Grand durbar to climax 2015 Emancipation Day celebration

Ghana Tourism Authority says this year’s Emancipation Day celebration would be climaxed with a grand durbar of the chiefs and people of Assin Manso in the Central Region.

The Emancipation Day 2015 would be celebrated on the broad theme: "Emancipation, our Heritage, our strength," with a sub – theme: “Re-uniting the African Family for Development.”

A release issued in Accra and copied to Ghana News Agency on Tuesday said prior to the climax, there would be a programme of activities such as the wreath laying ceremonies at Dubois Centre, the George Padmore Library and Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.

It said Assin Manso would also mark the occasion with a durbar and the re-enactment of the slave crossing of the River Pra.

According to the release, there would also be a reverential night at the Cape Coast Castle with a motley of activities, including a candle light procession, roll call of ancestors and the reading of the proclamation of the black man’s freedom from a period most cruel and heinous - the obnoxious slave trade which took away more than 300 million able bodied men and women from Africa.

It said August 1is the period that Ghana celebrates Emancipation day, which marks very crucial in the history of mankind.

“The trading relationship between our forefathers and the Europeans started on a mutually beneficial arrangement until it developed into a human tragedy called the slave trade. It later developed into its worst form called Chattel Slavery.”

It said under Chattel Slavery, the victims were regarded as property without any rights. They had no right to education and health. They had no personality and were completely at the disposal of their masters.

On August 1, 1834 Chattel Slavery was abolished in the then New World Societies, the present day United States, the Caribbean and the islands of the Atlantic.