African Presidents display unity

Accra (Greater Accra), 20th May '99 -

African Presidents attending the fifth African African-American Summit in Accra today put up a rare show of unity when they graced the presidential plenary session sporting identical shirts sewn from the summit's ceremonial cloth.

Except for Presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Abdou Diouf of Senegal who were in suits, leaders from Ghana, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, the Sudan, Benin and Tanzania were clad in the brown and beige colours of the ceremonial fabric.

This was not lost on the packed house of delegates who did not hesitate to acknowledge the fashionable presidential unity with a standing ovation.

The leaders carried the mood of unity into their speeches as one after the other, they stressed that more action, rather than rhetoric, was what was needed to realise the ideals of the summit which is under the theme, "Business, trade and investment".

Their call for action was well placed in view of the fact that in the eight-year history of the summit little has been realised in the socio-economies of African states, including those which have hosted the first four versions; Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

The main hall of the Accra International Conference Centre, where the session took place, was awash with motley of styles and colours mainly comprising African, European and military wear by the gathering.

The presidential session really lived up to its tag as the climax of the five-day summit as newsmen and camera crews struggled with each other and with some delegates to catch the best rhetoric or shot of proceedings.

At the end of the session, the Presidents cemented their unity with a group photograph.

GRi?/