African ministers want slave route project implemented

Accra, (Greater Accra) 6th May ?99,

African ministers attending the joint World Tourism Organisation (WTO) and Africa Travel Association (ATA) meeting in Accra on Wednesday urged member states to ensure the quick and comprehensive collection of facts needed for the UNESCO-WTO Slave Route project.

They were unanimous that the project concerns all African countries and would provide hidden truths about the enslavement of Africans, especially as the continent enters the next millennium.

The five-day meeting, under the theme "Africa: tourism destination for the next millennium", is being attended by more than 1,500 delegates from Africa and the Diaspora.

The ministers' action followed the presentation of a report on the project by Mr Doudou Diene, Director of UNESCO's Division for Inter-cultural Projects.

They stressed the need for the project to cover the restoration and acquisition of artefacts needed to set the records straight, as most of the history about slavery, was written by the perpetrators

The dissemination of findings from the project must also consider the high rate of illiteracy on the continent to enable as many Africans as possible to know and understand the truth, they said.

Mr Diene said one objective of the project is to study the deep causes, modalities and consequences of the slave trade as a universal issue to be known and taught. It is also to highlight and study the consequences of the slave trade, including the human, social and cultural interaction that went on in the Americas and Caribbean.

He said UNESCO embarked on the project because of the silence, not on the history, but the facts of the trade and the denials by the instigators and of the sites linked to the trade.

Mr Diene said WTO came in because of the boost the project is expected to give to international tourism, adding that some of the countries involved, including Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have won a strong demand by tourists.

The project will also throw more light on other African countries like Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola and some North African countries where the trade thrived but of which little is known.

Mr Diene said UNESCO has already established a committee of international scholars, scientific and scholarly networks that have started looking at the modalities for the project.