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New Resource Map Shows Africans and Diaspora Where to Invest
With this year being declared ‘year of return‘ by Ghana’s government, the country is encouraging people of African descent not only to visit but also to invest in the economy. Through business development, import-export businesses, working with local industry and tapping into the country’s resources, people from the diaspora can make an impact in Ghana. The continent of Africa has a resource potential that cannot be denied. For decades the world has been tapping into the continent’s resources without consequence. It’s been said that Africa has much of the world’s remaining resources and it’s the last major region to be fully explored. In the past, it was mainly European and Western countries digging up and exporting the continent’s resources. Today we see China as a major stakeholder taking its opportunity to grab a piece of the African pie.
This is the perfect time to make those in the diaspora aware of the potential investment in Ghana’s natural resources. It was evident through research made by Professor Kwame Addo, a Development Architect, that much of Ghana and Africa’s land still has an abundance of natural resources available.
Professor Addo spent a considerable amount of his time and money researching the resources still available in Africa. He developed a most fascinating map that details all of Africa’s potential laid out by resource. On Tuesday 14th May 2019, he did a presentation at the UDS Guest House in Cantonments Accra, where he revealed three detailed maps that were the result of all his efforts. These maps were of the entire continent of Africa, a close of up West Africa’s resources and a fully mapped out Ghana showing everything from agriculture to minerals based on geographic region.
Dignitaries who were present for the revealing of the maps included Claudia Turbay Quintero, Ambassador, Embassy of Colombia, H.E. Alhousseini Ousmane, Ambassador of Niger, Professor Stephen Adei, Chairman NDPC, and Ambassador Erica Bennett.
Mike Aman-Kwarfo, a Design Consultant and Former Director at GBC, gave his account of when he first met Professor Addo during the 1970s when they were students. Over the years they have developed a strong relationship as friends and colleagues. As an artist, he said that Addo has always been so versatile and he exhausts all the creative elements. So, it’s not surprising that he would create something that would benefit the continent. “This is a man who has crossed cultures in terms of his output in different countries,” he continued praising him until he finally introduced him.
Professor Addo began his presentation by going through Africa’s history using a series of images, graphs and historical information. He touched on the size of Africa’s land mass as compared to other countries using graphics that showed its size relative to America, the U.K, Europe and China. “What are we doing to our continent?” is a question he asked when going through the history of our challenges and how we are in the position we’re in today. “Let’s look at our continent, where all the resources in Africa were before and where they are now.”
Addo began explaining that some of our biggest challenges when it comes to our growth has been trade wars and conflict. Not only that, but communication has also been one of our biggest hindrances. Even though Arabic, Swahili and Hausa are widely spoken languages on the continent, there are so many others spoken that unifying has been a challenge. We should also take note that the colonial division of borders created a formal disconnect that continues today.
With an invitation to the diaspora to return home to Ghana, it presents an opportunity for local Ghanaians to work with them to create opportunities to build and grow the country and continent for the future. When you have people with a vested interest in preserving Ghana while maximizing the output of resources without exploiting the people it puts Ghana in a better position.
This is just the beginning of what’s to come. The maps Professor Addo revealed were exactly what can be used as tools in government legislation when it comes to maintaining control of our resources. “Kwame has taken the time to map out Ghana based on resources…it’s brilliant,” said Professor Stephen Adei, Chairman NDPC. Now that there is a map clearly demarcating what resources we have and where they are located, it’s an opportunity to use it to our advantage and to make is a good negotiation tool. “If you don’t know what you have, you lose in the negotiation,” he continued.
The detailed map of Ghana reveals the fact that Ghana has one of the biggest bauxite resources in the world. It also revealed that Ghana’s biggest deposits of iron ore are in the northeast where there are millions of tonnes.
The Ambassador of Niger gave his remarks in French using a translator to add his thoughts to the conversation. He was very impressed with the presentation and he hopes that the maps are used to benefit the continent.
Everyone shared in excitement about what’s in store for the continent when we use the information on these maps correctly. Professor Addo expressed his concern about whether this information will even be used. He said that we as individuals can contribute to our society. These tools he has provided are just the beginning and the seeds that will bear fruit. This is especially true when we are willing to collaborate with our brothers and sisters in the diaspora.
Written by Ivy Prosper
A sense of home: A Trini remembers her visit to Ghana
The Door of No Return in Ghana. Photos by Annabelle Brasnell
Last week, Loop ran a story about Ghana’s Year of Return in which the West African nation is beckoning the diaspora to return home. One reader, Annabelle Brasnell, visited Ghana recently and shares her experience.
Things you didn’t learn in school #105: Lord Kitchener penned a song, “Birth of Ghana”, in honour of Ghana’s independence in 1957, echoing the pride of the people of the diaspora for the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence from Britain.
Trinbagonians also felt a special kinship for then-new president Kwame Nkrumah, as his politics was said to be influenced by local born George Padmore and CLR James.
At 238,000 square kilometres (Trinidad and Tobago can fit into it about 46 times) you will need an extended stay to explore the 10 administrative regions of Ghana, each with a unique cultural identity, but with about 10 days you can fit most of the “must see” sites. Depending on your interests though (not everybody wants to go on safari), tour companies would be happy to create a custom trip for one or many.
