Scroll to top

Year of Return Ghana to attract 500,000 Diasporan Africans


GTA Digital - January 29, 2019 - 6 comments

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

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.

Related posts

6 comments

  1. Your site has exceptional material. I bookmarked the site

  2. Allan martin

    Hello to the MMG Foundation, Please accept the most cordial greetings on this most auspicious occasion of marking the 400 years anniversary with the year of Return to Ghana 2019 celebration. I am writing from the perspective as a member of the Jamaican Marcus Garvey Organization In view of your Cal lender of Events brochure magazine which I saw with the line up of activities that appears to be very impressive and engaging at this point of view.

    At this present time we are overly satisfied with the visit of your President Nana Akufo-Addo’s declarartion that there will be no visa requirement for visitors to the festival in Ghana this year. This announcement marks an imp[important mile stone for one of our biggest objectives as Diasporas Pan-Africanist over the years.

    This also brings us to the next challenging concern which we are facing about the availability of airline direct access to Ghana for this festivities, and how best can that be worked out given the situation whereby we understand that the national airline of Ghana has been out of service? To this end we are in the process of asking the Embassies of Cuba and Venezuela to consult with their governments to help in providing air lift accommodation into Ghana for this occasion. And even at this short notice we still hope to hear from them about what is possible to be in place to meet the middle of next month’s July departure dates.

    On those objectives we would like to seek your participation in consulting with these two governments in back-up to our written request to them already, and lets see what can be achieved in such time frame.

    Kindly keep in contact with me on this matter. Thank you / Yours sincerely, Allan martin//> director- Marcus Garvey Organization of Jamaica W.I.

  3. Linda Lewis-Everett

    Are you keeping a record of how many blacks throughout the diaspora actually visit Ghana during 2019?

  4. Linda Lewis-Everett

    I visited Ghana in 2018, and will visit again in July 2019. The Year of Return!!!!

Post a Comment

X