The Brasilian Embassy in Ghana

I am honored and delighted to address this august gathering on the occasion of the 186th anniversary of Brazil’s independence.

Our liberation from colonial rule was a long process that started during the Napoleonic Wars, exactly two hundred years ago, when the King of Portugal, fearing advancing French armies, fled to Rio de Janeiro, where he set up his court. In 1820, he returned to Portugal, leaving his son in Brazil, as regent. When Portugal tried to reestablish its power over the country, the Prince declared Brazil’s independence on September 1822, becoming Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil.

Relations between Brazil and Ghana were established forty eight years ago. Our Embassy in Accra is our oldest Embassy South of Sahara and this is relevant to mention when Brazil has thirty five diplomatic missions in the whole continent. Sixteen of them were opened by President Lula, in the last five years, as an evidence of Brazil’s commitment to Africa and to the legacy that makes of Brazil the largest country in the African diaspora. The six million African slaves who were forced to work in the plantations and mines of my country, in the largest non-voluntary migration of all times, built our culture, economy and society. Africans impregnated us with Africa in such a way that we cannot explain ourselves without her. As we love to say, like a flower that stems from the mud, like a star that shines from the dust, from human aberration, which is slave trade, Brazil-Africa brotherhood was born.

In modern times, the turning point in the relations Brazil-Ghana is the visit of President Lula to Ghana in April 2005, the first ever by a Brazilian Head of State. This call was followed by the visit of President John Kufuor to Brazil, in July 2006. In November 2006, both Heads of State met again, in Abuja, at the first Africa-South America Summit. During the XII UNCTAD, last April, President Lula came for the second time to Ghana and signed four complementary agreements on bio-fuels, cassava, forestry and HIV/AIDS.

As a result of the improved political dialogue, made possible by those visits and meetings, bilateral trade boasts impressive figures. If, in 2002, Brazil exported US$ 57 million, it shipped almost six times more, exactly US$ 320 million, in 2007. The numbers made Ghana rank as the 7th largest trading partner of Brazil in Africa and the fourth in the Sub-Saharan region. Conversely, Brazil is the sixth largest supplier of the Ghanaian market, with 4% of the total imports made by Ghana. On the other hand, Ghana’s exports to Brazil doubled in the last two years.

In other fields, there are also positive effects of those presidential visits, as for instance, the Regional Office for Africa of the State Corporation for Agriculture Research, EMBRAPA, inaugurated in December 2006. One of the favorite projects of President Lula, EMBRAPA-Africa, located inside the premises of the CSIR, as it was generously decided by the Ghanaian government, aims at helping this vast, varied and rich Continent to make its green revolution as it did in Brazil, a country which imported food thirty five years ago, now transformed into one of the biggest exporters of agriculture products and the world leader in bio-fuels.

The Brazil House, commissioned last November, is another output of these presidential contacts. It honors the saga of former Brazilian slaves, the Tabon People, who came more than 175 years ago to these shores and have, since then, become the most precious link between the land they left and the one they adopted. Located in the heart of Jamestown, it contributes to revitalize the whole area as a part of the Joseph Project, the code name for a series of activities, actions and interactions being spearheaded by Ghana to re-establish the African nation as a nation for all its peoples.

As the Brazilian Ambassador I am pleased to say some words about football, a passion that Brazil and Ghana share and practice at the same level. Exactly fifty years ago, a team coming from my country astonished the world and won, in Sweden, the first of our five world cups. I was a boy of eight and that triumph made my young years happier. I dare say that the spirit of that wonderful team is present in the Black Stars, what turns Brazil-Ghana matches into the most delightful ones, regardless the winner.

Your Excellency, Nii Mee, Naa Mee, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as I register my utmost appreciation for your presence and attention, I have the honor to invite all of you to a toast to the health of H.E. President John Agyekum Kufuor, and to the Government and People of Ghana, and for the continued relations between Brazil and Ghana. Long live Ghana. Viva o Brasil!

Thank you

Tenho a honra e a satisfação de manifestar-me, perante as senhoras e senhores, distintos convidados, por ocasião do 186 aniversário da independência do Brasil. Nossa libertação do domínio colonial foi um longo processo que começou durante as Guerras Napoleônicas, precisamente há duzentos anos, quando o Rei de Portugal, temendo os avanços dos exércitos franceses, fugiu para o Rio de Janeiro, onde estabeleceu a sua Corte. Em 1820, regressou a Portugal, deixando o seu filho no Brasil, na condição de Regente. Quando Portugal tentou restabelecer o seu poder sobre o país, o Príncipe declarou a independência do Brasil, em setembro de 1822, tornando-se Pedro I, Imperador do Brasil.

As relações entre o Brasil e Gana foram estabelecidas há quarenta e oito anos. Nossa Embaixada em Acra é a mais antiga, dentre as dos países ao sul do Sahara, o que é relevante mencionar, hoje quando o Brasil tem trinta e cinco missões diplomáticas em todo o continente. Dezesseis das quais foram abertas pelo Presidente Lula, nos útimos cinco anos, como prova do compromisso do Brasil com a África e com o legado que faz do Brasil o maior dos países da diáspora africana. Os seis milhões de escravos africanos que foram forçados a trabalhar em plantações e minas do meu país, na mais ampla migração involuntária de todos os tempos, edificaram a cultura, economia e sociedade brasileiras. Os africanos nos impregnaram da África de tal maneira que, sem ela, não seríamos capazes de nos explicar. Como nos é grato dizer, assim como uma flor que brota da lama, ou como uma estrela que brilha da poeira, da aberração humana, que é o tráfico de escravos, nasceu a irmandade brasileiro-africana.

Nos tempos hodiernos, o ponto de mutação nas relações Brasil-Gana é a visita do Presidente Lula a este país em abril de 2005, a primeira de um Chefe de Estado brasileiro. Esse marco foi seguido da visita do Presidente John Kufuor ao Brasil, em julho de 2006. Em novembro de 2006, ambos os Chefes de Estado se reuniram outra vez em Abuja, durante a primeira Cúpula África-América do Sul. Por ocasião da XII UNCTAD, no passado mês de abril, o Presidente Lula veio pela segunda vez a Gana e assinou quatro acordos complementares nas áreas de biodiesel, mandioca, florestamento e HIV/AIDS.

O resultado desse dinamizado diálogo político, tornado possível pelos mencionados encontros e visitas, refletiu-se no comércio bilateral, que apresentou notáveis índices. Se, em 2002, o Brasil exportou 57 milhões de dólares, registrou-se um incremento de seis vezes esse valor, a saber, 320 milhões de dólares, em 2007. De acordo com esses números, Gana é o sétimo maior parceiro comercial do Brasil na África e o quarto na região sub-saárica. Por sua vez, o Brasil é o sexto maior supridor do mercado ganense, com 4% do total das importações efetuadas por Gana, tendo as exportações de Gana para o Brasil dobrado nos dois últimos anos.