Ancestors remembered at Cape Coast
Music created by the sea breeze lapping at the rocks from beyond the Castle filtered through the night as the midnight dew and memories of the cruelty of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade covered all present at the "Reverential Night" with a heavy blanket of emotion last Monday night.
Advertisement
It was a cold and quiet solemn night. A group of people made up of government officials, traditional rulers and people from the Diaspora stood on the "sacred" courtyard of the Cape Coast Castle listening to a roll call.
A roll call of the ancestors who passed through the dark dungeons of the Castle as slaves and many others who spent their lives fighting for the emancipation of the black race from slavery.
Earlier, the group whose members wore mostly white outfits had walked through the streets of the metropolis with candles lit in their memory.
And at midnight, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Nana Bright Oduro Kwarteng on behalf of the minsiter, Mrs Catherine Afeku declared emancipation for all of African descent.
He said all Africans must respond to the clarion call that black lives matter.
Nana Kwarteng further urged all to rekindle a greater determination to propel growth and to improve the economies across Africa.
Dr Umar Johnson of Africa in the Diaspora urged Africa governments to stop borrowing from the Bretton Wood institutions to reduce foreign influence on the continent.
Mr Akwasi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority said there was no chance to break the African spirit. "It's a night for us to look back and say never again. Nothing should keep us down.”
He urged all to keep the fire of the African renaissance burning.
Professor James Small, a returnee from the Diaspora said that Africa must take control of its economic, political and cultural issues.
He called for a revolution that would ensure Africa socio cultural values imbided in the African youth.
He also urged all of African descent to make a commitment to redeem Africa from its exploiters.
Patrons at the event were treated to a play by the Theatre Department of the University of Cape Coast which adapted the struggles of Nelson Mandela to the Slave Trade, a solo by Brenda Joyce from the Diaspora and a performance by Musa from Burkina Faso.
Ghana's Ambassador to Brazil, Professor Abena Busia performed "Ancestral Milk", a poem on the slave tracing it to a traditional priestess in Salaga and her role in feeding the souls of the departed with "ancestral milk".
