English: If someone does not know, someone teaches.

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The event observed every 1 August, commemorates the historic abolition of Chattel Slavery in the British colonies on 1 August, 1834.

As the esteemed guest of honour, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II received a warm reception upon arrival at the Port of Spain, the capital town of Trinidad and Tobago.

Below are some pictures from the event:

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According to him, racism falls within the category of crimes against humanity, which are characterized as actions that degrade or humiliate people.

Speaking at the Emancipation Day celebration in Trinidad and Tobago on August 1, 2023, His Majesty urged world leaders to address racial abuse and the injustice that goes along with it in various regions of the world against the Black race.

He affirms that active racial abuse betrays the emancipation of African slaves in 1834 based on the Emancipation Act passed by the British Government which set a pace for other European countries and the United States to follow suit.

The King referenced some Blacks who have suffered racial abuses in Europe and America including George Floyd.

“What’s emancipation when the descendants of the emancipated slaves still cannot walk the streets of the greatest nations on earth free from fear for their lives? What’s emancipation for George Floyd, Steve Lawrence, and the endless line of our descendants who have fallen to the feet of racial bigotry across Europe and the United States? And what’s emancipation when even our sportsmen cannot perform without confronting the taunts and hates of mobs because of who they are?”

Proffering some antidotes to racism, he called on world leaders to renew proclamations against the Act by making it a crime against humanity.

“I believe therefore that after 180 years of the Emancipation Act, it is time for a universal effort to give meaning to emancipation and then invite our leaders to pursue the proclamation of a new universal declaration which will have among its elements the innovation of racial discrimination as a crime to humanity.”

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He is the guest of honour for the Emancipation Day celebrations in that country.

Emancipation Day is observed in many former European colonies in the Caribbean and areas of the United States on various dates to commemorate the emancipation of slaves of African descent.

Following the abolition of slavery in 1834, the African Diaspora established themselves and their cultures, leaving a unique mark on the tapestry of the history of Trinidad and Tobago.

On August 1, 1985, Trinidad and Tobago became the first independent country to declare a national holiday to commemorate the abolition of slavery.

The King left Kumasi on a direct flight and arrived at the Piarco International Airport in the capital Port of Spain where he was welcomed by the Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Dr. Amery Browne; the Minister of Trade and Industry, Paula Gopee-Scoon; the Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, Randall Mitchell, and the Minister of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds.

Earlier on Saturday, an advance delegation traveling with the King including chiefs, courtiers, and administrative staff departed from Kumasi, also on a direct flight.

A guard of honour was mounted by the Quarter Guard at the Piarco International Airport to welcome him.

Activities
Among other activities, the Asantehene will pay courtesy calls on the President, and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, attend a Trade and Investment Symposium to bolster trade and investment between Africa and the Caribbean, and speak at the Asantehene Distinguished Lecture at the University of the West Indies and University of Trinidad and Tobago, and also meet the Ashanti Diaspora.

Relations

Asante, Trinidad, and Tobago ties date back to 1881 with the arrival of Prince Kofi Nti, son of Asantehene Kofi Karikari, in the Caribbean nation.

In 1883, Prince Kofi Nti designed a Signal Station which was built at Fort St. George, Port of Spain.

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Taking care, archaeologist Christopher DeCorse spreads the rare artefacts out on a makeshift table next to the dig site.

A gunflint (used in old-fashioned guns), tobacco pipes, broken pottery, and the jawbone of a goat are carefully laid out. These discarded fragments, unearthed from centuries of compacted soil, offer clues to a lost past.

“Any archaeologist who says they are not excited when they find something are not being entirely truthful,” the professor from Syracuse University in the US says with a broad smile.

These remnants point to the existence of “the first English outpost established anywhere in Africa”, he argues.

The archaeologist is standing in the ruins of Fort Amsterdam, speaking above the wind and roar of the Atlantic Ocean waves hitting Ghana’s coastline.

Inside that fort are what are thought to be the remains of an older fort – Kormantine – long-lost under the earth, which the professor’s team are gradually excavating with brisk activity.

