To weep or to dance, or both ... As we celebrate PANAFEST/Emancipation

Every year as PANAFEST/EMANCIPATION approaches, I am confronted with choices. What is my obligation as a writer: to remind my countrymen and other Africans of the pain of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade or, to help publicise the event and, like the thousands of Ghanaians who will respond to the publicity, journey to Elmina/Cape Coast, and allow myself to go with the flow?

This year, I will do both

So here we go. By way of programming, we have already had the re-enactment of the pain with Nii Yartey’s dance drama, MUSU, SAGA OF THE SLAVES at the National Theatre. That ended Day One which began earlier in the day with wreath-laying on the graves of three great Pan-Africanists. The drama rendition of the saga continues at Cape Coast with FORBIDDEN, a play by the National Dance Company. There will also be a Diaspora Workshop during which organisers are expected to repeat the call for visa on arrival for non-African tourists.

Two memorable nights follow, namely the REVERENTIAL NIGHT and the REDEMPTION NIGHT. Emancipation Day itself is on Tuesday, August 1 at Assin Manso. Of course, there will also be lots of fun, with musical concerts, dances, name them – as usual.

This year, as in all previous EMANCIPATION years, I reached for my copy of the influential book, ‘THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE: Landmarks, Legacies, Expectations’, edited by James Kwesi Anquandah; Assistant Editors: Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman & Michel R.Doortmont.

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