Lacey Cruse defends her mission to Africa, says it could bring business to Wichita
Sedgwick County Commissioner Lacey Cruse gave an impassioned defense of her recent week-long trip to Ghana on Tuesday.
In a 50-minute presentation to her fellow commissioners, Cruse characterized the trip as an important trade mission that one day will bear economic and educational benefits both for the Wichita area and the west African country that was once a center of slave trade.
“It’s OK if you don’t see the value in this, but get out of the way and let those who do see the value take the next step to make this happen,” Cruse said. “It’s OK if you don’t want to help. Find something that you are passionate about and drive that home, but please don’t get in our way. Please help us.”
The seven-day excursion was funded with $2,900 in county money. Cruse has started raising money to pay that back, including $450 from an anonymous donor and a $20 bill handed to her by a supporter during her presentation.
The presentation during the weekly county staff meeting exposed tension between Cruse and fellow Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, who has criticized the trip as a waste of time and money.
When Cruse started off her slide show by asking commissioners “Are you guys ready to take a trip to Ghana?” O’Donnell answered, “Is that rhetorical? ‘Cause I’m really not.”
The friction continued later when Cruse urged O’Donnell, whose district includes the town of Clearwater, to pay attention as she outlined differences between ambulance service in Ghana — one ambulance per 87,000 people — and Clearwater, one ambulance for 2,000 people.
“Michael are you paying attention to this?” she asked.
With a quizzical, irritated look on his face, O’Donnell replied: “After this week, I kind of think that’s a little rough.”
O’Donnell’s father died suddenly while on a Super Bowl trip Feb. 2 and the funeral was Friday.
“I’m sorry,” Cruse responded. “All I’m doing is asking you to pay attention to the ambulances.”
Cruse said she was surprised on her trip when officials gave her a complete list of all the projects Ghana is planning over the next several years. She said she saw several opportunities for Wichita to share expertise and maybe land work contracts.
In aviation, the planned projects include establishing an aviation maintenance and repair operation, an aviation training school and a fixed-based operation to facilitate private aircraft flights at Ghana’s Tamale airport.
“This isn’t looking for financial contributions from us to build their aviation industry,” Cruse said. “They have the ability to do this. They’re looking for partners who are already doing it who can help in the development of it.”
Although she was unable to meet with Ghana’s aviation minister, Cruse said she discussed those projects with other officials and is excited to share the opportunities with Wichita manufacturers Spirit and Textron, as well as local colleges and technical training schools, including Wichita State University and WSU Tech.
“We’re the Air Capital, right?” Cruse said. “The connections are incredible. The opportunities are there, we just have to be willing to pay attention and look.”
Another possible opportunity for Kansas business is in chocolate, she said.
Ghana is the world’s No. 2 producer of cocoa and Cruse toured a processing plant during her trip.
“The interesting thing is we have a couple of chocolate manufacturers here in Kansas,” she said. “Russell Stover is located in Iola and Abilene, Mars in Topeka and Cocoa Dolce here in Wichita.”
Cruse said the trip built on previous outreaches to Ghana, including a 2014 visit by former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer and former City Council member Lavonta Williams — and a reciprocal visit last summer by Ghanan Queen Mother Nana Aplam II. Brewer and Williams paid for their trip personally, according to Eagle stories from 2014.
While they don’t hold an official government portfolio, queen mothers in Ghana are important societal and tribal leaders, organizing and overseeing social service programs for women and girls.
“We talk about DCF here and being a broken system,” Cruse said. “Children don’t get placed in a government system in (Ghana). These queen mothers take on children who need a place to live.”
It’s not unusual to have six or more children under their care at any given time, she said.
“I have two kids and half the time I’m just like, oh my gosh, I’m pulling my hair out,” Cruse said. “Can you imagine taking care of upwards of six or seven children at a time, in addition to the hard work that they do, they provide all of their own clothing, all of their own food.”
Cruse said about 550 girls became pregnant over the Valentine’s holiday last year, having to drop their education and ending up in poverty because they had to care for their children.
The most emotional point of her presentation was when she talked about touring sites related to the slave trade that once flowed through Ghana’s main port.
She described the fetid slave dungeon where female captives were held.
“Can you imagine being held in this room with 150 other women, in your own urine, in your own feces, and women menstruate, right?” she said. “Is it better to get selected to be taken out of this, so you can get a bath, but then you’re raped? Would you rather stay in your own feces or would you rather be raped? Those are your two choices.”
She also showed pictures of what Ghanans call “the door of no return.”
“They would take all of these captives and march them to go through this door . . . to be put in the hold of a ship and taken wherever,” Cruse said. “For 400 years, this culture and these people were ripped from their homeland.
“Can you imagine if they were there for 400 years the type of development that they would have? They developed the world. If they could have developed their own homeland, what place would it be today?”
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 2:20 PM.
