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21.07.2009 Letter

Slave trade: The case of the North

By JOSEPH AVILLAWINI
The North is where the true and full story of the slave raid and trade can be seen and heard.The North is where the true and full story of the slave raid and trade can be seen and heard.
21.07.2009 LISTEN

Pana-Fest and Emancipation day celebrations as we are made to understand are events that seek to create the platform and opportunity for Africans in the Diaspora, particularly the descendants of our African brethren who were taken into slavery over-seas and who trace their roots to Ghana (Gold Coast) to re-unite with their families and people in Ghana.

Pana-Fest and Emancipation day events must therefore serve as a guide-Post and road-map to our Diasporan brethren as they trace their roots to Ghana.

The celebration and marking of these events must of necessity declare and portray the true and clear history about the slave trade and raid in Ghana (Gold Coast) for it is only when they know the truth about their origin that they can successfully trace their roots.

Northerners have a tradition and a natural urge to reach out by any means possible to recover and to reunite with their blood relatives who for some reasons were separated from their family. They do this no matter the cost or conditions.

With this natural urge and phenomenon, Northerners have since the inception of Pana-Fest and Emancipation day events being waiting with keen interest and eager expectations as to how and when the necessary steps would be taken to create the opportunity and make it possible and easy for the Africans in the Diaspora who trace their roots to Ghana to re-unite with their relatives and people in the North. Unfortunately our long waiting has so far been in vain as the events have rather turned out to be a platform for the distortion of history and deceit with regards to the slave trade and raid in Ghana (Gold Coast). There has consistently been a misrepresentation of the slave trade story during the celebrations of these events as the celebrations are restricted and limited only to the castles and Southern sector of the country where slaves were rarely raided to the neglect of the Northern sector of the country where almost all the slaves were taken from.

Northerners have always observed with great sadness our Diasporan relatives being deceived and misled to the castles and Chiefs palaces and villages in the Southern parts of the country where they are made to believe that their ancestors hailed from those places. False lineages and families are found for them and they are made development chiefs and Queens of those villages. The sole aim of these false transactions being to covet and reap where they had not sown.

This is very unfortunate and inhuman.
Our fellow country men who engage themselves in such acts must be told the truth that their behaviour constitutes gross abuse of human rights and social justice. We would however restrain ourselves from declaring it criminal.

Fellow Ghanaians, let us for God's sake be fair to our brethren in the Diaspora who come to Ghana earnestly tracing their roots and who want to know the true history and origin of their enslaved ancestors. Also important is for us to be honest with our own selves in our dealings with them.

Now the true history of the slave trade and raid events that took place in Ghana (Gold Coast) about three centuries ago and which must be firmly established for the information and knowledge of both present and future generations is that, in Ghana, the slave trade and raid took place mainly only in the three Northern Regions of Ghana. Over 95% of the slaves who were raided and taken away from Ghana (Gold Coast) were from Northern Ghana.

Scarcely were slaves raided and taken from the Southern sector of the country.

It should be well noted that at the time of the slave raid, the North lost most of its able bodied men and women to the slave trade, a situation which contributed significantly to the under development and backwardness of the three Northern Regions of Ghana

By coveting and diverting our blood relatives from the Diaspora to castles and Chiefs Palaces in the southern parts of the country, Northerners are being robbed and “short-changed” as long as the practice continues.

Your Excellency Mr. President, we have heard and seen the programme for Pana-Fest 2009 and strangely enough, the North is as usual not mentioned and is not included on the programme even though we protested against this practice on several occasions.

All the activities according to the programmes, are restricted only to the southern sector of the country which we feel the nation Ghana is not being fair to its Northern citizens.

On this Note your Excellency, Northerners are herby making our humble and earnest request to you that the North where almost all the slaves were taken from and where almost all the ancestors of the Diasporan Africans who trace their roots to Ghana hail from be made the centre and reference point for Pana-Fest and Emancipation day celebrations and not the castles as it has always been.

The castles and any other slave trade related areas situated any where in the Southern sector of the country were all places where the slaves were processed and prepared for shipment to the over-seas countries and not where they were captured. Such areas can only be side seeing places for the Diasporan Africans when they are in Ghana and not places where the celebrations and marking of Pana-Fest and Emancipation day events should centre around.

Our Diasporan relatives would like to see the only slave market in Ghana which is situated in Salaga in the Northern Region. That was the only place in Ghana where the captured slaves were marketed. It would be a very wonderful side-seeing and experience for them and they would love very much, also, to see the slave camp at Paga in the Upper East Region.

Talking about Emancipation, our Diasporan relatives would be very much excited and refreshed if the opportunity is given to them to converge at Sandema also in the Upper East Region to see and be told the full story about how the notorious slave raiders, Samori and Babatu were over powered, conquered and killed by the people of Sandema and where the Fiok Festival is being organized every year in commemoration of the event

Gowlu in the Upper West Region cannot be left out. They would love to see the slave defence wall the people of Gowlu built to protect themselves and through the holes of which they fought back at the slave raiders.

Your Excellency Mr. President there should be no doubt and argument as to why Pana-Fest and Emancipation day celebrations should not rather be the preserve of the Northern sector of the country.

The North is where the true and full story of the slave raid and trade can be seen and heard. The North is where the Africans in the Diaspora can truly be re-united with their true relatives.

In conclusion your Excellency, we are sincerely and passionately appealing to you to give attention to our cry and request and put up a defence for the North in this case.

We rest our case Sir.
The LORD be with you and give you the zeal and courage to grant our request.

Thank you, your Excellency.

Yours sincerely
………………………………….
JOSEPH AVILLAWINI
(CHAIRMAN - )

Tel: 0243061443

HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA
THE CASTLE
OSU-ACCRA

CC:
The Ambassador
Diasporan Relations Organization
C/o The Director
Du Bois Centre
Accra.

The Regional Minister
Upper East Region
The Executive Director
Ghana Tourist Board
Accra.

The Chairman
Council of State
Accra.

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