Arusha is situated 55km NW of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania, with a population of about half a million people. Arusha hosts the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Arusha International Conference Centre popular for hosting numerous international conferences each year. Arusha is also a transit point for tourists visiting to some of the largest wildlife sanctuaries in the world.
All week, from Sunday 4th all through to the 10th of March, 2007, A dozen Ghanaians resident in Arusha painted the whole town ‘Red, Gold, Green’. The town residents joined their Ghanaians friends in celebrating the Golden jubilee anniversary of Ghana. The theme for the celebration was ‘ARUSHA DISCOVERS GHANA AT 50’.
The Ghanaian week kicked off with a football match between the ‘Ghana Black Stars’ of Arusha, made up of Ghanaians and a cross-section of players from various African countries, and the Wazees Football club. “Wazee” means in Kiswahili means old and so the Wazee club is basically made up of senior citizens. The chairman of the Ghanaian community in Arusha in his opening remarks thanked the Wazees Football club for hosting them on such an important occasion not only for Ghana but the whole of Africa. The scores were 5-3 in favour of the hosts. At the end of the match the Chairman of the Wazee Club renamed the team, “African Black Stars”. This event set the mood for a great celebration.
On Tuesday 6th March, Golden Jubilee Lectures was held at the Simba hall of the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) in which Justice Hassan Jallow, the Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), was the main speaker. He spoke on the topic ‘The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked to the total liberation of Africa’. Other speakers were Mandiaye Niang, a Senior Legal Officer with the UNICTR and Emmanuel Dei-Tumi, a public speaker on leadership from Ghana. The night ended with a ‘GHANA NIGHT’ at the VIA VIA Cultural Café packed to capacity, draped with Ghana flags, the Ghana@50 banners and a background photo exhibition on Ghana. The documentary ‘Ghana: the Presidential Tour’ was also screened at the café. Addressing the audience, Harriette Sabblah told the crowd that Ghanaians were very thankful and hoped they will discover more of Ghana. A good selection of Ghanaian music kept the party going till the wee hours of the morning.
Throughout the rest of the week from Wednesday 7th to Friday the 9th of March, there was a photo exhibition on Ghana in the corridors of the AICC complex and the documentary film ‘Ghana: the Presidential Tour’ was screened daily.
An evening of Ghanaian Music, food and Dance was the climax of the celebration on Saturday 10th March and brought together about three hundred and fifty people from all walks of life. Various countries represented at the event include Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Gambia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Nepal, Rwanda and Liberia. The guests of honour were Mr. Adama Dieng (the Registrar of UN-ICTR), Judge Erik Mose (the President of the UN Tribunal) and the representative of the Arusha Regional Commissioner.
In a speech read on his behalf, Honorable Judge Emile Short, told the audience that Ghana had made strides despite the ups and downs in its political history. The short display of ‘Adowa’ and ‘Kpanlogo’ dances by Eunice Dadson received loud applauses from the audience gathered. The DJ, Albert Dadson, filled the rest of the evening with the best of highlife and hiplife music which kept the dance floor filled until about 2.30am.
The MCs for the event were Edwin Ocloo-Serwor and Ibukunolu Babajide.
With this celebration, Ghanaians in Arusha raised the awareness of their community on Ghana and the importance of its 50th independence anniversary.