They are methodically combing through distinct layers of soil and stones with soft-bristle brushes and trowels. The disturbed soil removed from the trenches is carefully sieved.

A canopy protects the team and the site from the weather and despite the intense sun and the occasional shower, the archaeologists’ work continues.

Ancient maps had referred to a Fort Kormantine in that area, for example the name of the nearby town, Kormantse, is clearly related. In addition, another version of the name, Coromantee, was given to some of the enslaved people in the Caribbean thought to have been transported from this place and later known for slave rebellions.

But where exactly the fort was located remained a matter of speculation, which may have now been brought to an end.

Dating back to the 17th Century, Fort Kormantine sat on the Atlantic coast just at the time when Europeans started shifting their interest from the trade in gold to the trade in humans.

It was a pivotal moment in the history of their involvement in Africa that would have a profound effect on the continent.

The discovery by the team of archaeologists may shed some light on the lives of those early traders and what they were doing, as well as those who were sold and the impact on the community around them.

Ghana’s coastal fishing towns, known for their colourful boats and the melodies sung by the fishermen, remain scarred by a past of European exploitation and human cruelty.

The slave forts dotted along what was called the Gold Coast are a looming reminder of that past.

Hundreds of thousands passed through them before being transported in horrific conditions across the sea.

Fort Kormantine – built by the English in 1631 – was one of the earliest places where that journey started.

It began life as a trading post for gold and other items like ivory.

The slave trade only began from there in 1663 when King Charles II granted a charter to the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa (later the Royal African Company). He gave it monopoly rights over the trade in human beings.

It was only in English hands for another two years before the Dutch seized it but Fort Kormantine played a key role in the initial stages of the slave trade.

It served as a warehouse for the goods that were used to buy slaves. It was also a brief holding point for those who had been kidnapped in different parts of West Africa before being shipped to the Caribbean to work in plantations to develop the sugar economy.

“We don’t have that many details on exactly what these early outposts of the slave trade looked like, which is one of the things that make uncovering the foundations of Fort Kormantine interesting,” Prof DeCorse says.

After capturing the fort, the Dutch built Fort Amsterdam on the same site, which is why its exact location could not be pinpointed, especially after it became a United Nations-recognised World Heritage Site, making excavation difficult.

But initial digs in 2019 in and near Fort Amsterdam, which turned up some early 17th Century artefacts, suggested where it might be.

Archaeologists returned earlier this year and began further searches.

At first there was some disappointment as they started by finding a lot of plastic items that must have been dropped more recently. But then Nigerian graduate student Omokolade Omigbule uncovered a stone that Prof DeCorse identified as part of a bigger structure.

“It was mind-blowing, seeing first-hand the remnants, the footprints of an actual building subsumed under a new fort,” says the student from the University of Virginia.

“Seeing the imprints of these external forces in Africa first-hand and being a part of such a dig takes me back a few hundred years, it feels like I was there.”

As the excavations continued, they uncovered a six-metre-long (20ft) wall, a door post, foundations and a drainage system made of red brick.

All these indicate an English presence pre-dating the Dutch fort.

Returning to the display of artefacts in neatly labelled zip-lock bags, Prof DeCorse points out the rusty gunflint, which he says was in use in England in the early 17th Century.

The pipes with their small bowls where the tobacco was placed “is also very distinctive of the time that we are talking about here”, the professor says, adding that over time the bowls got larger as tobacco became cheaper and more readily available.

Pre-empting the question about why the jawbone of a goat is important, Prof DeCorse suggest that it is proof of how the English occupants may have domesticated local animals as an alternative source of protein despite being on a coastline where there were fish in abundance.

Archaeology is painstaking work. Each fragment of the past it throws up needs to be interrogated and interpreted.

But in some ways, the hard work has only just begun. Archaeologists will spend the next three years trying to unravel the gamut of Fort Kormantine – its architecture, look and feel – which should in turn reveal its true significance.

