Peter Bossman (born 2 November 1955) is a

Ghanaian The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Gold Coast (region), Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominantly inhabit the Republic of Ghana and are the predominant cultural group and residents of Ghana, numbering 34 million people as of ...

-born Slovenian physician and politician. He was mayor of

Piran Piran (; ) is a town in southwestern Slovenia on the Gulf of Piran on the Adriatic Sea. It is one of the three major towns of Slovenian Istria. A bilingual city, with population speaking both Slovene and Italian, Piran is known for its medieva ...

, a city and municipality in

Slovenian Istria Slovene Istria is a region in southwest Slovenia. It comprises the northern part of the Istrian peninsula and is part of the wider geographical-historical region known as the Slovene Littoral. Its largest urban center is Koper. Other large settle ...

in south-western Slovenia, from 2010 to 2018. A member of the centre-left

Social Democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

, he defeated the incumbent mayor

Tomaž Gantar Tomaž Gantar (born 21 March 1960) is a Slovenian politician. He was the Minister of Health in Slovenia from 13 March 2020 to 18 December 2020 in the 14th Government of Slovenia. He was also the temporary representative of Democratic Party of Pen ...

in the October 2010 mayoral election to become Slovenia's first black mayor. In 2011 he was also appointed to the

Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Early life and family

Bossman was born in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, the capital of Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast), on 2 November 1955.
English translation
Bossman came from a relatively well-off family. His father was a politician, as well as a friend and personal physician of

Kwame Nkrumah Francis Kwame Nkrumah (, 21 September 1909 – 27 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He served as Prime Minister of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast from 1952 until 1957, when it gained ...

, Ghana's leader from independence. Bossman spent much of his early life in

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, where his father helped found Ghanaian embassies. Following a 1966 coup that saw members of the

National Liberation Council The National Liberation Council (NLC) led the Ghanaian government from 24 February 1966 to 1 October 1969. The body emerged from a ''coup d'état'' against the Nkrumah government carried out jointly by the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Arme ...

overthrow Nkrumah's elected government, Bossman was forced to leave Ghana. He was unable to come to Britain, where he had originally hoped to study, and so chose to come to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, originally hoping to study in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

. He was ultimately sent to

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, however, arriving as a

medical student A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

in what was then the

Socialist Republic of Slovenia The Socialist Republic of Slovenia (, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Slovenija, Социјалистичка Република Словенија), commonly referred to as Socialist Slovenia or simply Slovenia, was one ...

, within Yugoslavia, in 1977. He has said that he "fell in love" with Slovenia when he arrived, finding it "clean and green". While he was studying, he remained politically active, heading an African students' organisation. His original intention to return to Ghana upon completing his studies was disrupted when he fell in love with a

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

woman, Karmen Laković, a fellow student. After completing his studies, he and Karmen, also a doctor, settled in Piran, where they run a private practice. They are now married and have two daughters.

Politics

Bossman, previously a member of the Piran City Council, successfully ran for mayor in 2010, narrowly defeating his opponent, the incumbent independent centre-right mayor Tomaž Gantar. In the run-off election on 24 October, he achieved 51.4% of the vote, defeating Gantar, who got 48.4%. Unofficial figures following the counting of all ballots showed Bossman with 3418 votes, 185 more votes than the 3233 cast for Gantar. The relatively low turnout, 44% of all voters, was deplored by both candidates.
English translation
Bossman's campaign focused on encouraging people to drive

electric car An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger car, passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric motor, electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a p ...

s, building a

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

to promote

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

, and promoting local products. He has also pledged to work to try to improve

Croatia–Slovenia relations The foreign relations between Croatia and Slovenia are bound together by shared geopolitical and cultural history, ethnogenesis and ethnolinguistics, geography as well as shared modern political ideologies and geopolitical alignment. Both states est ...

, which have been recently strained over a number of minor border disputes.
English translation
Bossman has stated that race was not much of an issue during the election, although he did receive criticism on account of his supposed lack of fluency in Slovene. He has stated that a friend, a professor of Slovene, has offered to give him additional lessons. Bossman officially took office at the first (constitutive) meeting of the municipal council on 12 November 2010.
English translation
His inauguration as mayor attracted more members of the media, including international media, than there were council members present.
English translation
Bossman was re-elected for a second term as mayor on 19 October 2014.

Reaction to election

Bossman's election as mayor has attracted international attention. In addition to becoming Slovenia's first black mayor, he has also been described as being probably the first black person to become a mayor in the former Yugoslavia as well formerly socialist Europe. He has also been widely compared to U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

, being dubbed by the media as the 'Obama of Piran'. Bossman, however, insisted he had no political ambitions beyond the mayoralty, stating that he intended to return to medicine upon leaving office.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bossman, Peter 1955 births Living people Social Democrats (Slovenia) politicians Slovenian physicians Mayors of places in Slovenia People from Piran Ghanaian emigrants Immigrants to Yugoslavia Medical doctors from Accra Slovenian people of Ghanaian descent