700 visitors miss PANAFEST due to travel problems

More than 700 Africans in the Diaspora determined to participate in this year's PANAFEST, could not do so due to traveling bottlenecks.

Most of them however cancelled their flights at the last minute because Ghana Airways could not allegedly fly them to Ghana on the scheduled days.

Mr. Halevi said many of them booked flights so they could arrive in Ghana to celebrate both the PANAFEST and Emancipation Day festivities. Most of them however, cancelled their flights when they realized that they had missed the programmes because Ghana Airways could not cope with the number of patrons.

The Executive Secretary of PANAFEST Foundation, Mr. Kohain Nathanya Halevi, disclosed this to Graphic after an Emancipation Day Durbar at Assin Manso on Tuesday.

He expressed concern however that there are about 3000 people in the country for the PANAFEST celebrations, which is an improvement over last year's.

So far, Mr. Halevi said seminars, concerts and all other programmes for the celebration have gone on successfully and attributed this to the good coordination between the PANAFEST Foundation and the National Emancipation Day Planning Committee.

However, he said out of 350 stands constructed for renting at the trade expo at Cape Coast, about 100 of then were not rented by anybody.

Earlier at the durbar, the Minister of tourism, Madam Hawa Yakubu, promised that the ministry would assist to solve all problems, which hinder the successful celebration of the festival.

She apologized on behalf of Africans in the Diaspora for letting slavery happen but urged them to join hands with those on the continent to move its development forward, adding that "globalisation would be meaningless if we as Africans cannot have a fair share of it."

A representative of Africans in the Diaspora, Dr Asser Hailiard said Africans are a large race and must come together to develop the continent adding there is hope for the future.

The Africans in the Diaspora visited the Ndonkoso, the Slave River at Assin Manso, where slaves from the northern part of the country were said to have had their last bath before journeying to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles.