Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey used more than a month to travel from Ghana to New Zealand
In today’s world, a trip from Ghana to New Zealand takes just over 8 hours. But in 1950, that same journey took more than a month! as captured in the very first issue of The Daily Graphic.
A snippet from the first issue of the newspaper published on Monday October 2, 1950 featured a report that the Hon. Emmanuel O. Obetsebi-Lamptey, one of the “Big Six” leaders of pre-independence Ghana, had embarked on a marathon voyage from the Gold Coast to New Zealand to attend a conference of the Empire Parliamentary Association.
Obetsebi-Lamptey had left his home in Accra on Saturday , September 30, taking the “first lap” of his journey to London.
From there, he was scheduled to sail by ship on October 5 and arrive in New Zealand on November 6, a full month and one day later!
The conference was to begin on November 24 and end on December 1, followed by post-conference activities until mid-December.
In his remarks before departure, Obetsebi-Lamptey noted that if he arrived in time for pre-conference sightseeing, he would still leave New Zealand by the end of November to reach London by December 28.
From there, he planned to head back to the Gold Coast just in time for the General Elections scheduled for January 1951.
His month-long journey, by air and then sea, is a reminder of how far global travel has come.
Today, what took Obetsebi-Lamptey over 30 days could be done in just 8 hours.
Yet, in 1950, such voyages were a testament to the determination of Ghana’s early leaders who carried the nation’s voice to the world, no matter how far the destination.
See the story below:
ID/EB
