Extend PANAFEST celebrations to Axim — MP

Page 13, July 1, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah & Daniel Nkrumah

THE Member of Parliament for Evalue-Gwira, Mrs Catherine Afeku, has urged the National Planning Committee of PANAFEST to extend the celebrations to Axim.
The festival has traditionally been celebrated in Cape Coast and Elmina, but Mrs Afeku told the Daily Graphic that Axim had a unique cultural heritage that could not be ignored.
“The first Portuguese Castle was the Elmina Castle, which was built in 1482. Subsequently, the Fort Antonio was built in Axim in 1515 before the Cape Coast Castle was built in 1653,” she explained.
She said about 1,900 people walked through the gate of no return at Fort Antonio into the “other world” and stressed that the significance of those events placed Axim as an important setting in the country’s cultural and historical heritage.
“It will augur well if in celebrating PANAFEST, the trail is properly walked; from Elmina to Axim, then to Cape Coast and then Accra,” the MP suggested.
The MP extolled the tourism potential of Axim, describing the place as “serene with a plethora of beaches”.
She said that politically, the place also had some significance because Nkroful which was the birth place of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, was located in Axim.
Mrs Afeku added that Axim had the first West African bank, which was built by Paa Grant, founding president of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC). She added that Paa Grant also had a beautiful heritage home in Axim.
She said extending the festival to Axim would not only recognise the unique cultural and historical heritage of Axim, but also open up the place for investments and other development initiatives.
The MP stated that the Fort Antonio has been well kept and the local people are very much conscious and enthused about the prospects for tourism in the area.
This year’s PANAFEST celebration is expected to be formally opened with a grand durbar of chiefs to be held at Cape Coast on July 25.
Other programmes expected to be organised include a Pan-African conference to be held at Cape Coast from July 27 to 29.
There is also expected to be the re-enactment of the crossing of the River Pra in canoes by slave masters and captured persons with other scheduled visits to Anomabo Fort William, Atimpoku, Salaga Slave Market, the kente weaving capital at Bonwire and Ntonso.
A solemn night will also be held on the night of July 31 and that is expected to be followed by the high point of the celebration, a durbar of chiefs at Assin Manso on Emancipation Day on August 1.