The 2023 PANAFEST/Emancipation Day Celebrations commenced on July 19, 2023, with a Northern Pilgrimage.
The five-day tour will take participants to the historical slave routes that ancestors traveled before they were taken to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.
The pilgrimage began on Wednesday morning in Accra and will take participants to the Pikworo Slave Camp in the Upper East Region, the Salaga Slave Camp in the Northern Region, and the Bono Slave Market in the Bono East Region.
The tour will end with the crossing of the River Pra at Assin Praso in the Central Region.On Monday, July 24, 2023, wreath-laying ceremonies will be held at the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre, the George Padmore Library, and the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.
Other activities, such as an inter-faith dialogue, colloquium, return journey and akwaaba ceremony, youth day, durbar of traditional leaders, women’s day, and reverential night, will take place in Cape Coast.
The event will be climaxed with the 25th Anniversary Day Durbar at Assin Manso in the Central Region.
PANAFEST is an acronym for Pan-African Historical and Theatre Festival. It is a cultural event held in Ghana every two years since 1992 for Africans and people of African descent to promote and enhance unity, Pan-Africanism, and the development of the continent of Africa.
Emancipation Day marks the Abolition of Slavery in the British Colonies in 1834. It is an annual observance introduced in Ghana in 1998.
About 50 participants have been selected for the pilgrimage tour. They include staff of the Ghana Tourism Authority, tourism industry practitioners of the various associations, and the general public.
The associations include the Tour Operators Union of Ghana, Car Rentals Association of Ghana, Tour Guides Association of Ghana, and Ghana Hoteliers Association.
The rest are Tourism Society of Ghana, Ghana Progressive Hotels Association, and the Diaspora Community.
