PANAFEST To Feature First Lady

Cape Coast, Aug 15, - The First Lady and President of the 31st December Women's Movement, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, will be the guest of honour at the Women's Day of PANAFEST '97 scheduled for September two at Cape Coast. She will also open an exhibition of traditional African textiles, craft and culinary products aimed at portraying the capabilities of the African woman. Ms Fiona Comfort Odartey of the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) announced this at Cape Coast on Thursday at a meeting with various women's groups within the Cape Coast Municipality to sensitize them on the importance of the festival. It was organized by the regional secretariat of the NCWD in collaboration with the women's sub-committee on PANAFEST. Mrs Odartey said Professor Micere Mungo, a renowned African- American professor of African American Literature in the United States, will deliver the colloquium keynote paper on ''Women and Development''. Professor Florence Dolphyne, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, and Dr Mary Grant, a member of the Council of State, will preside over activities of the day. The Director of the PANAFEST Secretariat, Mr John Darkey, announced that similar programmes have been lined up to ensure the full, active and constructive participation of all residents in and around Cape Coast and Elmina townships which have been chosen as venues for the festival. He, therefore, urged the women and all groups to take responsibilities assigned them seriously because ''every attention is being focussed on Cape Coast and there is a lot of pressure''. Mr Darkey was, however, unhappy about criticisms from certain quarters about Cape Coast and Elmina being permanent venues for the festival and explained that the objective is to help draw investment to generate more employment in these two townships ''which are almost bare of industrial development''. He also outlined strategies planned to step up security during the festival.