PANAFEST has already begun

The talk about PANAFEST has already begun. This talk takes place every two years. And this year’s talk is the loudest for an obvious reason--Barack Obama came to town. Since its inception in 1992, the Pan-African historical theater festival has continually attracted less and less participants. But let me hasten to add that between 1992 and 1999, the euphoria it generated was phenomenon. The President Rawlings led administration which initiated the festival did actively promote it in collaboration with the PANAFEST secretariat. I remember the hosts of international artists from the Caribbean regions who added color to this internationally acclaimed festival with their presence and performances. Now they refuse to come. Why, they are not enthused.

In 1992 and 1994 it began with a conference addressed by then President Rawlings at the international conference center in Accra where all the Pan-African heroes and heroines were acknowledged. Professors of African history lined up and gave speeches that resonated the spirit of Pan-Africanism. Many organizations were ready to sponsor the promotion of this event through all the print and electronic media in order to attract the needed audience. Government involvement through the national commission on culture, and ministry of tourism as well as the foreign ministry was immense. Obviously, this kind of state support was, and is still needed to bring the festival to its height.

Essentially, PANAFEST was meant to bring together all Africans--and here the focus was on those who appreciate the great history and culture of Africa--together to celebrate and bear the burden and glory of our history. According to Dr. Mary M. Bethune, there is a glory and a burden to African history. The glory is what we achieve and the burden is the liberation struggle to free our selves from the European world and the grotesque grip of racism, capitalism and sexism, the major contradictions of our time. PANAFEST also had as its seminal role to lead the African Diaspora--particularly the descendants of the slave ancestors--back to their real roots. The Culture to be celebrated here is not the popular culture which according to Dr. Maulana Karenga, is simply an unconscious reaction to every day life but national culture which is the self-conscious, collective thought and practice by which a people creates itself, sustains and celebrates itself and introduces itself to history and humanity.

Take note: PANAFEST is not only celebrated in Ghana but also in Nigeria, Senegal and other destinations of slave roots in Africa. That is why it is a Pan-African festival. But there is another important festival that accompanies PANAFEST which is EMANCIPATION--a celebration of the liberation of African slaves by European and North American enslavers, albeit by Emancipation, slavery was transformed not eliminated according to Dr. John Henrick Clark, an African-American historian.

I have loved the concept of PANAFEST from its inception. I tried to participate in its celebration from my own locations from 1992 since the activity has always been concentrated at the coast--in the Dungeons. My quest to experience it for myself took me to the Cape Coast castle Dungeons as a volunteer tour guide in a National service program. Unfortunately, I arrived in the wrong year. To be a part of it, I had to extend my volunteer activities for another year. That was in 2005. The impact of the dungeons on me was so profound. And I made several discoveries through my observations, studies and experiences.

First, the right history teaches us that majority of the African Captives were taken from Ghana, therefore, Ghana was practically and literally the headquarters for the slave trade. But also even more obvious is the fact that in Ghana, majority of the captives were drawn from the interior north where the inhabitants had no way of knowing about the presence of `aliens` engaged in the trade of humans in our motherland, and therefore were easy prey to the traders and raiders of captives. Cast iron evidence exists to prove this in the several slave markets scattered from Sandema to Salaga, to Paga and many more unnamed locations. Assin Manso which provided a running river for the `last bath` of surviving captives from the interior north is well known. And that is just one of hundreds of rivers which had to be crossed from the north to the coast in transit to await the arrival of the slave ships and to begin the `middle passage`.

Let’s fast forward the his-story to PANAFEST and EMANCIPATION. These festivals are well intentioned. And indeed, have a definite purpose to achieve. Clearly, Emancipation should be celebrated by the Emancipated, and PANAFEST by all Africans connected to its glory and burden. But the concentrations of these festivals at the coast—the transit point of the journey from captivity to slavery don’t seem to an accelerating factor in the achievement of the purposes of these festivals. How can people who are tracing their roots end up at the transit point, and are told that this is home. Ironically, these `hosts` again refer to these brothers and sisters as `abroni`. That is not all, there is every scheme to exploit these guys who are honestly searching for their real roots with `tourists prices`. No wonder many Africans in the Diasporas prefer to walk into an office in LA pretending to be providing scientific proofs of the real roots of their clients. I am not a believer in that kind of history, but I can’t blame the brothers since they come `home` to trace their roots and get treated like aliens. Is the slave dungeon the real root or the transit point?? And, are the Diaspora brothers and sisters shown the way from the dungeons or they are sent back?

A classic example is what happens in the Dungeons. Visitors have to pay money to be admitted into the dungeons today to see for themselves, cast iron evidence of humanity’s cruelest act against humanity. I have no problem with that since that generates tourism revenue for national development. However, I find it very ridiculous that African Diaspora visitors have to pay the same fee as European or white visitors. On one such occasion in 2005, there was nearly a physical fight between a visiting Jamaican delegation and the castle authorities. The Diaspora brothers refused to pay and I sided with them. But they were also refused entry. That delegation was led by a woman called SISTER P who also was a member of the international board of PANAFEST. She could not believe that policy could exist whiles we are welcoming the brothers and sisters home from the Diasporas. At the end, the delegation was allowed to pay the local fee—like Ghanaians—but not until after a long argument.

At the end of PANAFEST 2005, many of the brothers and sisters I met felt more frustration than hospitality. Some of them said to me bluntly they would not come back soon. Since then, the numbers have been dwindling. In 2007, I did not go to the dungeons myself because I am tired of going to one location to celebrate an event that has its history scattered all over the country. President Barack Obama may have come. And his name sells—no doubt. But we need to do more if we want to revive these events and make them achieve their definite purposes. Government involvement is still very crucial. Enthusiasm from political leadership towards the festival sends good signals to the targeted audience who are the Africans in the Diasporas.

For example, my Caribbean friends still have many complaints concerning visa acquisitions from Ghana missions. They require free visas to facilitate their return home. And here, I must add that government posturing towards these events in the last couple years has only succeeded in dousing the enthusiasm in the Diasporas participants. May be it is because the last government of Ghana embraced more of the popular culture than the National culture, and it is my hope that that will change with the change in government that we have now. If no changes occur, then we can only expect the same results between the 16th July and 1st August 2009. How can we expect tourism revenue from PANAFEST but refuse to invest in its promotion and its sustenance? The last time I checked, there was nothing like something for nothing.

Amenga-Etego SaCut Pan-Africanist and African socialist rassacut@yahoo.com