Vice President Kamala Harris surprised onlookers in Ghana when she stopped at a local recording studio joined by two famous actors.
Idris Elba and Sheryl Lee Ralph appeared alongside Harris on Monday to tour Vibrate Space, a community recording studio, in Accra, Ghana, as part of the vice president’s weeklong tour of Africa.
The event was intended to highlight the growing creative economy in Africa, and the links between artists there and in the US, according to the vice president’s office. Harris toured the studio and met with young artists.
Harris’ stop was previously scheduled, but the appearance of Elba and Ralph was unannounced prior to the event.
Ralph has received an Emmy-award, one of the highest honors in television, for her work on the ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary.” Elba is a star of both television and film, including iconic roles on “Luther,” for which he received a Golden Globe Award, and on HBO’s “The Wire.”
Ralph addressed a group of young Ghanaian artists and members of the press, and performed, singing the first verse of the song “Endangered Species” by Dianne Reeves, to applause.
Elba, who is British but whose mother is from Ghana, spoke to reporters after the event, saying Africa has the “most growth potential in anywhere in the world.”
The actor said he intends to invest more in the filmmaking sector in Ghana, where he has already invested in films seven times.
Asked if he thought Harris would be a “good” president, Elba replied: “Yes, of course.”
Harris’ trip to Africa as the first Black person and first woman to be U.S. vice president is an opportunity for President Joe Biden’s No. 2 to burnish her foreign policy credentials and boost her visibility ahead of an expected 2024 reelection bid.
Earlier Monday, Harris held a bilateral meeting with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, where the two leaders discussed security issues, human rights, promoting democracy and federal debt reduction.
Harris highlighted the ties between the two nations in her remarks at the presidential palace, referencing an event in 2019 that sought to encourage members of the African diaspora to visit the continent. Hundreds of Black Americans traveled to Ghana that year for the “Year of the Return,” to observe the 400-year mark of the first enslaved Africans arriving in what would become the US.
Harris will next travel to Tanzania and Zambia.
