Ghanaians urged to participate in Emancipation/PANAFEST

Accra, July 27, GNA - Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister Designate for the Tourism and Diasporan Relations, on Friday noted that the celebration of Emancipation/PANAFEST and the Joseph project were ways government was using to get the Ghanaian populace to understand the dynamics of history and fully participate in such programmes.

"We have come to realize that the full story of the slave trade has not been told. In fact there is a school of thought that believes that this blackout of the horrid story of this trade is deliberate that the guilt perpetrators carry up to this day compels them to keep the lid on the chapter,"

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng represented President John Agyekum Kufuor at a grand durbar held by the Osu Divisional Council as part of the celebrations.

The durbar brought together all the 16 divisional chiefs in the Ga State as well as the Ga Mantse, Nii Tackie Tawiah II amidst pomp and pageantry and musketry, by various dance groups.

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng announced that the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had offered the necessary support towards bringing up the truth about what had happened. He said, "UNESCO has set up an international scientific committee on the Slave Trade," and noted that Ghana has since 1999 had a national committee on the slave route project that would research and make information available.

"Ghana was a centre of the slave trade. Its effects are therefore significant to us...The period of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade drained the African continent of her virility and strength because those shipped across the Atlantic were by and large the most productive segment of the population."

The Minister expressed the need for Ghanaians to understand the celebrations and noted that it was relevant for leaders of Africa to be interested in the quest to create awareness among people. He said by understanding what happened during the slave trade era, Africans could reconcile properly with people from the Diaspora who have been distanced from those in the homeland for over 400 years. Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Former Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations, reiterated the need for African unity and encourage more educational programmes to enable the Ghanaian populace to understand issues about the slave trade, Emancipation/PANAFEST and the Joseph project.

He said: "We must as African tell the story of the slave trade and there is the need to tell our children what happened to Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Those in the homeland have to learn and those in the Diaspora also have to learn about the slave trade" Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey who is the initiator of the Joseph project explained that the project was not a single activity or an activity to be celebrated every year.

He said the Joseph project is a process and one that had a target, saying, "the end of the Joseph project is when we realize the elevation of the African."

Nii Nortey Owuo III, President of the Osu Divisional Council, said it was a proud moment for the people of Osu Traditional area to welcome their brothers and sisters from the Diaspora.

He noted that result of the 400 years of Trans-Atlantic slave trade was firmly written on the faces of the people who live in the area today and said that poverty had become endemic in the area even though the area held so much promise.

Nii Owuo III said the Osu Traditional Leaders were now in a position to work together as one people in order to turn the social and economic fortunes of the old Osu Township around.

" We have in our hands great opportunity of reducing poverty and raising the living standards of our people, particularly those living under very harsh condition...we have the potential for generating all the resources we need for rebuilding Osu."

Nii Owuo III unveiled a commemorative monument at the Mandela Park in Osu to mark the Emancipation/PANAFEST and the Joseph project. Another feature at the durbar grounds was the arrival of the Unity Flame, which is to signify unity between Africans living on the continent and those in the Diaspora.

The Unity Flame was presented to a delegation from the United States Virgin Islands led by Senator Bingley Richardson. Senator Richardson, receiving the flame expressed the hope Ghanaains really understood what was going on and knows the significance of the project.

He said those in the US Virgin Islands would remain Africans and will help build a united Africa.