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Ghana Chapter Chartered on August 29, 2020 in Africa
National Theatre • Accra, Ghana • Photo by kojo nana on Unsplash
Chapter is Believed to be the First D9 Sorority in Ghana
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By Earlene McMichael
National Publications and Communications Team Member
AS IT TURNED OUT,
two of the Sorors involved in the original plan to revive the Liberia chapter—Mekisha Hugh-Abban and Shannan Akosua Magee—actually lived in Ghana and expressed interest in chartering a chapter there.
When it comes to planting chapters in Africa, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated has been a trendsetter for sororities. It had the first chapter on the continent when it expanded into Liberia 71 years ago. Now our Sisterhood has achieved another first in the Motherland with the launch of our chapter in the city of Accra in Ghana. “It is the first sorority in the Divine Nine that I am aware of in Accra, Ghana,” said Atlantic Regional International Area Director Salaine Atkins-little, who oversaw the chartering of Gamma Alpha Sigma Zeta Chapter. A chartering ceremony and new member induction were held Aug. 29, 2020.
“This is simply amazing. This historic achievement is inspirational to witness, and to see the hard work finally give birth leaves me speechless.”
The expansion into Ghana has an interesting backstory. The Sorority received an email from Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Soror Freda Koomson, of Liberian descent, about wanting to reactivate the Liberia chapter that had fallen dormant in the late 1980s after four decades of continuous operation because a civil war had hit that country. She made the inquiry in 2017, a year after moving to Liberia.
That culminated in a meeting between Soror Atkins-little, Atlantic Regional Director Gina Merritt-Epps and International Chapter Expansion Director Melissa J. Barnes, Ed.D., on April 28, 2019. Atkins-little says that meeting led into exploring the idea of having a regional chapter to serve all of West Africa, not just Liberia. A feasibility
(Continued from pages 61) study examining the proposal was completed by June 1, 2019.
The findings were reviewed later that month and the recommendation made to pursue, instead, two chapters: one in Liberia and one in Ghana.
GETTING APPROVAL
As it would turn out, two of the Sorors involved in the original plan to revive the Liberia chapter—Mekisha Hugh-Abban and Shannan Akosua Magee—actually lived in Ghana and expressed interest in chartering a chapter there, Atkins-little says.
More planning meetings would be held over the next few months about chartering a Ghana chapter. Atkins-little then submitted a formal request for a Ghana charter to Atlantic Regional Director Gina Merritt-Epps.
Merritt-Epps, in turn, forwarded the request to the chapter expansion director. The expansion team liked the idea and, on March 10, 2020, recommended to Centennial International Grand Basileus Valerie Hollingsworth Baker to approve the Ghana charter.
Next steps were developed at a May 13, 2020 meeting attended by Grand Val and Sorors Barnes, Merritt-Epps and Atkins-little, according to Atkins-little. It was ultimately decided that the chartering ceremony would occur on Aug. 29, 2020.
“We had several conference calls to plan out the sustainability,” Atkins-little says. “We wanted to make sure the chapters were longlived. We also wanted to make sure that Zeta was needed and we would be able to help
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TOP LEFT AND RIGHT PHOTOS: Soror Shannan “Akosua” Magee speaks at a Ghana Zetas sponsored panel discussion on anxiety and stress at Academic City University College. Magee is Director of Admissions there. CENTER PHOTO: Sorors Shannan “Akosua” Magee and Mekisha Hugh-Abban recruited members for the new Ghana chapter at a Dec. 18, 2019 Informational Meeting. BOTTOM LEFT PHOTO: Soror Mekisha Hugh-Abban talks to women interested in learning more about Zeta at an informational held on Dec. 18, 2019. BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO: Sorors Shannan “Akosua” Magee, who’ll be a member of the new Ghana chapter, addresses the crowd at a Dec. 18, 2019 Informational Meeting.
that population because service is what we do.”
GOOD TIMING
As the Ghana Zetas waited for the approval process to be completed, they kept volunteering, hosting a holiday toy drive, a panel discussion on anxiety and stress and lunch for the local police, and participating in a joint Divine Nine service project.
And they held an Informational Meeting to start themselves out on strong footing in terms of membership, according to Atkinslittle. The result is an induction ceremony of three new members took place at the same time of the Ghana chapter chartering.
The timing for launching the chapter couldn’t have been better. There was a “Year of the Return” initiative underway in Ghana to encourage Blacks worldwide to consider making that country home.
It brought thousands of them to their shores since the campaign began in 2019, timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first recorded enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Va., in 1619.
The Zetas who were already in Accra, the capital and largest city in Ghana, are themselves transplanted Black Americans, so they weaved the “Year of the Return,” a profoundly culturally significant moment, into some of their service work in the months leading up to Gamma Alpha Sigma Zeta’s chartering.
Namely, they partnered with the local Phi Beta Sigma chapter and Academic City College to start a four-year $40,000 scholarship for a recent Black high-school graduate from the United States or West Indies, for which applications were due last year.
It is for study at that college, where prospective charter member and Soror Shannan Magee is Director of Admissions.
“We hope to offer this scholarship annually to encourage Black Americans and West Indian students to consider higher education in Africa,” says Soror Mekisha Hugh-Abban, one of the charter members of the Ghana chapter.
Hugh-Abban, a Jamaican-American who was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., herself moved to Ghana and married a native from there.
“For many of our people, the concept of Africa is so far-fetched that it seems impossible to attain for themselves,” she says. “We wanted the diaspora to know that living on the continent is possible, and you can have an incredible quality of life.”
Joining Sorors Shannan Magee and Mekisha Hugh-Abban as charter members are Sorors Shermaine Moore-Boakye and Soror Lorna JnBaptiste and new members Johnetta Nzali Abraham, Michelle Spears and Soror Tonya Saafir-Ankomah.
(Continued with photo collage on page 65)
TOP LEFT, RIGHT, AND BOTTOM RIGHT: Ghana Zetas’ holiday toy drive was held on Dec. 26, 2019, where they collected books, clothing and school supplies in addition to toys. BOTTOM LEFT: The Ghana Zetas provided lunch to the Kwabenya police force as part of the International Day of Service.
