When a VIP comes visiting

It is puzzling that people still try to find some secret meaning to a trip to Ghana by an American president or vice-president or first lady.

We in Ghana have had our fair share of such visits, starting from Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat leading the US delegation to Ghana’s independence in 1957. 

Then came the visit of First Lady Pat Nixon in January 1972. I remember that visit which was touted as a celebration of a working democracy and how thoroughly angry the staff of the United States Information Services (USIS) were when the Busia government was overthrown a few days after the departure of Pat Nixon. 

They had just got the photos of the events of the trip ready to display on their noticeboards when the coup came and the big people who had attended the events were being herded into jail. 

It took a long time before Ghana came back on the itinerary of visiting American leaders to the African continent. It came with the Riot of Charisma when Jerry Rawlings hosted Bill Clinton in Accra and by Clinton’s own testimony, he got the largest crowd ever in his life. (Mind you, this was before 9/11 when the world changed and American presidents no longer approached crowds of people.) 

First Lady Laura Bush paid a visit in January 2006 when John Agyekum Kufuor was president and this was later followed by George W. Bush himself in 2008. It was at the state dinner during the visit that President Kufuor announced that the N1 highway would be named the George Walker Bush highway, with financing from the Millennium Challenge Account. 

Famous

Then came the famous visit in 2009 by Barrack Obama, first Black American President of the US, who appeared to be walking on water at the beginning of his first term, with his popularity soaring worldwide. 

This is how he described our country: “Ghana is a truly admirable example of a place where governance is getting stronger, a thriving democracy.” 
President John Evans Atta-Mills was the proud host. 

Then came President Donald Trump, who did not find any space on his calendar to visit the African continent. But let’s be fair, he only served one term, and First Lady Ivanka Trump did pay a visit to Africa and her first stop on the continent was in Ghana. 

In other words, we really shouldn’t be trying so hard to find reasons for the visit of Vice President Kamala Harris. American presidents come to Ghana when we have a working democracy.    

We are so used to it; we don’t even show any signs of the stress involved in getting ready to host a VIP visitor. Or maybe Jubilee House has reached the point where it doesn’t get tidied and painted because there is a visitor coming; it is always in ship-shape.  

Some people have been known to use the opportunity provided by the coming of a visitor to do long-standing repairs and procure long-wished-for items in the house. 

Visitor

When you are playing host to an American VIP visitor, you have to be ready to acknowledge that your visitor is coming with a lot of baggage and I am not referring to the airplanes and helicopters and cars and other items of logistics that they always bring with them. 

When you have managed all the international real-politique and satisfied your internal supporters and opponents that you are not selling your country to the USA through the visit, you now have to deal with the peculiar whims of the Americans themselves. 

If the Americans could, they would bring their own air to breathe when they come visiting. Of course, they won’t trust any host to see to the security of their VIP; they would do that themselves. 

It is our custom here in Ghana when a visitor arrives that you give a seat and offer water before you ask for amanee; they won’t trust the water you will be offering and so, unless you want to precipitate an international incident, you won’t offer water. 

Team

The advanced team would most preferably want to rehearse everything on the programme; if there is a prayer, they want to know what would be said in the prayer first; they don’t want any surprises.

I know we shouldn’t take it personally, since the Americans treat all their hosts the same way when their presidents and vice presidents get into anybody’s country. 
The world saw them at the funeral of the British Queen last year when they insisted their president would not be treated like any other president. 

But it is surely taking things to ridiculous lengths when they insist on mounting the dais on which the visiting vice president is welcomed at the airport. 

The result is that ugly contraption they had with the culturally insensitive paper kente wrapping on which Vice President Kamala Harris stood to make her arrival remarks at the airport. 

The only reason that dais was vaguely tolerable is that there was nothing in the remarks that suggested she was on Ghana soil. It was probably a speech meant for the entire continent, but there was nothing to show it had Ghana as the background from where it was being made and therefore one could forgive the ugly, crude and insensitive podium.

Ridiculous

Then I saw something else that seemed to me again like visitors taking things to ridiculous and extreme lengths. Vice President Kamala Harris arrives at Jubilee House and is being taken through this elaborate ceremony, where she is invited to inspect a guard of honour mounted by the Ghana Air Force. 

As she is led by the honour guard commander through the line of ceremonially dressed Ghanaian military persons, two huge American men, very obviously and in your face, walk on other side of her. It was like they were saying we can’t trust our Vice President to walk through your guard of honour safely. 

I have certainly never seen that before and it might well be that this is a new security measure but it did not look like something that should happen between friends.

It was a relief to see the real Kamala Harris when she was talking and being herself. She redeemed the American VIP situation.