This year, 2019, the government of Ghana is offering a special welcome for people of African descent in the diaspora, inviting them to come home during this “Year of Return”.
A visit to Elmina Castle, one hub of the transatlantic slave trade, is an emotional journey to the place many people of African descent regard as the main point of connection to otherwise unknown history.
The town of Elmina from the Fort
On a balmy Sunday afternoon, both the Elmina and Cape Coast castles, recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage site, had a steady flow of visitors retracing the steps of ancestors through cells and narrow passages.
The lecturing intonations of the guides’ well-practiced stories and the presence of strangers engaged in low chatter could be an intrusion on attempts at personal reflection, but you can’t long be distracted from the foot high stain on a wall that is a permanent marker of the height of the human excrement that slaves stood in while they awaited “processing” or the pitiful, thin “drain” scratched into the floor to allow some of the liquid waste to slowly escape or sense the spirit of girls in the courtyard outside the female cells at Elmina where truculent ones were chained in the elements until they became more docile, or where the attractive ones would be paraded for the General who stood on his balcony above the yard and selected one who suited his fancy that day.
At Elmina, a simple wooden sign above the low passageway to the “DOOR OF NO RETURN” automatically slows your steps. While at Cape Coast castle, The Door is in a courtyard—a giant, oversized wooden french-style that was enlarged after the slave trade because the castle still served as a trading post for the Europeans—at Elmina, the original is still there.
Set about one storey above the ground, measuring about two feet wide and four feet high, it is no more than a window, through which slaves passed, down a ladder into the ship that would anchor alongside. Shackled, and pounds lighter than when they were first captured, adult slaves “easily” went through the narrow width said the guide. The anteroom holds faded bouquets and wreaths left by visitors in memory of the departed souls whose cries echo silently in your head.
Looking through both doors on this Sunday, the warmth and the brilliance of the sun are undeniable. The water line has long receded, leaving a sandy beach where men mend nets or tend to beached boats in the soft breeze. In the pristine water, the softly clouded sky is reflected and the joy of people playing in the water rings out occasionally. The irony is searing.
Village Life
Elmina, the village, is a fishing community. It is home to men from other villages along the coast, many living in tin shacks on the water’s edge, who eke a living in this bustling port.
On Monday morning, the day before the communal day of rest when no trade to takes place and all hands come together to clean the market and streets, some villagers stand on the massive steel bridge looking out to sea and applaud returning fisherman in their small wooden boats who may have been out for several nights.
It is a testimony to the strength of community and a poignant counterpoint to the commercial Chinese fishing vessels seen out on the horizon, fierce competition for the locals who mainly use traditional methods for harvesting their catch.
About an hour away from Elmina, the Assin Manso slave market was the largest slave market in Ghana, and the acknowledged starting point for people who ended up at the slave castles.
The eponymous river provided the last bath after the arduous trek through the forest, some as far from Nigeria, or nearer, Benin or Togo. Not trusting them, guards stood watch as they were made to wash in the shallowest, near stagnant part of the river for fear they would use the currents to escape.
The former auction yard marks the “point of return” for descendants and symbolically reverses the significance of the door of no return. It is the resting place of Madam Crystal aka Queen/ Granny Nanny and Samuel Carson, former slaves from Jamaica and the United States respectively, whose remains were re-interred in 1998 as a prelude to Ghana’s first emancipation day celebrations.
A casket in progress
Both bodies were returned through the door of no return at Cape Coast, retracing the steps back to Assin Manso. The market serves as a sort of pilgrimage site for people from the diaspora. A memorial wall of return has been erected for visitors to write their names, indelibly marking their return.
The Kakum national park is a “must visit”. It features a gentle forest hike and heart-stopping treetop rope bridge tour that reminds you to revere nature, as well as an option for an overnight camping trip in a tree house. The latter is said to offer a better opportunity to spot major wildlife as they are more likely to come out when it’s quiet.
Another must-see is the Kente craft village in Bonwire where you can try your hand at a traditional loom before figuring out what you can leave behind in Ghana to make space in your luggage for authentic Kente cloth. Lots more shopping bargains are also available at the Arts Centre (Centre for National Culture) in Accra where the art of haggling, patience, and cool clothing are important to make it through the experience.
A sense of home
In most cases that “sense of home” you can experience in a new place is just a sense of comfort. In Ghana, you could literally see yourself reflected in the faces of strangers. A friend who lived there for several years said at first, he kept asking people where he knew them from until he accepted that these people were literally his “tribe” and shared similar features.
It came to a head when someone asked why he was ignoring them, and it turned out that person really was another Trinidadian visiting the country. In my case, a visit to a funeral repast for a relative of my driver introduced me to his distant cousins, two who looked exactly like my paternal aunts, one of whom, according to my father, positioned her arm “just like” his sister!
In Accra, the capital, I had a moment of unease when my tour guide told me that my hotel was in a hot spot. I gently explained to him that where I come from hotspot carries a different connotation.
