A tribute was read on behalf of Ghana and President Akufo-Addo at George Floyd’s funeral in the US.
No tribute was read on either Ghana or President Nana Akufo-Addo’s behalf at the funeral service of George Floyd in the US. However, the country and its president were acknowledged for the solidarity shown to the family of Floyd.
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Some social media posts shared by some influential persons claim that a tribute was read on behalf of Ghana and on the personal behalf of President Nana Akufo-Addo at the funeral service of African-American man, George Floyd, that was held at the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, June 9, 2020.
One of the posts reads: “Tribute read on behalf of @nakufoaddo and Ghana at the funeral of #georgefloyd.” Another read, “Tribute read on behalf of Ghana at the ongoing funeral for #georgefloyd.”
The posts, accompanied by a one-minute-long video clip from the funeral, have reached thousands of social media users already.
Verification
To verify the claim, we obtained a full video clip of the funeral service as streamed on Facebook by Yahoo News and reviewed the part that mentioned Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo.
At the one hour eight-minute mark, Ivy McGregor, Director for Social Responsibility for Parkwood Entertainment, was invited to deliver “resolutions”.
She read resolutions from Fountain of Praise Church, Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, and the 1993 Class of Jack Yates Senior High School.
At 1 hour 14 minutes, she mentioned Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo. We have transcribed all she said about Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo below.
[At 1:14:00 to 1:15:00]
Ivy McGregor: “The family of George Floyd will like to acknowledge the message of solidarity, resolution and virtual tribute from His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana. Yesterday, during the memorial, a video produced by the people of Ghana was broadcast for thousands of mourners as they paid their final respects to Mr Floyd. The family is honoured by President Akufo-Addo’s decision to have Mr Floyd’s name permanently mounted on the historic Sankofa wall at the Diaspora African Forum in the W.E.B Dubois centre in Africa.
They are grateful that the country of Ghana stands with the Floyd family and the struggle of all families to change the status quo of racism and prejudice. The family is deeply moved by the generous act of the Ghanaian government to solidify George Floyd’s legacy.”
McGregor subsequently acknowledged several individuals and institutions who had also expressed their solidarity with George Floyd.
To give a better context, we have defined the two keywords in this fact-check; Tribute and Resolution below:
Tribute: A tribute is a sign of respect or admiration, an award to honour a person’s accomplishments (according to Vocabulary.com).
Resolution: A funeral resolution is a formal acknowledgement of the relationship between the deceased and a church community. It is delivered at a funeral to honour someone who has died by elaborating on his spiritual qualities and good works (according to dying.lovetoknow.com).
Based on the above, it is clear that Ivy McGregor did not read a tribute on behalf of Ghana or on behalf of President Nana Akufo-Addo. She read three resolutions from different groups and only acknowledged Ghana and President Akufo-Addo for the solidarity for George Floyd and his family.
Based on these facts, we conclude that the claim is false.
