Emancipation Day to cover all slave routes

This year's Emancipation Day celebration will involve all communities where slave routes were located, including those in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

The annual event scheduled for July 22 to August 4, spans the Tukpon Island near Wa, and the slave defence walls at Gwollu, in the Upper West Region, the slave camp at Paga and the slave market at Sakpale in the Upper East Region and Salaga slave market in the Northern Region.


Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City briefed the Ghana News Agency on the event in Accra, on Tuesday.


He urged Ghanaians to give a rousing welcome to Africans from the Diaspora who would be joining in the celebrations.


Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, who referred to them as the "Early Bintus" and "Cousins", said, " Even though most of them are Africans they might not know about our culture and there is the need for Ghanaians to embrace them and teach them."

He denied the notion that Emancipation Day celebration is an alien activity that attracts only foreigners.


Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said " The time has come for a change in this mentality by getting Ghanaians to be associated with the celebrations and should be involved in it as a way of recalling their history and charting a more positive course for the future."


He said Ghana occupied a very important place in the history of Pan-Africanism, the slave trade and slavery hence the need for Ghanaians to use the status to promote tourism.