Slave Route To Become Tourist Centre

Assin Manso(C/R), Aug 18, - A slave route heritage located at Assin Manso in the Assin District of the Central Region, will be developed into a cultural tourism project in the context of the international slave route programme. Mr Kojo Yankah, Minister for Central Region, announced this in a speech read for him at a remembrance day ceremony held at Assin Manso for victims of slavery at the weekend. The town, said to have had the largest slave market during the slave trade, has a slave cemetery and a slave river (donko nsuo) where slaves were bathed before they were sent to Cape Coast and Elmina castles. Mr Yankah said the heritage sight would be developed into a tourism attraction sight to create economic benefit for the people, adding that facilities like a reception, accommodation and a fitting memorial in keeping with the history of the area would be provided. "A proper preservation of such heritage will not only serve as memorials for slaves but more importantly, it will promote cultural tourism and bring development to the areas where they are found", he said. The remembrance day, the third to be organised in three years by the people of the area, has been made an annual affair to remind the people about the atrocities of the slave trade. Barima Kwame Nkyi the twelfth, Omanhene of Assin Apimanim Traditional Area, stressed the need for all to be guided by the golden rule of love and kindness to one another, especially as "we enter the next century". He said the people in the diaspora are always welcome back home and invited especially, those who are prepared to return to settle in his town to do so. An African-American, Nana Okofo Iture Kweku, Safohene of Iture, a village near Elmina, recounted his experiences as a black in America and intimated that he feels good to be back in his ancestral home, adding that slave trade should be remembered to ensure that "it does not happen to mankind again".