Deputy UK Premier echoes regret about slave trade

Cape Coast, Feb 15, GNA - Mr John Prescott, the Deputy British Prime Minister, on Wednesday expressed regret that 200 years after the slave trade, human trafficking, particularly of women and children, was still going on in Africa and called on all countries, including Ghana, to combat it.

"There is the need to remind ourselves of the brutalities of the slave trade and the terrible conditions under which Africans were torn from their homes and shipped away."

Mr Prescott said this when he paid separate calls on the Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, the Paramount Chief of Anomabu Traditional Area, Kantamanto Amonu XI, and Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, the Paramount of Oguaa Traditional Area, at the start of a two-day visit to the Central Region.

"Africa has, for too long, remained a sleeping giant. It has a major part to play in global issues," he said.

The deputy premier will visit the Montessori School in Cape Coast where the students will enact the slave trade as part of a project the school is working on in partnership with some schools in Britain. Mr Prescott repeated an apology the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, had rendered for the slave trade and said his visit was to "pay my respects to you and to remind myself of what my forefathers were involved in several years ago."

He said it was imperative for the Europeans who perpetrated the slave trade to come back to visit and called on Africans in the Diaspora to also come back and "see how the country is faring".

Mr Prescott congratulated Ghana for her 50th independence anniversary, describing her as the "black star of Africa" that has taken the lead in attaining independence and "is still leading". He paid tribute to President John Agyekum Kufuor for his election as the Chairman of the African Union and to the immediate past Secretary-General of the UN, Mr Kofi Annan, whom he described as a great inspiration to Ghana and Africa.

Mr Prescott said one of the memories he would take back with him was the pride with which school children wear their uniforms, "an indication that they take education seriously."

"Education is important for fighting slavery and other negative practices," he said.

Nana Arthur spoke about the region's tourism and investment potentials and appealed for partnership in the revamping of industries like the Komenda sugar factory, Dunkwa goldfields and Saltpond ceramics. Osabarima Kwesi Atta appealed to Mr Prescott to help establish a sister/city relationship between Cape Coast and a city in Britain. He said he wanted to see a new relationship between Cape Coast and Britain so that houses put up by the British during the colonial era could be renovated to step up tourism.

Kantamanto Amonu appealed for British assistance in the restoration of Fort Williams to attract more tourists to the town as well as to help provide drugs for the town's health post that is slated for upgrading into a hospital.

Mr Prescott, Nana Arthur and Osabarima Kwesi Atta later exchanged gifts. He had earlier toured Fort Williams and would have a private tour of the Elmina castle.