Maryland County official revisits Ghana

Making good on a promise, Carl O. Snowden, special assistant to County Executive Janet S. Owens, will return to Ghana this week in an effort to increase tourism and improve economic ties between the African nation and Anne Arundel County.

Snowden traveled to Ghana in October as part of a mission led by Gov. Parris N. Glendening. During that tour, the former Annapolis alderman met with Ghanaian political and business leaders, who expressed interest in forming partnerships with their counterparts in the county.

While traveling with Governor Glendening last year, I promised a number of business and civic leaders in Ghana that I would return this year to attend Panafest 2001 to demonstrate our commitment to increasing business ventures with Africa," said Snowden, who added that each traveler is paying his or her own way.

Panafest is an extravagant and well-attended African culture event that Ghana holds every other year. Festivities include a pageant of tribal chiefs and queen mothers as well as musical and theatrical performances and a youth conference. This year, the festival will take place Friday to Aug. 3.

Although the governor's trip focused on business opportunities - and resulted in at least one contract between an Anne Arundel County company and the Ghanaian government - Snowden hopes to explore more cultural and tourism aspects of the Gold Coast nation this time, he said.

"I see this as a way to encourage people who are taking vacations to begin to think about going to Africa and specifically to Ghana," said Snowden, who will take his two sons, Abayomi Hamisi Malik, 24, and Kojo Lumumba Malik, 16, with him. "You have never seen more hospitable people."

Snowden's group will be made up of 25 area residents, including Rene Swafford, 48, an Edgewater attorney, who plans to travel with her husband, Robert, and 12-year-old daughter, Eshe, who attends Key School in Annapolis.

For Swafford, who is African-American, a trip to Africa is a lifelong dream. She hopes that her daughter will learn more about her African roots. Swafford purchased three notebooks for family members in which they can record their impressions.

Besides visits to the dungeons of seaside fortresses where Africans were held until they could be loaded onto boats bound for America, the trip could offer new business partnerships, she said.

"I'm a new attorney and so I'm interested in any possible business opportunities that might exist," said Swafford, who practices domestic and personal injury law but is also interested in international law. "The government there is offering dual citizenship to Americans, and I want to learn more about that while I am there."

Leontyne Johnson, 46, a resident of Severna Park and an employee of the county's Office of Planning and Zoning, also is interested in Ghanaian citizenship. She was so impressed with the generosity of the people she met in Ghana when she traveled there last year that she is considering moving to the West African nation for part of the year after she retires.

"I am kind of tiring of our winters here," Johnson said. "Last year, I got a heating bill for like $400. It is kind of getting ridiculous."

One reason Snowden and other county officials are focusing on improving relations with Ghana is because the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area is home to the largest concentration of Ghanaians in the United States. Also, the western region of Africa is where many slaves, including Alex Haley's Kunta Kinte, a Gambian, lived before they were imprisoned and taken to America.

"If there is going to be trade between Maryland and Ghana, it will take residents to be the catalyst," Snowden said.