Emancipation Day marked in Central Region

This year’s Emancipation Day celebrations were held in Cape Coast in the Central Region.
The ceremony attracted participants from across Africa and the diaspora who joined chiefs and local residents from the Central and Western Regions at the Cape Coast Castle dungeons to pay tribute to great ancestors who were shipped as captives to work on plantations in the Americas.
Under the theme, “Our Heritage, Our Strength, Reuniting the African Family for Development”, this year’s celebration saw wreaths being laid and candles lit in memory of the ancestors.
The Paramount Chief of Cape Coast, Osabarima Kwesi Atta, had earlier in a symbolic ceremony welcomed a candle lit procession of people, led by Rabbi Kohain to the Cape Coast Castle.
The Central Regional Minister, Mr Aquainas Tawiah Quansah, in an address, said the slave trade was dehumanising enough but should not be an excuse for underdevelopment.
The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, said that although the African continent suffered greatly from the slave trade, it was necessary that the continent and its people use the memories to create useful lessons that would help accelerate the development of Africa.
The President of the Assin Apimanim Traditional Area, Barima Kwame Nkyi X, called for efforts to sustain interest in the celebration while working to build a united African family.
Source: Graphic Online