KOFI ANNAN IN ACCRA

On December 11^th, I was still living in Tamale. On that day, just after work, I went to the internet café to check my email. At the café, along with the rows of computers, is a television broadcasting one of the two channels that are available through the antenna. While online, I noticed that the TV was showing a live feed of what was to be Kofi Annan’s farwell speech. I soon finished what I was doing online, and set my focus on the program.

Methodically, he moved through the five lessons that he learned over a decade in the position of UN Secretary General. And just as he finished his speech, it was lights out and the television shut off.

Over a month later, after ironing my clothes for the week, I turned on the television and at that very moment I witnessed Kofi Annan stepping out of an airplane and onto the tarmac of the Kotoko airport in the Ashanti region, being broadcast live on national television.

That was Tuesday, and by Thursday I was at the Accra International Conference Centre for his first speaking engagement since he finished his post. Sitting in the 13^th row, set right in-front of the podium, I felt grateful and privileged to be witnessing that moment. I had actually read about the upcoming lecture in the newspaper a few weeks earlier. I had done some investigating on the procedure to attend, but I was told by the Events Coordinator that I should just come early.

The day was a long day, after seeing Juanita Bynum earlier, stopping by the East Airport area regarding my toe surgery the next day, going to Oxford Street to the internet café to file two stories, and then hitting the Conference Centre.

Upon arriving, I found my way into the building quite easily. However, hustling to get Idrissa in, and some issues that arose with security requiring invitations and a couple students from the university made the evening interesting. All of that also made sitting in the packed auditorium even sweeter.

I also have to add that the television crew continually panned on the row that I was sitting on, and broadcast my face across the nation. The proof of this fact came when I got a call from a friend in Tamale to tell me that she was watching and saw me on TV.

His speech, just over twenty minutes long, was rich. He began with a reflection on the movement for independence across the continent and the atmosphere in the hearts and minds of people. Without exaggeration, his summary was brilliant.

He then moved through a well selected collection of facts and figures to offer a sense of the challenges the continent is facing, the course and direction that needs to be taken, and the case for optimism.

As more of a homecoming to Ghana than an assessment of his view of the continent, the atmosphere was celebratory. At the conclusion of the evening, as people filed out of the building and others mingled in the lobby, I just wanted to stay around. It took awhile for the rest of the people that were going in the same direction as me to get me to leave.