According to Time Out, an online travel and culture magazine, Oxford St is ” a hub of activity 24/7 probably the busiest street in Accra, it’s the site of bars, clubs, restaurants and boutique shops”.
Annabelle Brasnell on the rope bridge
They did acknowledge the lack of “sights” though. The energy is akin to Charlotte Street in Port-of-Spain with the clothes and street hawkers (one man carried unpackaged chunks of smoked fish on an open tray) but with open box drains and no sidewalk.
There is obviously poverty here, the preponderance of street vendors competing to sell the same products in the same space (bread, sweets, drinks, detergent, linens, boiled eggs, nuts…) is just one clue, but as seen in that day’s business paper, in some areas they have bested many islands in the Caribbean.
Mobile money technology is widely accepted and since 2013, 1BGH¢ in transactions have been processed; improvements to protect and improve the local fashion industry are occupying state attention and; and a locally developed software programme is making educational materials available to all schools whether they have internet or not.
Accra is a 137-year-old city and boasts the W. E. B. Dubois Centre for Pan African Culture, Independence/Black Star Square, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, James Town and other smaller sites of cultural interest that headline any Ghana itinerary.
For foodies, Ghanaian food can be comfortingly familiar—fried plantain and yam are ubiquitous—yet intriguing, as with Banku and stew. Banku is a steamed, fermented corn dough served in the shape of a ball. Simply pull off a piece of the ball and scoop up your stew – fish, beef, goat or ochre—much like you would with buss-up-shut.
Red red, a dish of black eye peas and fried plantain, both cooked in red palm oil, is deliciously simple and calls for seconds. Options are endless but, as with anywhere, be wary of street food unless you know you have a strong constitution.
Funeral culture
Ghana’s funeral culture is a fascinating lesson in honouring and celebrating those who have passed on. Its fashion, rituals and casket art have been featured in the international press, scholastic and fashion research papers.
The unique caskets that feature on the shoulders of dancing pallbearers at many funerals are a final showcase of the key interests of the dead person, but it could have taken weeks, months and in some cases up to a year, to get the funeral.
The culmination of the final rites, which spans about three days, is largely reserved for weekends. Driving through the Ashanti region on a Saturday, most travellers were dressed in the traditional red and black patterned mourning fabric and red and black striped marquee tents with matching chairs dotted the landscape.
An array of caskets
On one 200 meter stretch, five different celebrations were in progress and on a recreation ground five families had come together to have a joint farewell. Given the high prices of funerals, joint rites help to manage costs, my driver, Albert said. This is unsurprising, given the process for announcing a death includes any combination of radio and television ads, flyers and posters stuck on vehicle windscreens and massive roadside banners, not to mention hosting hundreds for several days, printing detailed programmes and constructing a custom wood or glass coffin.
Ghana offers a myriad of experiences, depending on your interests. The best approach to exploring this intriguing country is to plan well. In addition to the typical sites, look for off the beaten path options (donate some time to a charitable organisation?) and make every moment count.
Source: loopnewsbarbados.com
The Local Take Talks African Repatriation: Jamestown2Jamestown with Diallo Sumbry
This Saturday morning at 8 am on WCLK’s The Local Take, I speak with Diallo Sumbry, President and CEO of the Adinkra Group and the first African-American Ambassador of Tourism for Ghana. Diallo Sumbry is sharing information about the “Year of The Return” announced at the 73rd United National General Assembly by Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo. This year, 2019, marks 400 years since the enslavement of African-Americans in the United States of America.
The Jamestown2Jamestown commemoration will start in Jamestown, Virginia and travel to Jamestown, Accra, in Ghana. This is event is supported by the NAACP and the Ghanaian government. Diallo Sumbry explains why this commemoration is needed.
We also talk about the many African-Americans who are repatriating back to Ghana and what interested people should do to make this move a success.
Diallo speaks to putting your foot into the waters of Jamestown, Virginia, then travelling to Ghana and putting your foot in the waters of Jamestown, Accra. He speaks about the biblical significance of 400 years.
For more information about the Jamestown2Jamestown commemoration
For more information about the Adinkra Group
For more information about the Year of The Return
Source: https://www.wclk.com
GTA and Year of Return partner WWE for Kofi Kingston Homecoming
The Year of Return Ghana 2019 Steering Committee is partnering the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for the upcoming Kofi Kingston Homecoming.
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Reigning World Wrestling Entertainment Champion, Kofi Kingston has in a Facebook and Instagram post said he will be visiting home after 26 years. In a post that suggests he has heard the call to action in the trending #YearofReturn hashtag ‘Brafie’ #brafie and responding by inviting others to the slogan #LetsGoGhana, Kofi is will be returning home for a 4-day visit beginning May 30 to June 2, 2019 to pay a courtesy call on the President, Nana Akufo Addo and the Asantehene, Otumfuor Osei Tutu II at the Manhyia Palace as well as visit many tourist attractions including Lake Bosomtwi, Christiansborg (Osu) Castle, Bonwire, Ejisu and Komfo Anokye. He will be accompanied by a WWE crew who are shooting a documentary on him as World Champion.
