national Chairperson of that Party from 2011 to 2015. Her current mission leading the Kwame Nkrumah Library and Pan-African Centre is a concerted effort to preserve her father’s legacy by nurturing a new generation of political leadership in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa.
Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana after its independence from the British in 1957 married an Egyptian woman, Fathia Rizk, who was born and raised in the Zeitoun district of Cairo. They had three children: Gamal, Samia, and Sekou.
Watani International
30 May 2017