Local Woman Working to Bring African Sister City Delegation to Cherry Blossom Festival
by Clarence Thomas, Jr. (thomasjr63@gmail.com), MGI Contributor
Earnestine Wilson with Nana Tseasewaa
Earnestine Wilson of Macon is determined to bring back a delegation of representatives from Macon’s African Sister City, Elmina — in the West African nation of Ghana — to the city’s 2023 Cherry Blossom Festival. Her reasoning is noteworthy.
To continue building on the establishment of an African Sister City by former Macon Mayor C. Jack Ellis, Wilson believes it’s necessary to create a presence for folks from there during the annual event. She has been hard at it for months and hopes to soon get Macon-Bibb County on board as well. “I want to get current leaders here to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of our African Sister City relationship. It would be mutually beneficial,” said Wilson.
Macon has six Sister Cities. Half of them that include Kurobe, Japan, Macon, France, and Kaohsiung City, Taiwan are decades old. The other three were added while Ellis was in office in the early 2000’s. In addition to Elmina, the city’s first Black head of city government added Ulyanovsk, Russia and Gwacheon, South Korea. According to the website sistercities.org a sister city, county, or state relationship is broad-based, long-term partnership between two communities in two countries. Additional beneficiaries The Informer spoke with say the relationship brings about mutual understanding, peace, cooperation, and respect.
Wilson has traveled to Elmina and was so well received in 2019 she was enstooled, or ceremoniously designated Queen Mother of Development for the Atlantic coast city known for its hospitality, food, and fishing prowess. Elmina is also the site of centuries old holding cells referred to as Slave Castles. Here is where thousands of Africans were detained after being captured by slavers before departing the shores of Elmina in chains and at gun point for long arduous journeys to North America and other parts of the globe for the purpose of supplying free labor.
As Queen Mother of Development Wilson has numerous responsibilities but has mostly focused on increasing literacy among Elmina’s youth population through her initiative Operation Softback Book. “I really enjoy working with the kids there,” she shared. “This initiative came about as a result of a Sister City trip.”
To adequately facilitate the delegation, she’s looking for help from the county with what was standard when other delegations have visited from other Sister Cities she reminded the Middle Georgia Informer. This would include hospitality related funding towards their hotel stay, local transportation, and other related amenities.
Nana Tseasewaa III of Gwira Akyinim Elmina is the chief’s advisor in addition to overseeing the affairs of women and children. She is excited about potentially revisiting Macon and reviving a Sister City relationship that some feel was neglected by the administration between Ellis’ time in office and the current administration. “Earnestine’s effort should be supported. It’s important to revive the friendship between our cities,” she insists. “We have to come and renew our friendship through cultural exchange with our brothers and sisters in the diaspora and others.”
The Elmina delegation will be a small, mostly self-contained group says Wilson. They are travel ready but are awaiting Macon-Bibb County’s decision to provide hospitality while here. Wilson says their itinerary would include attending various Cherry Blossom activities along with visits to the Tubman Museum, the Douglass Theatre, Rosa Parks Square, the historic Pleasant Hill Neighborhood, and other Macon locations of significance.
Wilson, Macon’s first female to go to a Sister City and return as development queen, is grateful for the county’s facilitation of her effort through conversations with officials and the interest they expressed thus far; but she’s looking forward to a firm commitment soon regarding hospitality support for the delegation. “It’s an awesome chance for us to once again meet and greet someone from the other side of the ocean that we have a formal relationship with through the Sister City program,” she added.
