Posted By : Collins/ 1095

The Ghana Tourism Authority and COCOBOD launched the 2019 National Chocolate Day at the Accra Tourist Information Centre on 4^thFebruary 2019.

The 2019 National Chocolate Day which is organised under the auspices of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in collaboration with Ghana Tourism Authority, the Ghana Cocoa Board and stakeholders is under the theme; “MY CHOCOLATE EXPERIENCE”.

The Chocolate Day activities for this year will commence with a trip to Cocoa Research Institute Ghana (CRIG) at Tafo and Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm at Akwapim Mampong on February 11, 2019. There will also be an industrial tour of the Cocoa Processing Company on February 12, 2019.

Other activities of the celebration include a Chocowalk from Ayi Mensah to Aburi Gardens on February 9, 2019. There will also be a Quiz Competition; Chocolate Funfair; Chocolate Recipe Demonstration; Chocolate Bash; Display of various Chocolate Products and Musical concert on February 14, 2019, at National Theatre.

The National Chocolate Day is celebrated to promote the consumption of made in Ghana chocolate and Cocoa based products, with the main objective of boosting domestic tourism. Also, it aims at creating awareness for Ghanaians to appreciate the health benefits of Chocolate, and to promote Ghana as the preferred chocolate destination.

About Chocolate Day

The National Chocolate Day Celebration was instituted in 2005 to coincide with Valentine’s Day which falls on 14th February every year to boost the domestic consumption of Ghana chocolate and other cocoa-based products, promote domestic tourism and give a healthy orientation to the celebration of Valentine’s Day in Ghana in collaboration with Cocoa Processing Company, Ghana Cocoa Board and Cocoa producing Companies.

08

Feb

2019

Year of Return Ghana to attract 500,000 Diasporan Africans

Posted By : Collins/ 1840

Mr Akwasi Agyemang (left), Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, addressing participants at the press launch of “The Year of Return Ghana 2019” in Accra. Picture: ESTHER ADJEI

About half a million Africans in the Diaspora are expected to arrive in the country to take part in “The Year of Return Ghana 2019”, a historic campaign to mark the end of 400 years of the slave trade in Ghana.

According to the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), out of the number, 350,000 participants would come from North America, while the rest would come from the Caribbean, South America and Europe.

Related Stories

CNN Travel lists Ghana as place to visit in 2019

The calendar of events include a Black History Month in February, Ghana’s Independence Day celebration in March, Heritage Paragliding Festival in April, Ghana-Jamaica Homecoming Festival between April and May, the Pan-African Festival of Arts and Culture (PANAFEST) from July to August and Emancipation Day in August.

The campaign was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at America’s National Press Club in Washington, DC, in September 2018.

The tourism bonanza is expected to build on the legacy of other Pan-African projects, such as the Joseph Project, Emancipation Day and PANAFEST.

“We believe the event will present us with an opportunity to attract more people who will come and invest and employ Ghanaians,” he said.

Making Ghana attractive for youth

The Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Mr Akwasi Awua Ababio, who also addressed the conference, said as Ghana continued to be the headquarters for the fight for African liberation and the symbol of hope for African emancipation, it continued to seek deeper socio-cultural, economic and political inclusion for “our kith and kin from the Diaspora”.

“As we mark the Year of Return to bring our Diasporan community home, the government is also committed to improving upon our economy and discouraging irregular migration by making sure that young men and women could achieve their dreams here in Ghana,” he said.

Showcase best part of Ghana

Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States (US), Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, said the Ghana Embassy in the USA was making every effort to attract African-Americans to the country, not only to come and spend but also enjoy the hospitality here.

He expressed the hope that Ghanaians would grab the opportunity to display how loving and hospitable they were to those who would arrive in the country in 2019 and beyond.

“We have to take this opportunity to showcase the country and the kind of loving and welcoming people we are to encourage people to come and do respectable investments,” he added.

Source: Daily Graphic

The “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” is a major landmark spiritual and birth-right journey inviting the Global African family, home and abroad, to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia. The arrival of enslaved Africans marked a sordid and sad period, when our kith and kin were forcefully taken away from Africa into years of deprivation, humiliation and torture. While August 2019 marks 400 years since enslaved Africans arrived in the United States, “The Year of Return, Ghana 2019” celebrates the cumulative resilience of all the victims of the Trans Atlantic slave Trade who were scattered and displaced through the world in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

08

Feb

2019

Ghana is being heralded as the next big tourist destination. Here’s why

Posted By : Collins/ 1210

(CNN) — When some of the most well-known faces from the African diaspora arrived for a recent vacation in Accra, Ghana, it looked like just another gathering of famous people.

