Tallahassee gets new sister-city in Ghana- GPE adds new project location

- From Tallahassee Democrat

After a seven-year wait, the city of Tallahassee has formalized its sister-city relationship with a district in Ghana, West Africa.



Now the partners can forge ahead with the development of cultural, education and economic exchanges.

“America in itself is looking for opportunities for globalization,” said Arthur Lugisse, the deputy CEO of the Tallahassee African Sister Cities Coalition, which is the local group behind the partnership. “If you get the private and public sectors to work together, things happen.”

Already, at least 25 people, including college students and faculty, are set to visit the district this summer, Lugisse said.

And another seven Florida State university students, interested in African culture, are going to Ghana from April to June.

Mayor John Marks signed a formal agreement with George Kyei Baffour, an assembly member from the Asante Akim North Municipal District, during a ceremony at City Hall last week.

Dinah Hart, senior aide to mayor John Marks, said the partnership was approved in 2001 and was finally formalized last week because Kyei Baffour was in town for the Tallahassee African Sister Cities Coalition Conference at Florida A&M University. It was spearheaded by Willie Butler, the CEO and founder of the coalition and a professor of history at FAMU, who was a student in Ghana for two years.


“There was just never an opportunity to get the leaders of the two (governments) together,” Hart said.

Ghana, which borders the Gulf Of Guinea, gained its independence from Great Britain in 1957, the first sub-Saharan country to do so. English is its official language.

Asante Akim is one of 21 districts in the south-central region of Ashante. The district capital is Konongo-Odumase.

Asante Akim joins Ramat-Hasharon, Israel; Sligo, Ireland; Krasnodar, Russia; and
the Caribbean island of St. Maarten in having a sister-city relationship with Tallahassee.