ASSIN MANSO, GHANA - In a clearing at the turnoff to Assin Manso, a billboard depicts two African slaves in loincloths, their arms and legs in chains. Beside them are the words, “Never Again!”
“Ten years ago, no one went to the slave river, but this year has been massive,” said Awuracy Butler, who runs a company called Butler Tours. Officials see it as an opportunity to entice some much-needed foreign investment into the economy, dogged in recent years by high inflation and public debt that has needed an International Monetary Fund lending program to fix.
Members of the group, who were mostly African American, went up to the front one by one to pose with a smiling tourism ministry official or one of the robe-clad elders as they received an official certificate of participation. The investment representative launched into a lengthy power-point presentation focused on the need for investment in Ghana’s cocoa sector and the minimum capital requirements for joint ventures.
“The moment you get to know your history, it is going to change you,” he said. “We are encouraging our brothers and sisters from the U.S., from the Caribbean from Europe to come back to their Motherland Africa to get to know the culture … and whatever the ancestors went through.” Ghana has long encouraged its diaspora to return and has strong links with the African American community. Malcolm X visited in the 1960s and spent time with the American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, who lived there at the time. The prominent black writer and activist W.E.B. Du Bois settled and died in Ghana. Since, many other ordinary African American families have returned.
Together they placed their hands in the water, then waded in to offer prayers in thanks for the opportunity to return. The government is committed to its upkeep - on a recent visit, workers were repainting the high white walls.
This is a very inspirational story of a freed black slave more people should know
Ebola is real. Ebola has no cure. Ebola is deadly. Ebola comes from Africa
Is Virginia the place where we had the Igbo Landing?
. .NYDailyNews Just remember...not ONE Caucasian raided Africa to procure slaves. The African tribal chiefs sold prisoners from conquered lands (fellow Africans) into slavery for silver and gold. Why haven't the Western African countries been sued for reparations?
They were brought by the danish... who rescued them from the Spanish, who abducted and enslaved them to begin with.....go back to history class or hit the library
Wow... So is the nytimes...
Wait a minute the 1st black slave landed in 1620 in New Amsterdam. Am I wrong?
I definitely plan on visiting these locations at some point in life
They treat us badly as if we not human but by God's grace some of them survived
One of the saddest things to ever rock our planet... It has actually brought a big division in our world and I sometimes feel sad my dear country (Ghana 🇬🇭) was used as a gate way during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade ...
*Boom
African-Americans can do a lot to mitigate d sufferings of their brethren today by investing their money to boost economic regeneration
Hmmm 🤔
Ed_Reuters Why were Ghanians selling slaves 400 years ago?
Ed_Reuters What, so they can go meet the descendents of the ones who put their forefathers in chains? Sounds a little unpleasant to me. On the other hand, Ghana looks pretty nice.