Actors including Idris Elba rubbed shoulders with supermodel Naomi Campbell, TV sports presenter Mike Hill, and author Luvvie Ajayi.

Behind this meet-up of box office stars, fashion royalty and top creatives is a focused and ambitious strategy to make Ghana a major tourist destination.

The country recently unveiled a 15-year-long tourism plan that seeks to increase the annual number of tourists to Ghana from one million to eight million per year by 2027.

Ghana’s travel industry is projected to raise $8.3 billion a year by 2027, plus associated benefits, according to the plan.

Star power

VIP guests attended events chaired by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo, the architect of the plan to boost tourism and diversify the country’s economy through reaching out to its diaspora, while guests took part in conferences, festivities and trips across the country to discover its unique and sobering heritage.

The primary purpose of the festival was to forge closer ties between Ghana, the African continent and those of African descent living elsewhere.

It’s 400 years since the first African slaves were taken from countries like Ghana to mainland America, marking the start of the trans-Atlantic slave trade route. This timing is based on the first recorded landing of a ship carrying Africans in Virginia in August 1619.

An estimated 75% of slave dungeons on the west coast of Africa were in Ghana — millions of people were taken and transported on ships that departed from Ghanaian ports.

Year of return

The celebrity-attended Full Circle Festival was the opening act of a broader Year of Return, announced by President Akufo-Addo in September 2018.

Speaking about the year ahead at Washington’s National Press Club Akufo-Addo said Ghana would open its “arms even wider to welcome home our brothers and sisters in what will become a birthright journey home for the global African family.”

The Year of Return includes a music festival, an investment conference targeting diaspora Ghanaians, and the Right to Return initiative, encouraging African-Americans to seek citizenship in Ghana.

This year-long initiative builds on a long tradition of looking outwards.

Ghana, the first sub-Saharan African country to win independence from colonial rule, has a history of pursuing ties with Africans overseas. It dates back to the country’s first President Kwame Nkrumah, whose vision of pan-Africanism included alliances with diaspora communities.

Nkrumah enjoyed warm relations with African-American icons such as Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, who both traveled to Ghana to meet him. Writer Maya Angelou spent time in the country after its independence and civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois is buried in Accra.

Ghana has also sought to incentivize diaspora returnees through legislation such as the Right of Abode law of 2000 that allows people of African descent to apply for the right to stay in the country indefinitely.

It was followed by the Joseph Project in 2007 that encouraged Africans in the diaspora to return, officials have compared it to Israel’s Law of Return that allows Jews to become citizens.

14

Jan

2019

Ghana: Come For The Celebrities, Stay To Be A Part Of Something Bigger

Posted By : Collins/ 1499

(Forbes) “In the year 2019, we open our arms even wider to welcome home our brothers and sisters in what will become a birthright journey home for the global African family.” With these words, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of Ghana proclaimed 2019 “The Year of Return” for diasporan Africans. This year also marks the 400th anniversary of the first arrival of enslaved Africans to North America. The “Year of Return” has gotten off to a very strong start. Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Michael Jai White, and Rosario Dawson are just a few of the global celebrities who spent parts of the Christmas and New Year’s holiday in Ghana. They came to take part in a week-long ‘Full Circle Festival‘ hosted by actor Boris Kodjoe and marketing maven Bozoma Saint John.

Viola Labi, a first generation Canadian-Ghanaian shared, “I am so proud that our President is the first to have such an initiative. I am proud that I’m Ghanaian; proud that we are leading the way.” Labi has been visiting Ghana a few times a year for almost a decade. She would visit with friends and family, connect with her heritage and then return back to Canada to her career in luxury retail with brands such as Burberry and Nordstrom. On one of these trips in 2015, she noticed women weaving textiles on the side of the road in the town of Tamale, Ghana. She immediately pulled over the car and spent the next few hours chatting with the women and learning how to weave Batakari, a textile from the northern region in Ghana. She posted some photos to her Instagram feed.

As Labi continued to share the work of Ghanaian artisans on Instagram, messages started to come in from both friends and strangers. They would ask, “Can I buy that?” With her strong fashion sense and entrepreneurial spirit, Labi began carrying products back to Canada and shipping them from her home to customers across North America. By 2017, she launched Woven. “I was already doing it without realizing it. It was an actual business,” recalls Labi. 10-months ago, she flew to Ghana with a ticket to return to Canada 2-weeks later. She canceled the return flight and does not “plan on leaving any time soon.”

