A Cocktail Reception at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra on Monday March 2, 2020 officially launched the 2^nd Annual Attorney General Alliance Africa Conference.  Dr. Ziblim Iddi Barri, The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture, welcomed the group of U.S. Attorney Generals who travelled to Ghana for the conference by saying a few words.  “It’s a privilege and an honour for us to host you,” he said. “I hope all of you who are here for the first time enjoy.”  He took a moment to congratulate everyone for coming to Ghana and commended them for being elected to their positions.

Karl A. Racine, Attorney General of District of Columbia was given the floor to speak and he invited all his attorney general peers to join him and introduce themselves as well.  Denise N. George, Attorney General U.S. Virgin Islands, Aaron Forde, Attorney General for Nevada, Keith Ellison, Attorney General for Minnesota, Letitia James, Attorney General for New York and Kwame Raoul, Attorney General for Illinois were all very excited to be in Accra for the conference.

Racine made everyone aware how important it is that this many African Americans were holding such positions in the U.S. “In 2014-2015, in the United States of America there was exactly one African American, black prosecutor, Attorney General in the United states,” he said. Kamala Harris, former Attorney General for California, was leaving her position when he was coming into his. He went on to say that now there has been an improvement as more African Americans are holding positions as Attorney Generals. “That doesn’t happen by accident,” he said, “…Each of these individuals fought really hard for the right to serve their jurisdictions.”

Karen White, Executive Director of the AGA, was excited to be there to network and work with Ghana towards coming up with solutions to some of the issues that the conference will address. The AGA Africa Conference is primarily focused on tackling transcontinental crime.  Issues including human trafficking, counterfeit medicines, cybersecurity and money laundering crosses continents.  These are important concerns they can all work together on battling.

Their commitment to working together for a positive outcome was felt and the event is certainly poised to deliver positive results. Information on the organisation can be found on their website on www.AGAafrica.org.

Written by Ivy Prosper