Year of Return: Ghana beckons Caribbean to year of return festivities
August 2019 will mark 400 years since enslaved Africans landed in Jamestown, Virginia, beginning what was widely regarded as the start of the African slave trade to North America.
To commemorate this anniversary, Ghana has dubbed 2019 The Year of Return and has a robust calendar of activities throughout the year to mark the milestone, which includes a celebration of African music in an event called Afrochella, Carnival, a natural hair expo and a Ghana Jamaican Homecoming Festival (which was held in April).
While the Year of Return ostensibly targets African Americans, urging them to reconnect to their roots and maybe settle and find a new life in the motherland, those of African descent in the Caribbean are also being embraced.
Akwasi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority, told Loop that the African diaspora in the Caribbean is being recognised through the annual Emancipation Day celebrations on August 1, and the Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (PanaFest).
Ghana is the only African nation to celebrate Emancipation Day, which was first declared a national public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago.
PanaFest will see a variety of activities leading up to Emancipation Day including a slave route pilgrimage, a wreath-laying programme and tribute to the Pan African Pioneers in Accra, the capital city.
“With the Year of Return, we are looking at other programmes for the diaspora to connect with their roots. For the Caribbean specifically, PanaFest and emancipation are what we feel is the click to connect the Caribbean,” he said.
The Year of Return kicked off on New Year’s Day in Ghana’s capital of Accra with a bevy of African American stars in attendance at the Full Circle Festival, among them Boris Kodjoe, Idris Elba, Anthony Anderson, Naomi Campbell, Jidenna and Jamaican singers Tarrus Riley and Morgan Heritage.
Agyeman said a launch was also held in Jamaica in January with the intention to move around the other islands at a later date.
Nevertheless, he assured that Ghana will continue to strengthen its relationship with the Caribbean.
“The Year of Return is just the beginning of the engagement with us and the diaspora, so connections will be properly positioned,” he said.
With a number of Caribbean nationals already living and working in Ghana, owning hotels and restaurants and aviation agreements signed between the West African country and some Caribbean countries such as Guyana, the bonds serve to strengthen the historical ties.
Ghana has long benefited from a relationship with Caribbean nationals such as George Padmore, a Trinidadian scholar who worked as a close advisor to former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, and Jamaican Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey whose Black Star Shipping Line inspired the black star on the Ghana’s national flag.
“We have the Ghana Caribbean Association and we recently had representatives from Trinidad and St Vincent come here,” said Agyeman, revealing that a group from The Bahamas has also been in Ghana working on the Joseph Project, an initiative to connect and unite African people all over the world.
Ghana, which has positioned itself at the centre of the reunification of African people in the diaspora, is also enticing many to its shores through the Right of Abode policy that grants citizenship to Africans in the diaspora.
In December 2016, 34 African Caribbean people became Ghanaians in a naturalisation ceremony attended by then-president John Mahama.
The country is also hoping to entice Ghanaians in the diaspora to return home with their skills and knowledge.
The Year of Return is the main marketing strategy for the tourism agency and builds on the country’s heritage tourism.
“Tourism is number four in our economy. We have oil, gold, cocoa and then tourism. Tourism is a low hanging fruit. Out of the 60 something fort and castles in West Africa, we have 30 or so in Ghana. When it comes to connecting heritage and diaspora to their roots, most people feel when you come here you are coming to a place where there is that connection, “said Agyeman.
In addition to the heritage sites, Ghana has several other attractions, he said, including adventures, eco-tourism, forests, parks and beaches.
Agyeman said there is currently a drive to improve facilities and drive employment. They are also creating incentive packages for people to invest in the hospitality sector.
Source: looptt.com/
‘Top Chef’ Star Eric Adjepong takes ‘#EatGhana’ Jollof Rice to 4 US States
The chef partnered with a company called Territory to sell a version of the West African staple
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At a time when demand for Eric Adjepong’s cooking has never been higher, it’s been nearly impossible for the average person to taste it.
That has changed — at least for a few weeks — because the Top Chef star has collaborated with workout warrior-targeted delivery service Territory Foods to sell containers of roasted chicken jollof rice across in all of the company’s four markets: D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
The Ghanaian-American chef won over a legion of fans with his infectious enthusiasm and his modern approach to West African dishes while becoming a finalist on Season 16 of the popular Bravo cooking competition. After filming the season, he returned to the D.C. area, where he and his wife, Janell, run a dinner party company called Pinch & Plate.
Outside of a few pop-ups at Cork on 14th Street NW, Adjepong was only cooking for customers who could afford to bring him and his crew into their homes. The Territory deal, which runs throughout May, suddenly makes a dish he designed widely available. Territory delivers pre-prepared meals to affiliated gyms or — for a surcharge — directly to people’s homes.
The deal marks the first time Territory will sell a West African-style dish and the first time a dish is being offered in more than one market. Adjepong tells Eater he chose jollof rice for the occasion because it’s an obvious representative for the regional cuisine. He says if an alien came to Earth and asked him what Ghanaian food was, he’d show them a plate of the rice stewed with tomatoes, onions, chiles, and meat.
