PANAFEST Foundation advocates visa on arrival policy - For Diasporan participants
The Chairperson of the PANAFEST Foundation has urged the government to consider a visa-on-arrival policy for Diasporan participants in this year’s Pan African Historical Festival (PANAFEST), which begins on July 25 and ends on August 2, 2017.
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That decision, Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy said, would clear some of the travel logistical challenges that plagued the biennial festival.
Currently, while Ghana has a visa-free policy with some countries in the world, which means Ghanaians do not need a visa to enter those countries, there is also a visa-on-arrival policy for all Africans.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Prof. Sutherland-Addy said the government had put its weight behind PANAFEST.
With PANAFEST coming on the heels of the recent Diasporan Summit, she said: “The recognition that we can harness a lot of potential by bringing together all of us, no matter where we are, is something that they (government) picked up.”
PANAFEST was mooted by the late Efua Sutherland in the mid-1980s as a cultural vehicle for bringing Africans on the continent and in the diaspora together around the issues raised by slavery which remain suppressed.
It has attracted patrons from across the world in the last 25 years, some of whom see it as a mission to rediscover their roots and identity.
With the huge presence of castles and forts and other footprints of colonialism and slavery in its belly, Prof. Sutherland-Addy said one of the many achievements of PANAFEST was the spotlight it threw on the Central Region.
“PANAFEST has provided a sense of the possibilities of using culture as a fulcrum for discussing and dealing with difficult, as well as emotional issues associated with being colonised and being enslaved.
“PANAFEST, when it began and the level it was pitched, brought attention to the Central Region and is partly responsible for the attraction of tourists to the country from the early to the mid-1990s. This can be attributed to PANAFEST.”
“It also contributed a lot in terms of the development of tourism infrastructure at the beginning; the Centre for National Culture, a number of hotels and tourism centres came in as a result of PANAFEST,” Prof Sutherland-Addy said.
Programme highlights
Among the programmes lined up for this year’s PANAFEST are a wreath-laying ceremony at the W.E.B. Dubois Centre, the George Padmore Library and the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum on July 25, 2017; Akwaaba ceremony, opening of Emporium, Visual Arts Exhibition and international variety performance at the Elmina Castle and the Cape Coast Stadium on July 26, 2017.
On July 27-28, 2017, there will be a colloquium on youth and women, with a grand durbar of chiefs and queenmothers scheduled for July 29, 2017. Other activities are African storytelling, inter-faith dialogue and Diaspora workshop.
She said as part of measures to lift the profile of the festival and deliver a much exciting festival, the foundation had taken a decision to widen the scope of people who were participating in its management, including professionals in events management to enable them to deliver a better festival.
A new addition to this year’s festival, which is on the theme: “The Power of Pan African Culture”, is an inter-faith dialogue.
“There is the feeling that people of various religions, particularly Christians and Muslims, have been distant from PANAFEST, so we are having an inter-faith dialogue to discuss what people of African descent have added to these religions. What have they done around the world to enhance these religions? How have they interpreted Christianity and Islam in their own cultures and how did it help them to resist and deal with things like enslavement?”, she explained.
Tourism and business opportunities
Turning to how the nation could tap into the tourism and business opportunities offered by PANAFEST, she said there was a whole tourism on pilgrimage, education and tourism of returning home that the country had not milked.
