President John Dramani Mahama has welcomed Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa to a state banquet in Accra.
The occasion was used to celebrate a bond between the two countries which predated formal diplomacy and was rooted in the blood, struggle and shared vision of Africa’s liberation generation.
Opening the banquet on Wednesday, President Mahama drew warm laughter from the room with a light-hearted reminder to his Zimbabwean guest about an outstanding lobola, the traditional dowry, linked to what he called the historic union between the two nations.
“As our cherished in-law, we cannot resist a light-hearted reminder about the outstanding lobola,” President Mahama stated, before turning to the deeper substance of a relationship he said was built on shared values, strengthened by solidarity and sustained by a common African identity.
At the heart of that relationship, President Mahama said, were two towering figures. Ghana’s Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, whose shared ideals of freedom, dignity and Pan-African unity had shaped both nations and continued to guide their cooperation and inspire future generations.
The personal dimension of the Ghana-Zimbabwe bond, President Mahama said, went beyond politics. Robert Mugabe had once lived and worked in Ghana as a teacher and intellectual, immersing himself fully in the country’s early post-independence experience.
“His marriage to Sally Mugabe, a proud daughter of Ghana, further cemented the relationship between our peoples and symbolised the unity between our nations,” President Mahama said.
He said Zimbabwe’s independence wasa major milestone in Africa’s liberation history, reflecting the power of collective effort and the possibility of self-determination, a feat that Ghana had cheered from the beginning and whose meaning both nations continued to carry forward.
President Mnangagwa’s state visit, which began on Wednesday, includes bilateral talks at Peduase Lodge, the signing of memoranda of understanding and visits to the Sweden Ghana Medical Centre and the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant. He is also scheduled to lay a wreath at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park before departing on Friday.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