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Territory caters to what it calls “intentional eaters,” refusing to use heavily processed ingredients or anything with gluten, dairy, or nitrates. The only changes Adjepong had to make to his recipe, he says, was switching out canola oil for olive oil and swapping honey in for sugar in a pickling liquid. Territory chefs suggested the addition of sauteed kale, and there’s a marinated tomato garnish.
Adjepong doesn’t cook the jollof rice himself; that task falls on vetted, local chefs who work for the company. But he worked with Territory and made tweaks throughout the development to make sure partnered chefs got it right. The jollof rice had to pass muster with Janell, too.
“My wife eats the dish, and she knows how I would make it or my mom or anybody from my family would make it,” Adjepong says.
Danielle Schaub, the company’s culinary manager for the D.C. area, says distinct layers of flavor in the jollof rice surprise her every time. First she tastes tomatoes, then warming spices like clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Five seconds after taking a bite, she gets hit with a habanero kick.
“I don’t know how he did it,” she says.
The partnership with Territory came about only because Adjepong had a history with the company. A few years ago, he spent a few months overseeing quality assurance for dishes that local chefs make in commercial kitchens.
When Schaub saw him competing on the show, she realized she could give his culinary point of view a different platform.
“It dawned on me that I have access to tens of thousands of people across all of four cities,” Schaub says.
Territory delivers meals twice per week, with chefs making 100-person batches that get chilled for a couple days before delivery. Customers get them cold and pop them in the microwave. Adjepong says that’s actually ideal for jollof rice, because it gives the flavors more time to meld, just like a braise or a pot of chili.
Although Adjepong enjoys the freedom his current working arrangement allows — he has time to shuttle his infant daughter to and from daycare and to watch the NBA playoffs — he says he does plan to open his own restaurant in the future. He’s not ready to share many details, but he did say he’s secured investors and is scouting locations.
Bringing West African food to a new audience, particularly a health-conscious one, made sense to Adjepong, who has a Bachelor’s in nutrition from Johnson & Wales and a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Westminster in London.
He’s excited to see West African food gain popularity, particularly at Kwame Onwuachi’s Kith and Kin, which Adjepong helped open at the Wharf.
A controversial exit from Top Chef raised the chef’s profile even more. He was eliminated for an egusi stew that chefs deemed “gritty,” prompting calls on social media for more diversity on the judging panel.
Adjepong says he doesn’t feel any burden to defend or explain West African food. It’s just what he grew up eating, and what continues to drive his passion for cooking.
“This food has been here for centuries,” Adjepong says. “We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re just kind of opening the eyes of folks who have been, I guess, ignorant towards this food.”
Source: dc.eater.com
Ghana opens its arms to Africans in the diaspora
To mark the 400 years since the anchoring of the first slave ship in Jamestown, Virginia, President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has declared 2019 the ‘Year of Return’ for Africans in the diaspora.(AP)
Many Accra-dwellers will know that December is the month of the returnees. In the days leading up to Christmas, Ghanaians from across the diaspora pour into the country in their thousands, disembarking from planes that have landed from London, New York and elsewhere. Families welcome their loved ones at Kotoka International Airport, the taxis are filled, the churches are packed and the parties are non-stop.
But last December saw another set of returnees, many of whom had never set foot on the continent before. It was the Christmas that Black Hollywood came to town, with Ghanaian-Austrian actor Boris Kodjoe and Ghanaian-American marketing whizz Bozoma Saint John (formerly the Chief Branding Officer at Uber) hosting an array of celebrities including the supermodel Naomi Campbell and actors Idris Elba and Rosario Dawson, for Christmas in the motherland.
The stars saw in the new year by attending the Full Circle Festival which marked the launch of the ‘Year of Return, Ghana 2019’ an initiative headed by the Office of the Diaspora and backed by the Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo to commemorate the 400 years since the first enslaved Africans landed in the Americas, in Jamestown, Virginia in the United States.
Although there are no accurate figures, UNESCO estimates that approximately 17 million men, women and children were forced onto slave ships in Africa and sold into slavery in the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries.
The impact of the transatlantic slave trade is wide-reaching but at its essence, it propelled the industrialisation of Europe and led to the underdevelopment of Africa.
By hosting the Year of Return, Ghana hopes to attract tourists from across the African diaspora to reconnect with the continent. There are a number of events planned until the end of 2019 including investment summits, leadership forums and cultural activities. The year will culminate in another – larger – Black Hollywood pilgrimage tour in December.
Akwasi Ababio, director of the Office of the Diaspora and chairperson of the Year of Return committee, tells Equal Times that for many in the African diaspora, the possibility of returning ‘home’ holds great significance. “Some people have come to Ghana, and just on arriving at the airport, seeing that they’re standing on the land that their ancestors used to occupy, has brought a sort of relief,” he says. “They are able to come and reconnect spiritually.”
The home of pan-Africanism
The Year of Return comes more than ten years after another project was launched in Ghana, the Joseph Project, in 2007. That initiative, like the current one, sought to encourage Africans from the diaspora to visit Ghana in a bid to connect them to the rest of the continent. In 2000 the Right to Abode law was enacted, offering people of African descent the opportunity to settle permanently in Ghana, although legal technicalities make the process quite complicated.
