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Last week, NAACP president Derrick Johnson traveled to Ghana to meet with vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in support of the upcoming ‘Year of Return Ghana 2019’ project, a year-long journey to celebrate the reconnecting of Africans throughout the Diaspora to their African heritage.
In addition to meeting with officials and leaders, president Johnson also met with officials from the Ministries of Tourism, Tourism Authority and the Diaspora Affairs Office to discuss ways to reconnect greater numbers of African Americans to their roots in Ghana.
“Next year symbolizes a moment in time where people of African descent, regardless of where they exist within our diaspora can reconnect and map out a future which establishes Africa and her descendants in their rightful place on the world stage,” said NAACP president Johnson.
The yearlong event will commemorate the 400th year of the first arrival of enslaved Africans in Port Comfort/Hampton, Virginia. Launched in August 2018, by Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, ‘Year of Return Ghana 2019’will feature a number of activities, including a “Bra Fie Concert” to be hosted by Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley; a Back to Africa Festival to celebrate Black History Month, and a Homecoming and Investment Summit.
Most importantly, this event hopes to promote business, spiritual and cultural reconnection between the African Diaspora and the Motherland, which many considered damaged beyond repair due to the Maafa –a Kiswahili term denoting great disaster or horrific occurrence and used to describe the Atlantic Slave Trade, where millions of Africans were enslaved and transported across the ocean or died during the horrific Middle Passage.
