The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has outlined the activities for the 2014 Emancipation Day Celebration, scheduled for Tuesday, July 29- Friday, August 1 on the theme: "Our Heritage, Our Strength." The sub-theme is: ‘’Reuniting the African Family for Development’’.

A release issued in Accra and copied to Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said the celebration would start with a wreath-laying ceremony on July 29 to honour illustrious Pan-Africanists, like Dr William E. B. Du Bois, George Padmore and Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

It said the event would continue on Wednesday July 30 with the re-enactment of the Crossing of River Pra at Assin Praso in the Central Region. The Reverential night session will take place on Thursday, July 31 at the Cape Coast Castle. The celebration would be climaxed with a Grand Durbar of chiefs on Friday August 1 at Assin Manso in the Central Region.

This year’s celebration marks the 16th milestone of Emancipation Day Celebration in Ghana. Emancipation Day Celebration is an annual event observed to commemorate the resistance and liberation of African people in the Diaspora against enslavement and violation of their human rights. It is held on August 1, which marks the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1834.

The Emancipation Day celebration which originated from the Caribbean has been celebrated since August 1, 1834 when chattel slavery was finally abolished in the Caribbean.

It has been on Ghana’s tourism calendar since 1998, and Ghana became the first African nation to join in the celebration to re-affirm its status as the gateway to the homeland of Africans in the Diaspora.