The mayor of Accra, Ghana, and his delegation are meeting with District officials in Washington this week as part of a reciprocal sister-city visit.
Mayor Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson, appointed leader of Ghana’s capital, has come to D.C. three months after District Mayor Anthony Williams led a 37-member delegation to Ghana and Senegal. With Blankson are his wife, chief guard and chief sanitation official.
Blankson said Wednesday he is “overwhelmed” by the opportunity to meet with Williams, City Administrator Robert Bobb and other District leaders.
“We had been caged for a long time,” Blankson, Accra’s mayor for the past two and a half years, said of Ghana’s past regimes. “We had a government who never understood what democracy is all about. Now everybody is coming to terms with democracy.”
While in Washington, Blankson is hoping to learn more about an urban police department and about sanitation. He was scheduled to tour the District’s emergency command center, meet with minority business owners, tour development areas and affordable housing sites and attend a D.C. cabinet meeting.
“We’re continuing to encourage a cultural exchange between Washington and Accra because of the long-standing historical ties that many African Americans have with Ghana,” Williams said.