The concept of repatriation isn’t new to Ghana. The idea of Africans in the diaspora returning ‘home’ was encouraged by Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who served as a figured head for the wave of pan-Africanism and black unity that spread across the continent around the time that most African countries gained independence from their European colonisers in the 1950s and 1960s.
As the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from its European coloniser (the United Kingdom) in 1957, a host of key figures in the black liberation movement moved to Ghana: the seminal US civil rights activist Dr W.E.B Dubois moved to Accra in 1961, living there for two years before he died in 1963; the American poet and author Maya Angelou also worked and lived in Ghana in the 1960s, and Malcolm X visited around the same time as Muhammad Ali did in 1964.
Over the years, many more descendants of Ghana – from the United States, the Caribbean and elsewhere – would make the journey to Ghana. One such returnee is Renée Neblett. The 71-year-old moved to Ghana in the 1990s, after years of visiting. While living in the United States, Nesblett was a member of the Black Panther movement. As racism, and the violence that came with it, permeated everyday life, Neblett – like a number of African-American writers and artists such as James Baldwin, Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker before her – first looked to Europe for freedom and inspiration.
After spending over a decade in Germany, she headed back to America but was disappointed to see where the movement of black empowerment had arrived. “I left during the Black Power movement so to return to America [in the eighties] to affirmative action and … a landscape still rife with the language of race politics, that for me was riveting. To see how a legitimate struggle for equal access under the law was [taken] and somehow defined in such a way that they institutionalised our second-class citizenship…I was stunned by that.”
While in the United States, Neblett began working in education and in a bid to expand the cultural curriculum of American students, she began visiting Ghana in the 1980s with groups of university students. After a few years she was ready to relocate. In 1992 she established the Kokrobitey Institute, which hosts residencies and educational programs on art and design, history and the environment in Kokrobitey, a beach town just outside of Accra.
“I feel free in Ghana”
Like Neblett, the horrors of race relations in the United States had become unbearable for Jamaican-American Lakeisha Marie. After spending many years visiting Ghana, in 2013 she began to undertake post-graduate research that required her to spend time in the country. On completion of his master’s degree, she headed back to New Jersey, only to be confronted with one of the most shocking examples of police violence against African-Americans in recent memory.
“I remember hearing about the shooting of Mike Brown [by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri]. I had just got back in the country like maybe a day after it happened. And I remember sitting on my bed, looking at the articles in the news and the video of his body in the middle of the street in a pool of blood,” she recalls. “That’s when I decided to move to Ghana. I couldn’t continue with America. I needed to not be there. I knew that I always felt happy in Ghana, and that I felt free here.”
Now, five years later, she runs her own communications consultancy called Ford Communications, which specialises in public relations, customer service training and brand management with the purpose of bridging the gap between Africa and the west.
As a young woman with degrees from American universities, Marie has found making business connections in Ghana quite fruitful. She also notes that there are more opportunities and resources in Ghana than in her country of heritage, Jamaica. But she is aware of the privileges that being an expat affords her.
“If you’re a local with a high school diploma or even with a college degree, the labour market can be tough. Finding a job or getting compensated at a level that makes sense can be very difficult,” she says. “However, if you are foreigner…then your privileges are different. You have access to certain opportunities that locals might not. And because there are foreign companies coming in and setting up there might be more of a gap.” Because of this Marie says that she focuses on skills training and hiring locally.
Ababio says this is something that his office is keeping in mind. He is, however, excited by the possibilities the diaspora can bring to Ghana, through investment and business development. “For any government, you would want people to contribute through its flagship programs,” he says, referring to the ‘One District, One Factory’ industrialisation initiative, for example, which aims to create as many as 3.2 million jobs by 2022.
Essentially, through his office, Ababio hopes to attract investment from the diaspora and channel it into projects such as this one. “The more people that come to your country, the more they will get to know what is required. What is deficient, what needs improved on, what needs to be enjoyed.”
Ababio is pleased with the way the Year of Return is going so far. In January, CNN named Ghana as one of its 19 best places to visit in 2019. Lonely Planet is organising a specific Year of Return tour and a range of other African and black-owned tour companies are working on doing the same. There is a sense of expectation in the air.
The government is currently touting industry-led development with a focus on public-private partnerships. But the country still faces huge challenges; with a large youth population and high levels of unemployment and poverty, the government will have to balance the potential that comes with enticing tourists and foreign investment without exacerbating the already entrenched inequality in the country.
Source: equaltimes.org
Year of Return: WWE World Champion Kofi Kingston to visit Ghana after 26yrs
Reigning World Wrestling Entertainment Champion, Kofi Kingston has in a Facebook and Instagram post said he will be visiting home after 26 years. In a post that suggests he has heard the call to action in the trending #YearofReturn hashtag ‘Brafie’ #brafie and responding by inviting others to the slogan #LetsGoGhana, Kofi is will be returning home for a 4-day visit beginning May 30 to June 2, 2019 to pay a courtesy call on the President, Nana Akufo Addo and the Asantehene, Otumfuor Osei Tutu II at the Manhyia Palace as well as visit many tourist attractions including Lake Bosomtwi, Christiansborg (Osu) Castle, Bonwire, Ejisu and Komfo Anokye. He will be accompanied by a WWE crew who are shooting a documentary on him as World Champion.