Woven is working to help bring excellence into a fragmented fashion industry in Ghana. Labi pulls from her experience in retail to develop the artisan sector, run primarily by women. “Women are the backbone of Africa,” says Labi. Woven offers retail consultancy, workshops for fashion schools, wholesale export, and custom co-creation of products. Labi strives to create high-quality, innovative products in Ghana to fight the perception that African products are “below par”. When she learned that a European fashion tech brand uses re-engineered fibers like orange peels to create luxury textiles, she thought that with their abundance of fresh produce, “Ghana can do the same.”

Women weaving baskets in Ghana. (Photo by Adepa Foriwaa courtesy of Woven) PHOTO CREDIT: ADEPA FORIWAA

Labi is excited by the Year of Return. The name of her company is not just a nod to the woven products that they sell. “Woven means to unite into a cohesive whole,” says Labi. Labi crafted her definition of self by weaving together her different identities, but it was not always easy. Working in high-end retail, she put up with micro-aggressions of “willfully ignorant” customers. Once, while at a bookstore, she asked the saleswoman for a recommendation of a book about a young black girl. She led Labi to a section of books set in the jungle.

The Year of Return is part of the change that Labi is noticing. There is a company in Ghana making black dolls dressed in traditional Kente fabric. “If I was exposed to symbols of self-representation like that when I was growing up, maybe it wouldn’t have taken 35 years to figure myself out. Since my parents were African immigrants, they didn’t grow up as minorities, so they didn’t talk much about my blackness – it was more about my African-ness. Overseas, the two are different,” said Labi. For Africans of the diaspora, the Year of Return is about accelerating this discovery of identity. Labi explained, “We need a way to connect. We are looking for points of validation; for points of our heritage. Home.”

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Written By: Meghan McCormick (Contributor) ForbesWomen

03

Jan

2019

GHANA KICKSTARTS YEAR OF RETURN WITH DURBAR AT AKWAMUFIE

Posted By : Collins/ 3151 4

Activities celebrating the Full Circle Festival is drawing to a close as the Country ushers in the Year of Return, Ghana 2019. Officials of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture , Ghana Tourism Authority and office of Diaspora Affairs joined the Chiefs and people of Akwamu to celebrate several Hollywood stars of African descent at a colourful ceremony.

Drawing parallels between the resilience and fighting spirit of the Akwamu people, the Paramount Chief, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, congratulated the star studded entourage for their exploits in the USA which has now made them global icons. Actor Michael Jai White and Marketing icon, Bozoma Saint John were both enstooled as warriors. Hollywood Actor, Boris Kodjoe, who coordinated the trip also came up for special recognition for his untiring efforts in promoting Ghana to the rest of the World.

The Year of Return is a special spiritual and birthright journey being cordinated by the Ghana Tourism Authority to commemorate 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America. The initiative has pushed Ghana into 4th place in the list of 19 must visit places in 2019 put together by CNN.

02

Jan

2019

Inside Ghana’s Elmina Castle is a haunting reminder of its grim past

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Source: Tanni Deb, CNN and Segun Akande, for CNN (CNN Africa)

Across Africa, from the north of the Sahara to the West African coast sit many relics of the continent’s early interactions with Europe.

In Ghana, two of the country’s most famous spectacles, Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle are truly imposing.

But their ancient walls were once home to one of the most tragic and brutal periods in the history of humanity — the transatlantic slave trade.

The bigger of the two, Elmina Castle, is a white-washed fortress on the coast of the small town of Elmina in what is now modern-day Ghana. First built in 1482 as a Portuguese trading settlement, the 91,000 sq foot behemoth was one of the principal slave depots in the transatlantic slave trade for more than three centuries.

Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year.

inside africa Ghana slave castle Africa history vision b_00004805

This slave castle’s inner walls are a haunting reminder of its gruesome past 08:59

Some of them, like Ivor Bartels, are looking to reconnect with their lost family’s heritage and unwittingly, a lot more. “My mother is Belizean, and I was born in the UK. I’m Afro-Caribbean, British-Caribbean. My name took me to Ghana because I knew there was Bartels here,” he say in the halls of the old castle. “I thought this was an ideal place for me to start my journey; to search for my roots, for my past, and to find out really what happened here within these walls.”

‘A dark history’

Alex Afful, a tour guide at the castle, says there are two schools of thought on the inspiration behind the castle’s name.

