Among the corn, yam and peanut fields of Savelugu-Nanton, a remote district in northern Ghana, Jimmy Carter’s legacy is less complicated than returning to the former US president’s homeland.
Thanks to his charity, The Carter Center, residents are now free from the scourge of Guinea worm disease, a parasite that breeds in the human stomach and emerges through the skin before depositing the larvae in stagnant pools to await its next victim.
Carter’s work in fighting the virus and monitoring elections in poor countries won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. It follows a president who brokered a Middle East peace deal but was hampered by economic turmoil and the Iran hostage crisis.
The Carter Center announced he died on Sunday at the age of 100. He had been hospitalized in February 2023, choosing to stay at home after a series of short hospital stays. The former president was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 but responded well to treatment. At 100 years old, he is the longest-living president of the United States.
