January 15, 2026
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. traveled to Ghana to celebrate the 118th Founders’ Day of the first Black Greek-lettered sorority.
Five-hundred members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. traveled to Ghana for the organization’s 118th Founders’ Day to honor their African roots, celebrate the sorority’s legacy, and serve the local community.
This marked the first time the first Black Greek-lettered sorority celebrated Founders’ Day outside the U.S., My Joy Online reports. The trip included visits to historic sites like Cape Coast Castle and the Assin Manso Slave River, central to the transatlantic slave trade, and featured a community service component.
“We have a program called the CHIP Childhood Hunger Initiative PowerPacks,” explained Danette Anthony Reed, supreme basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. “While we are here on January 15, we intend to pack at least 1,000 PowerPacks. These will include essential food items such as rice, tomato paste, and packaged fish. Every member of the group will contribute in one way or another, making this a collective effort.”
Local officials praised the sorority’s visit, with Adinkra Group CEO Diallo Sumbry, who helped organize the trip, saying the presence of Alpha Kappa Alpha members would boost tourism, strengthen cultural ties, and deepen business connections between Ghana and the United States.
“What this shows is that years after the Year of Return and into the Black Star Experience, we are still attracting large numbers of people from the diaspora to come to Ghana,” he said.
The Founders’ Day celebration continues the momentum of Ghana’s 2019 Year of Return and the Beyond the Return initiative, aimed at strengthening cultural, historical, and economic ties with the diaspora.
“We’re very happy that Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated has decided to celebrate its 118th Founders’ Day in Ghana,” said Gilbert Abeiku, deputy chief executive officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority. “It’s a historical occasion; it’s a historical moment, not just because it’s the first time that a group this large from America, a college-educated group of Black women, has decided to celebrate their Founders’ Day and chart our new chapter here. But what this shows is that years after the Year of Return and now into the Black Star Experience, we are still attracting a large number of diasporas to come back to Ghana.”
The sorority’s Accra-based interest group, the Black Star Pearls of Ghana, is working to become a formal chapter while serving communities in Accra and Kumasi. On Earth Day 2025, they planted 108 coconut trees at Aburi Botanical Gardens to honor the organization’s 1908 founding.
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