On Saturday, 29th February, 2020 a historic event to charter the Ghana and the first African chapter of the Phi Beta Sigma took place in Accra, Ghana’s capital.
Perhaps what made it much more historic was the fact that it took place at the very spot where Ghana’s first President and the continent’s foremost Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah stood to declare Ghana’s independence on March 6, 1957. Nkrumah was himself a Sigma back in his school days at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, USA.
The new chapter, Sigma Mu Sigma, according to its President, Anthony Biney-Amissah was established in part to honour Nkrumah who as a member, excelled in championing Black liberation which ultimately led to him becoming Ghana’s first President.
The Sigma Mu Sigma Chapter has already begun their service to Ghana, partnering with TEAM CSR, a registered Non Governmental Organization (NGO), for the implementation of their initial project. For this, they will support Rural Water Supply in the form of Boreholes to respond to the lack of clean water and related health issues in remote areas of of the country.
“What we want to do is to help Ghana in every which way possible. Yesterday, we inaugurated a borehole at Afrokrotia in the Eastern Region which will serve over 500 people in the community with clean water, and that’s not the only thing we will be doing, we will be there for a while to help with education and other things.
“We have a motto and it says, “culture for service, service to humanity”. So our mission here is to bring equality and also different types of services to the Ghanaian community through what we do,” Biney-Amissah said. Present at the Chartering ceremony were a host of dignitaries including members of sister sororities, traditional authorities and Samia Yaba Nkrumah, daughter of Kwame Nkrumah.
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. (ΦΒΣ) is a historically African-American collegiate and professional Greek letter fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as charter members.
The fraternity’s founders, Abram Langston Taylor, Leonard Frances Morse, and Charles Ignatius Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the ideals of Brotherhood, Scholarship and Service while taking an inclusive perspective to serving the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose.