“One believed that the word ‘Elmina’ is an Arabic name, which means ‘harbor.’ One also has it that it’s a Portuguese word meaning, ‘the mine,’ Afful says.

When the Portuguese first arrived, their main commodity was gold, Afful explains. “At the rate they were getting it, this made the Portuguese to think or believe that a gold mine is found here,” he says.

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However, when European powers began to invade Africa for slaves, Elmina became an essential stop on the slave route and a prison of sorts for captives.

Today, Afful retraces the brutal journey that most captives faced before being sold into slavery. It often began by determining which prisoners were healthy enough for the long, arduous course ahead. “Normally they want the healthy captives, so first they have to count. They have an instrument that they use to open their teeth, to count the number of teeth that they had,” Afful explains. “In some cases, they have to be whipped for them to jump, for them to see how strong that they are. So, that’s the first phase. Now, when they get in here, day after that has been done, they were then put in the various dungeons.”

inside africa Ghana Cape Coast Castle Trans-Atlantic slave trade vision c_00023115

Cape Coast Castle – From gold trade to slave trade 07:05

After being tested, the captives were confined to Elmina’s dungeons where conditions were shocking, even by the standards of the time. “…There were no toilets. There were no bathrooms. In some cases, they had straws on the floor, which they used as a mattress and so on,” Afful describes. “In all these dungeons, they were given buckets, which they were expected to ease themselves.” “But because of the conditions they were in, the chains they had on their feet made it almost impossible for them to get to this bucket,” he tells CNN.

Captives could spend as long as three months in confinement, awaiting their journey into a dark, and unknown future.

As Afful explains, negotiations were concluded before slave ships would carry their human cargo. But in a market where the seller had little control over how each slave could be distinguished, the buyers often felt the need to label their new property, in the most inhumane of ways. “Now, with the branding, each merchant has its own method of doing it. Some will use alphabet; some will use numbers on the form of a metallic stamp,” Afful describes. “They put it in the fire, already they have some oil on their body (to) prepare them for the journey. So they burn them on the skin,” Branded and subjugated, the captives were led aboard awaiting ships through the Door of No Return. “… when the ship came, they took them in batches through the ‘Door of No Return,’ and they get to the ship, for the journey to proceed from there,” he says.

The ‘Door of No Return’ still swings, centuries after, a menacing reminder of the captives’ descent into a life of terror and relentless servitude.

“Initially, this door was bigger. But when the slave trade began, it was reduced this way. So that one person can come in at a time,” Afful says.The Door, the dungeons where captives were restrained and the walls through which these slaves walked all serve as cues of a story that Africa seems to have confined to the past.

Opinion: Why young Africans need to know their history

It is an approach that Edmund Abaka, Associate Producer of History and International Studies at the University of Miami, believes we must rethink.

“We have to move away from the perception that, ‘oh, history is about the past, history is about people who are dead and gone,'” Abaka says. “It is our story. If we don’t tell our story, somebody will tell their story,” he adds. For Bartels, the accounts of Elmina’s past revive a traumatizing story, yet the necessity of hearing these tales is not lost on him. “I can hear the wailing of my ancestors here. The souls that have been lost. … But it’s good to be home,” he says. Today, the town of Elmina is a lively, bustling hub — but the castle towers above it, an essential, yet painful reminder of its past.

02

Jan

2019

CNN Travel lists Ghana as place to visit in 2019

Posted By : Collins/ 5249 3

In article by Barry Neild, published some few hour ago, CNN Travel recommended Ghana as one of 19 destinations for 2019 travellers. This comes at the back of a publication by Travel Lemming listing Ghana as one of the top 5 destinations to visit in Africa in 2019.

Singling out efforts marketing Ghana as a destination of choice for diasporans with the #yearofreturn
#Ghana2019 which has outlined programs commemorating 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America as key reason. The writer highlights Ghana’s unique selling proposition with his.., “For all the sobriety of this anniversary, what also awaits visitors to Ghana is the warm, intoxicating embrace of country completely at ease with its identity rushing headlong towards a bright future”.

The key attraction for the visitor is the one place where walls built over centuries ago seem to speak to everyone including the Obama’s and Melania Trump and the several thousands who have visited the Cape Coast Castle.

Come and #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana and #FeelGhana #discoverghana #exploreghana

Read Full Article below

West Africa’s poster nation for economic success and political stability is hoping to trade up its tourism status for 2019, with a campaign targeting the African diaspora whose ancestors were victims of the brutal slave trade of centuries gone by.

