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Weaver of Ashanti Traditional Cloth

Travel and Tour Itinerary

Day 1 - Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Depart New York JFK International Airport for Accra, Ghana, West Africa.

Day 2 - Thursday, March 2, 2006

On arrival in Ghana, you will be met and assisted through immigration and customs checkpoints by the ground agents of Africa First LLC, and then transferred in air-conditioned deluxe bus to Novotel (4 star) or La Palm Beach Hotel (5 star). There will be an orientation session on "The way of living of Ghanaians".

Day 3 - Friday, March 3, 2006

After breakfast, you will proceed on a full day city tour of Accra with lunch at some point.

Visit the National Museum, the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. The mortal remains of the first president of the country are buried at this site.

After his studies at the Lincoln University and the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, and later at the London School of Economics in England in the 1930s, the late Kwame Nkrumah’s political aspirations were sharpened by the socialist philosophies of Marx and Lenin, the African nationalist writings of Macus Garvey, the nonviolence persuasions of Mohandas Gandhi, W.E.B. Du Bois and George Padmore. He returned to Ghana (then Gold Coast) in 1947 to become Secretary General of the United Gold Coast Convention, a party calling for self-governance from British colonial domination. While J.B. Danquah, one of the co-founders of that party advocated for a gradual path to self-governance through negotiations with the existing elite, Kwame Nkrumah insisted on immediate independence through the will of the masses. Kwame Nkrumah broke away to form the Convention People’s Party and became the first Prime Minister of Ghana in 1951. He led Ghana to independence on March 6, 1957.

Return to your hotel for the rest of the day. B.L.

Day 4 - Saturday, March 4, 2006

A full day workshop on history and culture at the Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, University of Ghana, in Accra with lunch will commence from 8:00 am to 5:40 pm. Delegates from each of the continents of the world be present papers relevant to the objectives and themes of the workshop. There will be open discussions on history, ancient traditions and cultures - pre-colonial and post-colonial experiences, and the impact of slave trade on all the continents of the world. There will be live performance by Gospel Choirs from the United States and Africa, together with cultural drumming, singing and entertainment by the Abibigromma Drama Group from the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana. Return to Novotel or La Palm for dinner and overnight. B.D.

Day 5 - Sunday, March 5, 2006

After breakfast, you will be transferred to Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration, University of Ghana for the conclusion of the workshop on history and culture at the with lunch. The workshop will commence from 8:00 am to 5:40 pm. Return to your hotel for overnight. B.L.

Day 6 - Monday, March 6, 2006

After early morning breakfast, you will be transferred to the Independence Square to witness the 49^th Independence Day Celebration of Ghana.

You will then embark on a two-hour journey, after a light lunch, to the Central Region of Ghana to commence a 2-day memorable historical tour, which will unfold to you a history whose impact has been and is still felt beyond the shores of Ghana. Cape Coast, the administrative seat of this region, was the capital of Ghana under British colonial rule.

You will check in at Elmina Beach Resort for refreshment and then proceed to the Cape Coast Slave Castle for a guided study tour of the different parts of this gigantic ancient fort. The study tour will include a visit to the airless and lightless vaulted cellars into which as many as 1,000 slaves were packed during the one to two-month waiting period prior to shipment abroad. An underground passage leads from the cellars to the beach, where slave ships put in for the loading of their human cargo. The main courtyard contains three tombs. One contains the remains of a slave who succeeded in obtaining higher education overseas and returned to Ghana with numerous academic honors.

Originally christened by the Portuguese as Cabo Corso, it was at this Castle, now UNESCO World Heritage Monument, during the period of the opening of the celebrated African trade route to India in the fifteenth century, that the Portuguese, first established themselves on the Gold Coast and pursued commercial relations with the Fanti population. Possession of Cape Coast Castle was fought over by different European adventurers and traders, because of its strategic importance. The British were the last occupiers of this place, which served as the first capital of the former British Gold Coast colony.

The West African Historical Museum located in the Castle, has permanent collections of engravings, which represent Ghana’s coastal forts down through the centuries. Another exhibition retraces the history of the slave trade, and displays everyday objects and furniture used by the European traders along the coast. Other items of interest include swords, firearms, chests, cabinets and a number of objects such as chieftains’ stools, Fanti funeral drums and clay pipes made by natives during the same period.

Afterwards, you will witness a 90-minute drama on slavery to be performed by the Abibigromma Drama Group from the School of Performing Arts of the University of Ghana within the walls of the Slave Castle. Religious ceremonies will then begin with the Right Reverend Isaac Quansah of the Cape Coast Wesley Methodist Cathedral and a Reverend Minister from USA officiating at the Cathedral. Prayers will be said in memory of the victims of slavery, for spiritual healing and racial reconciliation. B.L.D.

Day 7 - Tuesday, March 7, 2006

After an early morning buffet breakfast, you will go on a guided study tour of Elmina Slave Castle (also UNESCO’s World Heritage Monument).

Transformed into a museum, Elmina Castle is one of the best preserved of all of the coastal fortifications constructed by the Europeans from the fifteen to the nineteenth century. It remains the irreplaceable sourvenir of the first Portuguese navigators, and the living embodiment of the period of trade and commercial exchange between Europe and Africa in the centuries that followed.

This Castle served not only as a warehouse for stocking the riches of West Africa prior to their exportation to Europe, but also as a prison, and holding pen for the human cargoes which awaited shipment to the plantations of the New world.

