Ghana Tourism Authority has organised the celebration of this year’s local PANAFEST/Emancipation at Pikworo Slave camp in the Kassena Nankana West District of Upper East region.
PANAFEST/Emancipation celebration is to provide a forum for promotion of unity between Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora and affirm the common heritage of African culture.
The Pikworo slave camp is one of the historical slave routes that the ancestors travelled through before transit out of Africa for sale back in 1704. The reason for organisation of the durbar at the camp according to GTA is to reflect the minds of people about the suffering the ancestors went through during the colonial era.
This year’s PANAFEST is celebrating the theme “Reclaiming the African Family: Confronting the Past to Face the Challenges of the 21st Century.”
Speaking at a Mini-Durbar at Pikworo Slave camp the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman emphasised the importance of the Panafest celebration in the country.
According to the CEO, aside from the various displays of cultural activities which foster unity in Africa, it is an opportunity to memorise the suffering and inhuman activities the ancestors of the land went through during the days of the British colonisation.
“Coming here we came in with cars, tracks and buses, and to hear that people talk 220 km in chains, so this is not just a play but a reflective movement for all of us to see what our ancestors went through. And the fact that some of them could survive and for their children to return home to the same place where inhuman activities took place is something that we must reflect on. As Ghana Tourism Authority been the coordinating agent for the return and beyond the return we are happy that at least we have come back to our route to the camp where it all began,” he said
On his part the Upper East Regional Minister Stephen Yakubu used the occasion to call on the ministry of Tourism, Art and culture to consider holding National events in the region. Mr. Yakubu noted that the Upper East Region is blessed with many Tourism sites and standard hospitality industries to host any national occasion without difficulties.
Wisdom Ahadzi, the regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority just like the Kassena Nankana West District Chief Executive Gerard Ataogye called on
Ghanaians visit the Upper East Region as they describe the region as a Tourism hub especially in the Kassena Nankana West area.
The PANAFEST/Emancipation local celebration saw Chiefs, traditional rules, officials from the Ghana Tourism authority, heads of institutions and departments, government appointees, people from the Diaspora, students and the general public gracing the occasion at the Pikworo Slave camp.
Meanwhile the national event is slated from 24th July to 1″ August 2023.
Source:A1Radioonline.Com|101.1MHZ|David Azure |Pikworo Slave camp Paga|