The country’s Year of Return marks 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in North America. It’s a somber recognition of the evil that befell Ghana’s past inhabitants and their descendants — and the strength with which they’ve faced it.

Legacies of the slave trade are unavoidable. Cape Coast Castle, one of many historic coastal forts, was where slaves were held before being dispatched to America and the Caribbean. This brutal and fascinating reminder was visited by the Obamas in 2009 and Melania Trump in 2018.

For all the sobriety of this anniversary, what also awaits visitors to Ghana is the warm, intoxicating embrace of country completely at ease with its identity rushing headlong towards a bright future.

The capital, Accra, crackles with the dynamism of a city on the upswing, with a nightlife scene to match. For those wanting to escape its relentless excitement, Ghana’s 335-mile coastline boasts empty surfing spots like Cape Three Points, while its many protected wildlife zones, including Mole National Park, are home to wild elephants, Nolan warthogs and spotted hyenas.

Don’t miss: Tongo, a village in the Tengzug Hills of northeastern Ghana, is home to the Whistling Rocks — dramatic arrangements of giant granite slabs that produce strange sounds when winds blow down from the Sahara.
Barry Neild – Source: CNN Travel

31

Dec

2018

2018 Culture Afrochella ‘wows’ patrons

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What seemed to be the last major event on the tourism calendar for 2018 did not disappoint patrons. The 2018 Culture Afrochella dubbed #afrochella18 came off at the El-wak Sports Stadium on Saturday December 29, 2018 bringing traffic to a stand-still.

The beautifully and artistically designed entrance was just a foretaste of what was in-stock for patrons. From afrocentric dressing to woodcraft, acrobatic display to foot’pool’, eye-opening paintings to giant candies, the photo opportunities were endless but requiring phones with extra memory space for selfies.

The music was just ‘afrocentrically’ riveting as the food caused taste buds to produce excess saliva. Crowning it all was the evening musical performances that left no room for parking for patrons who arrived late. Patrons are already looking forward to the 2019 edition and organizers have promised nothing but a more exciting event.

For more…

14

Dec

2018

Colourful Bonwire Kente Festival Held

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The Bonwire Kente Festival is an annual festival celebrated by the people of Bonwire in the Ashanti Region to mark the invention of kente.

The celebration, which drew a number of people, both residents and non-residents, to the durbar grounds, was on the theme: “Harnessing Kente Heritage, for Sustainable Economic Empowerment.”

This year’s festival was held on the 8^thDecember, 2018 at Bonwire Senior High School. Local and master weavers graced the occasion with varied colourful and brilliantly designed hand-woven Kente fabric.

Speaking at the grand durbar to mark the occasion, Mr. Akwasi Agyeman, CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority and also the chairman of the occasion in his address said that ‘Kente’ is a brand and symbol of the nation that everybody should be proud of and also make it a point to #Wear Ghana Kente. He further said, Kente is a national identification and has a lot to tell about history, tradition and culture of our nation.

Hon. Kwabena Owusu Adnomi, MP for Ejisu Constituency and Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways also said the industry held enormous promise for the economy- job and wealth creation. He added that it could give impetus to the nation’s economic and tourism development. He also promised to help the youth who want to go into apprenticeship.

The formal broadcaster and host of ‘The Stand Point’ Gifty Anti was awarded for promoting and contributing towards the wearing of Kente. She said that, she will be the unofficial brand ambassador for Kente in the country to promote it.

At the durbar grounds, greetings were exchanged between the chiefs and his subjects; the activities include cultural display, spoken word and exhibition of Kente.

14

Dec

2018

GTA wins two awards at African Travel Times Magazine 2018 Awards

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The African Travel Times Magazine Awards was instituted to recognise excellence in the travel and tourism/aviation sector in West Africa.

The Awards ceremony was held at the Accra City Hotel, Accra on the 13th December 2018, it was in recognition of the great zeal the Authority and its CEO have demonstrated in the promotion and reposition of tourism in Ghana and strengthening of collaboration with practitioners in the country and beyond.

The Ghana Tourism Authority was adjudged the “Most Active Tourism Agency” in West Africa at the African Travel Times Magazine 2018 Awards. At the ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr. Akwasi Agyeman won the “Most Active Head of National Tourism Agency” in West Africa. Minister of Tourism, Arts & Culture, Hon. Catherine Afeku also received the “ Most Active Tourism Minister Award”.