You will also tour Fort San Jago located just oppose the Elmina Castle on the other side of the narrow river that runs between the lagoons and ocean for a better view of Elmina and its surroundings.

From here, you will be transferred through the city of Cape Coast to Assin Manso, to discover a very important of part of the history of slavery completely missing from the books. This place was known to be one of the major slave markets closest to the Slave Castles on the coast. 

Participants will participate in an elaborate, educational, spiritual and cultural experience, including rituals for the veneration of the departed souls and for mental healing, purification and empowerment of participants.

On the outskirts of Assin Manso is the Slave River where the kidnapped and shackled Africans had the last opportunity to wash down after uncountable days of trekking by foot several hundreds of miles through thick forests and dusty savannah tracks and with little or no food on a North-South journey to the coast. Final inspection and categorization of stolen Africans were then made before they got to the final transit point in the infamous dungeons of the Castles and forts on the coast.  Those who were too weak to continue were murdered and buried on the banks of the river.  It is believed that the reddish color of this river is due to all the blood spilled into over several years of slave trade. In the Akan language, "donko" means slave and "nsuo" means water. Therefore Donko Nsuo literally means "Slave Water" hence the Slave River.  Though this tragic part of history was never documented, the legend has passed on through generations thus the local people have always called the stream Ndonko Nsuo.

With the spirit of Origins blowing through the spheres of every race, coupled with the celebration of Emancipation Day among African-Americans in the United States and in the Caribbean every August 1, it was deemed appropriate that the celebration be supported on the African continent.

Pan-Africanists and human right activists with the support of the Ghana Government solicited the return of the departed spirits of Africans in the Diaspora back home by a re-interrment of the remains of ex-slaved Africans, which had been exhumed from the foundation of the City Hall of New York during its re-construction.

On August 1, 1998, as part of the 1^st Annual Emancipation Day Celebration in Ghana, the remains of Brother Samuel Carson from New York and Crystal from Jamaica were exhumed, returned home and re-interred at a site at the Slave market in Assin Manso. Since then the graveside of the two African Heroes at the Slave River have been declared "hallowed ground" for African-Americans and generally people of the Diaspora.

Before this historic event in 1998, the exist doors of the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles were called Doors of No Return.  However, since August 1998, they have been renamed "Doors of Return". This is because the physical beings of Brothers Samuel Carson and Crystal which had left Africa through those doors and had returned symbolically to Africa on the 1998 Emancipation Day through those same doors.

An Spiritualist will perform rituals involving animal sacrifice, pouring of libation and offering prayers on the bank of the Slave River as well as at the graveside of the two heroes in memory of the those who lost their lives in the water and those who were carried into the unknown lands. Participants will have the opportunity to bath and cleanse themselves in the Slave River as a way to reconnecting to the spirits of the unknown and for forgiveness and healing. Return to Elmina Beach Resort for dinner and overnight. B.D.

Day 8 - Wednesday, March 8, 2006

After an early morning breakfast, you will embark on a four-hour journey to Kumasi, the golden capital of the legendary Ashanti Kingdom.  After check in at Royal Basin Resort or similar, proceed to Joefel Restaurant for lunch. You will embark on half-day city tour of Kumasi, which will take you to the site where the sword of Okomfo Anokye, famous fetish priest of Ashanti, was buried in the ground up to the hilt.

Okomfo Anokye invoked from the heavens the magnificent golden stool, which has been and still remains the spirit and soul – the very mainstay of the entire Ashanti nation - the most revered and powerful of the West African people. This golden stool is a tangible incarnation of history itself. The stool is so sacred that it is displayed to the public only during the coronation of a new Ashanti king. Not even the new king is allowed to sit on it. This venerable stool has its own special throne. The 1900 War between British and Ashantis, in which, the Ashantis were led into battle by Yaa Asantewaa, was provoked by Governor Frederick Mitchell Hodgson when he demanded this sacred stool to sit on.

You will proceed to the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum, the Military Museum and other places of interest.  You will return to the hotel for much need rest and relaxation. Dinner and overnight at the hotel. B.D.

Day 9 - Thursday, March 9, 2006

After an early morning breakfast, you will be transferred to the Center for Culture where you will be entertained to a 90-minute drama depicting conflict resolutions among the tribes. You have the privilege to meet and greet the King of Ashanti, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who will also be there to witness the event.

After lunch at Royal Restaurant or similar, proceed to the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for lectures and exhibition on rural and modern arts and crafts to be hosted by the College of Fine Art, the oldest in West Africa. There will be enough time for shopping. Overnight at your hotel in Kumasi. B.L.

Day 10 - Friday, March 10, 2006

After an early morning breakfast return to Accra. Check into your rooms for refreshment. The rest of the day on your own.

You will have opportunity to do your shopping and attend to personal matters like seeing your local tailors and hair-braiders in preparation for the great naming ceremony and farewell dinner along with all the pomp and pageantries tomorrow. There will be an optional visit to a spiritualist for cleansing and healing of variety of sicknesses. B.L

Day 11 - Saturday, March 11, 2006

Morning free for packing. There will evening fashion show, highlighting the best costumes created by first-class Ghanaian designers of international reputation. The best dressed male and female at this event will be awarded prizes. This event will be followed by a farewell dinner and naming ceremony, along with cultural entertainment. Late night transfer to airport with assistance for your departure.