Samia Nkrumah in a handshake with Pope Francis
Samia Yaba Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, made history on Wednesday when she met with His Holiness Pope Francis.
She was invited by the Holy Father to join the Second World Meeting of Human Fraternity together with Mama Gracha Machel Mandela and a host of Nobel Peace Laureates.
The practice at the Vatican is that private audiences or one-one meetings with the Pope are reserved only for Heads-of-State, government leaders, new Vatican ambassadors to the Holy See and groups of bishops in an ad limina visit - an obligatory visit by all bishops.
In some instances, too, some of the world’s elites have had the opportunity to be granted a private audience with the Pope, but there is no record of any private Ghanaian individual who has had that opportunity.
Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, therefore, becomes the first known private Ghanaian citizen to hold that enviable record.
Samia Nkrumah, a frontrunner for the Jomoro parliamentary seat in the December 2024 general elections, lauded Pope Francis for his leadership in calling for peace, social justice, and protecting the environment.
