5,000 People Expected At Panafest

More than 5,000 people from all over the world are expected to participate in this year's Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (Panafest 2003).

About 1,000 participants, mainly from the United States, United Kingdom, the Caribbean and other parts of Africa have already registered with the Panafest Foundation and have also confirmed their participation.

The Executive Secretary of the Foundation, Kohain Halevi Rabbi, who announced this at a press briefing at Cape Coast said preparations are far advanced for the celebration of the sixth edition of the festival, scheduled for Monday July 23 to Tuesday August 5.

The theme for the celebration is, "uniting the African family dialogue on African tradition and culture in the 21st century globalisation." Kohain Rabbi said the major events of the festival would include the conference of African traditional rulers (chiefs) to discuss the traditional African system and its role in the new democratic dispensation.

Other issues include, the "Akwaaba" festival where participants would travel on a boat from Anomabu to Elmina to be given a traditional welcome and an African reparation day where the various reparation groups would have a common platform to seek reparation for Africa.

He said another feature that would be of interest will be the parading of twins from all over the continent and a carnival of masquerades, during which the local people would be expected to display their African wears. Kohain Rabbi observed that with each celebration, Panafest, which has become a household name both locally and internationally, gains strength and momentum and appealed to Ghanaians to fully participate in the festival to make it a success story.