Ghanaian chiefs visit Portsmouth

Portsmouth historian Valerie Cunningham believes the city shares a “spiritual connection” with the African nation Ghana.

That spiritual connection became physical last week when two village chiefs from the eastern region of Ghana began a weeklong visit to Portsmouth.

Nana Kwame Takyi I and Nana Adu-Ampoma II are in town as part of the Portsmouth-Greater-Accra Sister City Connection, a local group that formed in 2003 out of various local ties Portsmouth has with Ghana. Accra is Ghana’s capital city. “We have contacts over there. A lot of people go to Ghana to get back to their roots,” said Peter Randall, a member of the Sister City Connection who has visited Ghana twice.

“Nana” is an honorific for chiefs in Ghana. Takyi and Ampoma arrived in Portsmouth on Sept. 8 and have been staying with different local families. While this is Takyi’s first visit to Portsmouth, he visited Washington, D.C., and New York in the 1960s.

“America is different from Africa, but we are all of the same blood and we are here to see our brothers and sisters,” he said.

During their three-week stay in Portsmouth, Takyi and Ampoma will participate in lectures at the University of New Hampshire and attend a meeting of the Seacoast NAACP in Portsmouth. The two men, clad in the traditional garb of village chiefs, participated in a press conference at the offices of Atlantic Media in Portsmouth on Monday.

Two days before, on Sept. 10, Takyi and Ampoma attended a concert celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail. He said what has surprised him the most about America is the close relationship between blacks and whites here, especially after seeing so many whites at the Black Heritage Trail Celebration.

“We’ll have a lot to tell our people,” he said.

Randall said the group hopes to set up some kind of cultural program between schools in Portsmouth and Ghana. Drums and woodcarvings made in the Accra area could also be sold here in the Seacoast, with the money sent back to Africa.

“We’re starting off the process and we really don’t know where it will end up,” he said.

Cunningham, a member of the Sister City Connection and the driving force behind the Black Heritage Trail, said the visit “enriches the community and the state.” She sees this as the beginning of a cultural relationship between the two cities.

“We want other people to come, students, artists, anybody, and we hope to get as much support for their visit as we have had for the visit of the (chiefs),” she said.

Nana Kwame Takyi I and Nana Adu-Ampoma II will be honored at a reception at the Seacoast African American Cultural Center on Sunday, Sept. 18 at 4 p.m. The reception will feature a performance by members of the New Hope Baptist Church children’s chorus. The SAACC is located at the Connie Bean Center, 135 Daniel St., Portsmouth. For more information, call 603-430-6027.

election season kicks off in Portsmouth; Sirrell announces end of term
Portsmouth mayor Evelyn Sirrell announced last Thursday that she will not seek re-election in November.

Sirrell, 74, has served as mayor since 1998 and served on the City Council in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

In a prepared statement, Sirrell said it is “now time for me to step aside and let someone else take on the job of mayor.” Sirrell cited the city’s low property taxes, the end of Portsmouth’s status as a donor town, construction of the new library and the growth of the city’s neighborhood associations as some of the accomplishments achieved during her tenure.

Though she traditionally waits “until the last minute of the last day” to declare her election intentions, Sirrell said she made this announcement early so “that anyone reluctant to run for the Council will now step forward.”

As of last Monday afternoon, seven of the nine council incumbents—Thomas Ferrini, Laura Pantelakos, Joanne Grasso, Steve Marchand, Edward “Ned” Raynolds, John Hynes and Harold Whitehouse—had filed for re-election.

Also in this year’s race are former school board member Carvel Tefft, who, with his wife, Diane Kelly Tefft, led the opposition against the new library building site on Parrot Avenue; and Charlton Dobson, a 20-year-old college student who mounted an unsuccessful campaign for a council seat in 2003.
The candidate who receives the most votes during the election will become mayor; the candidate with the second-highest number of votes will be assistant mayor. Portsmouth voters will cast their ballots on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Mill Pond searches for new director
The Mill Pond Center for the Arts in Durham has been undergoing a series of shake-ups, losing two executive directors in almost as many years. But Dan Miner, president of the Mill Pond’s board of directors, said that the organization now has “several candidates” interested in the position.

Tom Scharff, the Mill Pond’s most recent executive director, left after six months on the job. He resigned in August to spend more time with his grandchildren, Miner said.

“We were lucky to have him. We’ve seen some good progress this summer and we had a good tenure with him,” Miner said.

The annual “Music in the Meadow” concert series went well, according to Miner. However, “We can’t live on this great summer series alone,” he said, adding that the center plans to offer more classes and step up programming efforts.

“People are concerned with keeping arts alive, and I think we’re doing it,” he said. “It’s just something that … can’t pay for itself. It takes a lot of effort (by a) lot of volunteers.”