Read the story below as published by WWE.com on Friday, May 9, 2019.
Kofi Kingston is going home. And, of course, he’s got a little extra luggage to take with him this time around.
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The WWE Champion revealed Friday on Instagram that he is planning his first visit to his home country of Ghana, West Africa since 1993 — part of a celebratory “Year of Return” in the wake of winning his first World Championship. A WWE film crew will be documenting the four-day visit, which includes a children’s rally, visits to Kofi’s maternal and paternal hometowns, as well as a courtesy call on the Ghanaian president, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and a visit to Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asante Monarch.
Read the full press release below, and stay tuned to WWE’s digital channels for more on Kofi’s homecoming.
Journey to becoming World Champion
The New Day’s Kofi Kingston is powered by positivity, and he’s used it to catapult himself, Xavier Woods and Big E to new heights.
Since bursting on the WWE scene in 2007, Kingston has established himself as one of WWE’s premier high-flyers. That, paired with his upbeat attitude, made him a perennial favourite of the WWE Universe as he racked up Intercontinental, the United States and Tag Team Championships. Kingston also cemented his place in WWE history with a series of daredevil moments where he saved himself from elimination in several Royal Rumble Matches.
Above: Video of how Kofi Kingston won the title
When he joined forces with Big E and Xavier Woods to form The New Day, though, no one could have guessed that the trio of unicorn horn-wearing, Booty-O-chomping Superstars would achieve the feats that they have in WWE. In fact, the WWE Universe despised them at first but soon grew to love them.
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As a veteran member of the team, Kingston provides his wealth of knowledge to his younger compadres, and it has paid off. Not only has The New Day become one of the most popular factions in WWE history, but ya boys have held multiple Tag Team Championships between their stints on Raw and SmackDown LIVE, including the longest reign in WWE history – an astonishing 483 days.
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Kingston’s 11 years of hard work and dedication finally brought him to the dance at WrestleMania 35 where he challenged Daniel Bryan for the WWE Title. With the entire WWE Universe behind him, as well as his New Day brothers and the SmackDown locker room, Kofi beat Bryan to claim WWE’s ultimate prize. It just goes to show what the Power of Positivity can accomplish.
Kofi Kingston’s explains his unique Adinkra Tatoos
About Kofi Kingston
Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah(born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-American professional wrestler signed to WWE, under the ring name Kofi Kingston, where he performs on the Smack Down brand, and is the current WWE Champion in his first reign. He is the first African-born WWE Champion and is also a member of The New Day along with Big E and Xavier Woods.
After graduating from college, Sarkodie-Mensah decided to pursue a professional wrestling career. He began performing on the New England independent circuit as a Jamaican wrestler by the name of Kofi Nahaje Kingston. After signing a developmental deal with WWE in 2007, he shortened his ring name to “Kofi Kingston”. Kingston debuted in WWE in 2008 using the same Jamaican character as he did on the independent circuit. In late 2009, he stopped being billed from Jamaica and dropped the accent although he kept his ring name. He then started being billed from his home country of Ghana.
Kingston spent much of his first few years in WWE on the midcard singles scene, during which he became a four-time Intercontinental Champion and a three-time United States Champion. In 2014, Kingston formed The New Day with Big E and Xavier Woods. The trio went on to break the record for the longest Tag Team Championship reign in WWE history when they held the WWE (Raw) Tag Team Championship from August 2015 to December 2016 while defending the titles under the Freebird rule. In April 2019, Kingston defeated Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35 to win the WWE Championship, his first world title in WWE.
He is the first African-born world champion in WWE history as well as its 30th Triple Crown Champion and 20th overall Grand Slam Champion (13th under the current format). In addition, Kingston himself holds the singular record for most days spent as a Tag Team Champion within WWE and is also known for innovative ways of suspending his elimination from Royal Rumble and battle royal matches. With the exception of a few months spent as a heel (villainous character) in 2015 with The New Day, Kingston has been a babyface (heroic character) for almost the entirety of his WWE career.
About Year Of Return
The “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” is a major landmark marketing campaign targeting the African – American and Diaspora Market to mark 400 years of the first enslaved African arriving in Jamestown Virginia. The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the Auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is leading the project in collaboration with the Office of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, the Panafest Foundation and the Adinkra Group of USA.
The Year of Return seeks to make Ghana the focus for millions of African descendants reacting to their marginalisation by tracing their ancestry and identity. By this, Ghana becomes the beacon for African people living on the continent and the diaspora.
The United States Congress recently passed an Act H.R. 1242 – 400 Years of African-American which is a historically significant milestone. Ghana’s unique position as the location for 75 per cent of the slave dungeons built on the west coast of Africa and the current President’s policy of making it a national priority to extend a hand of welcome back home to Africans in the diaspora cannot be overemphasised.
