Ghanaian posts $10,000 personal check his father wrote to Nelson Mandela as xenophobia grows in South Africa

A Ghanaian man on social media platform Facebook, Kofi Anku yesterday posted a photo of a $10,000 personal check his late father wrote to Nelson Mandela in 1994.

Kofi’s Late father was Dr Vincent Anku, an oncologist who lived and practiced for many years in the US. He died at the age of 75 in 2024 and was buried in Ghana.

Kofi wrote: “In 1994, my father wrote a personal cheque for $10,000 to Nelson Mandela. A Ghanaian doctor, thousands of miles away, putting his money where his conscience was — standing against apartheid, standing for the dignity of Black people everywhere. The cheque reminds us of what it looks like when Africans stand for each other.”

Kofi’s post was in response to the intensifying xenophobia in South Africa. Videos circulating online in the past week showed disturbing images of marauding black South Africans accosting, attacking and savagely brutalising migrants from other African countries. In one of the videos, it was a Ghanaian. The action promptly led to Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs summoning the South African High Commissioner to Ghana to demand that the authorities take the appropriate actions to stop the incidents of xenophobia and violence against migrants, and ensure the safety of all African migrants in that country.

Ghanaians on social media have responded and are making reference to the help Ghana and other African countries gave to Black South Africans during their struggle for emancipation from the clutches of the Apartheid regime.

Mandela who spent 27 years in prison for his opposition to the Apartheid regime was later released and became the first black president of South Africa.