Pilolo2020: Osu - Accra strikes a chord with City of Rochester

One of the few places overlooked in regards to the Tran-Atlantic Slave Trade is Osu – where we have some Slave homes & the Christiansborg Castle, and Accra – James Town in general.

Through the Pilolo African Diaspora festival, which has become a yearly festival in Osu, the Diaspora is finally finding its way to Osu.

The Pilolo festival which aims at bridging the gap between the motherland and the African Diaspora with a tag line "Our Roots” “Our Pride", will be celebrated on the 21st to 23rd of August 2020 via zoom presentations and a grand durbar displaying the rich Ghanaian Culture and a taste of Ghanaian food in Rochester.

The Mayor of Rochester signed a Proclamation for the celebration of the Pilolo Festival in Rochester. This makes it the first time for the celebration to be held outside Ghana due to Covid-19 and the travel restrictions around the World.

Osu is the home of 3 United Nations World Heritage homes that are all linked to the capture/shipment and enslavement of Africans in the Americas. The Homes are the Christiansborg Castle built by the Danes, and the Richter House built by two Danish slave merchants and the Okantey Shika Tse We.

Professor Wellington, in his book “Stones Tell Stories in Osu”, he portrayed Osu as a Host community to Danish Slave activities. In addition, he showed evidence of other European countries like the Portuguese, Swedish, and British presence in Osu. Professor Wellington shared the Africans who were shipped out of Christiansborg, Osu-Accra were shipped to the Danish Caribbean St Croix, St Thomas and St John, which is the US Virgin

Islands.

It is important to state that in less than two nautical miles along the Accra Coast, was a very active Slave shipping point with the Danes in Osu, Dutch in Ussher Fort Accra and the British in James Town Accra with the Adjacent Salaga Slave market. It is worth asking the African Diaspora to make Osu Accra their gateway back to the continent.

Rochester NY, also called the Flower City or Flour City located in North Western New York along the banks of the Niagara River, was an early active center of the movement to abolish Slavery. It was the home of Fredrick Douglas, an abolitionist, Rochester was a major stop in the Underground Railroad through which enslaved Africans escaped the brutal south to the North in search for their Freedom as far as escaping into Canada to

gain Freedom from the shackles of Slavery.

Abraham Steiner, the CEO of Pilolo African Diaspora, born in Osu and resides in Rochester, presents a correlation between Osu and Rochester as Osu being a capture and shipment point. Rochester being the Freedom point; hence the celebration of the Pilolo on the banks of the Niagara is a full circle and liberation event for all people of

African descent, which brings to an end "Pilolo yaa fo b3 mli" meaning “the end of this game wipes the tears of everyone.”

To participate in this year's Pilolo festival, please register @ pilolofest@gmail.com

Abraham V Steiner

CEO Pilolo African Diaspora Festival

Osu - Accra Ghana