There are still numerous imposing European forts and castles harbouring harrowing reminders of an intense and complex history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in our land over centuries. This on its own has made Ghana the focus for millions of African descendants reacting to their marginalization by tracing their ancestry and identity.
However, even more, important is the recognition of Ghana as a beacon of hope for African people living on the continent and in the Diaspora. This status was earned not by coincidence but by conscious efforts to validate the struggles, strengths and linkages between African descendants on a Pan-African scale.
Winneba Aboakyer Festival 2019 in pictures and videos
This year’s Aboakyer Festival has been held at Winneba by the Effutu people. It was pure display of #culture, #tradition, #art and #craft.
On Tuesday the fisher folks had their day at the beachfront with the ‘tug of war’ and ‘regatta’ (canoe race) amongst themselves to usher in the festival.
Scenes from Aboakyer Regatta by the fisher folks to usher in the #AboakyerFestival2019 at Winneba. The events were keenly contested with hundreds of community folks cheering them. #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana #FeelGhana #FestivalsInGhana
Posted by Ghana Tourism Authority on Thursday, May 2, 2019
Scenes from Aboakyer Regatta by the fisher folks to usher in the #AboakyerFestival2019 at Winneba. The events were keenly contested with hundreds of community folks cheering them. #SeeGhana#EatGhana #WearGhana #FeelGhana #FestivalsInGhana
Scenes from Aboakyer Regatta by the fisher folks to usher in the #AboakyerFestival2019 at Winneba. The events were keenly contested with hundreds of community folks cheering them. #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana #FeelGhana #FestivalsInGhana
Posted by Ghana Tourism Authority on Thursday, May 2, 2019
The PinkThursday which is one of the new additions to the festival witnessed a large float through the principal streets.
Friday was for the parading of the gods by the two main Asafo groups. The Otuafo Asafo No. 1 and Dentsifo Asafo No. 2 through the town.
Tuafo Asafo No.1 group of Otuano Royal Stool House parading their god at #AboakyerFestival19 #AboakyerFestival2019..#festivalsInGhana #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana #FeelGhana
Posted by Ghana Tourism Authority on Friday, May 3, 2019
Tuafo Asafo No.1 group of Otuano Royal Stool House parading their god at #AboakyerFestival19 #AboakyerFestival2019
Winneba prepares for #Aboakyer deer hunting as they gather sticks for the hunt which starts at 5am tomorrow. #Winneba. #FeelGhana..#festivalsInGhana #SeeGhana #EatGhana #WearGhana #AboakyerFestival19 #Aboakyer2019
Posted by Ghana Tourism Authority on Friday, May 3, 2019
Winneba prepares for #Aboakyer deer hunting as they gather sticks for the hunt which starts at 5am tomorrow.
Tuafo Asafo No.1 group of Otuano Royal Stool House parading their god at #AboakyerFestival19 #AboakyerFestival2019. They then dip the god 3 times in the sea and proceed with the procession. FeelGhana
Dentsifo Asafo No.2 group of Twafo Royal Stool House parading their god at #AboakyerFestival19 #Aboakyer #Festival of the Efutu. They process with the god through the principal streets of #Winneba. #FeelGhana
Then came the durbar day on Saturday, when the two Asafo groups set out to hunt for the deer at 5am. The first group that makes a catch then presents it to the durbar grounds for the chief to step on before it is sacrificed on Sunday.
Paramount Chief cautions Aboakyer festival celebrants against negative acts
Winneba (C/R) May 3, GNA – Neenyi Ghartey VII, Paramount Chief of Effutuman and President of Effutu Traditional Council has appealed to celebrants of the 2019 Aboakyer to desist from negative activities that could mar the beauty of the festival.
He mentioned some of the negative acts as drunkenness, drug abuse and the indecent dressing that could carry another meaning to visitors.
https://www.facebook.com/ghanatourismauthority/videos/510428639490480/
The Omanhen made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency after a Regatta and Tag-of-War events between Fisherfolks at the Winneba beach, which formed part of the weeklong activities of the festival.
The event was jointly sponsored by Multipro Industries Limited (Indomie), Ghana Tourism Authority and Continental Christian Traders (CCT).
The festival which is themed “Sustaining our rich cultural heritage: our youth, our future”, commenced on Friday, April 27 and will be climaxed with a grand durbar on Saturday, May 4.
Aboakyer is celebrated with two gallant Asafo companies, who hunt for a live deer and the first group to arrive at a colourful durbar grounds with their catch will present it to the paramount Chief who will step on it three times as part of the traditional and customary rites.
In the afternoon of the same day, the Chiefs and Asafo companies will process through the principal streets amidst royal drumming, dancing and singing of Asafo songs to the Omanhen’s palace and later in the night with a state dance to crown Ms. Aboakyer of the year.
According to Neenyi Ghartey, the festival was significant to the growth and prosperity of the Area and expressed the need for all natives of Effutuman, home and abroad to attend the festival in their numbers and contribute their quota towards the development of the Town.
Source: GNA