Yokes and Chains walk in Ghana this year

Accra, June 27, GNA - Lifeline Expedition, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to educating Africans about the realities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, would organize a walk from Accra to Elmina in the Central Region during the Emancipation period this year.

The walk dubbed "Yoke and Chains" would have participants walking from Accra through Assin Manso to Elmina in chains to demonstrate what our ancestors went through in the slave trade era.

Ms Josmar Roman, leader of the group, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said Lifeline Expedition began as a reconciliation journey linking the European and African nations along the Greenwich Meridian.

She noted that walking in replica yokes and chains, as a symbolic sign of apology for the slave trade, would bring to light major reconciliation issues between Europe and Africa. She said the team, which started the project in 2000, was linking European and African nations along the Greenwich Meridian, noting that the 93Yokes and Chain Walk=94 had taken place in England, France, Spain and Portugal, USA, the Caribbean and would take place in Ghana this year.

Ms Roman said in 2005, the "Yokes and Chains" team visited the Caribbean Region, specifically entry points for the slave trade, namely Barbados (British), Cartagena Colombia (Spanish), Curacao (Dutch) and Martinique & Guadeloupe (French). She called on Ghanaians to be interested in issues about the slave trade and participate actively in the celebration of Emancipation.