Source: BBC

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English: If a naked man promises you a cloth, listen to his name.

The post Monday Proverb by GAJ first appeared on Gajreport.

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English: If a bird does not fly, it goes to bed.

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Victor Hugo Sosa, mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, a town of Indigenous Chontal people in the Tehuantepec isthmus of Mexico, took as his betrothed a reptile named Alicia Adriana, re-enacting an ancestral ritual.

The reptile is a caiman, an alligator-like marsh dweller endemic to Mexico and Central America. Sosa swore to be true to what local lore calls “the princess girl.”

Tradition has it that frictions were overcome when a Chontal king, embodied these days by the mayor, wedded a princess girl of the Huave Indigenous group, represented by the female alligator.
The Huave live along coastal Oaxaca state, not far from this inland town.

The wedding allows the sides to “link with what is the emblem of Mother Earth, asking the all-powerful for rain, the germination of the seed, all those things that are peace and harmony for the Chontal man,” explains Jaime Zarate, chronicler of San Pedro Huamelula.

Before the wedding ceremony, the reptile is taken house to house so that inhabitants can take her in their arms and dance. The alligator wears a green skirt, a colorful hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins.

The creature’s snout is bound shut to avoid any pre-marital mishaps. Later, she is put in a white bride’s costume and taken to town hall for the blessed event.

As part of the ritual, Joel Vasquez, a local fisherman, tosses his net and intones the town’s hopes that the marriage may bring “good fishing, so that there is prosperity, equilibrium and ways to live in peace.” After the wedding, the mayor dances with his bride to the sounds of traditional music.

“We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content,” Sosa told AFP. As the dance winds down, the king plants a kiss on the snout of the “princess girl.”

“I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important. You can’t have a marriage without love… I yield to marriage with the princess girl,” Sosa said during the ritual.

Marriage between a man and a female caiman has happened here for 230 years to commemorate the day when two Indigenous groups came to peace with a marriage.

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The “Forward Together” themed event is the most prominent display of authentic Ghanaian culture in the Midwest.

Various attractions and activities will be available, such as Ghanaian food vendors where guests can taste authentic Ghanaian dishes. Many vendors will also sell shea butter, African clothing, art, and jewelry from Ghana.

There is no shortage of cultural displays as the Chiefs and Queen Mothers of the various tribes will participate in the parade of chiefs and tribal cultural performances.

Live music will be provided around the clock featuring world-traveled musicians that will delight patrons.

The youth will be delighted by the abundance of activities at the Youth Village tents, which include dancing competitions, Ghana trivia, face painting, a bouncy house, and much more!

A $20 gate donation will allow patrons unrestricted access to the all-day festival.

Traditionally, the anticipated event is held on the last Saturday of July. This year, GNC’s new administration will provide a platform to spotlight the youth at the festival to attract and encourage younger crowds to attend and celebrate their culture.

For the first time in 35 years, the council facilitated auditions for artist talent to perform for one of Ghana’s most prominent stars who will perform at the festival.

The three best African artists were chosen to perform. A popular young barber and entrepreneur will provide free haircuts to patriots throughout the day. Another highlight will be Greetings from Abroad, a top-rated African company that allows patrons abroad to send greetings to their family members in Ghana.

Chicago’s Ghanaian Converse designer Eddie Oppong will design Ghanafest T-shirts for purchase, while Yajim Amadu, who won a full-time scholarship to IIT, will display his award-winning sculptures.

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.vipsocio.com/event/ghanafestchicago.

In celebration of the festival, soccer fans and enthusiasts will enjoy GhanaFest official soccer matches. Ghana will play to keep their titles as the African 2022 champions in Chicagoland. Semi-Finals will be held July 22, while the finals will be held July 30th at Wilson and Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 604640. The game will be open for the public to attend.

Ghana National Council (GNC) is a community of Ghanaians that began meeting in the 1960s as the Ghana Student’s Union; to create a home base for themselves and others that migrated from Ghana to Chicago.

The council was formed to assist fellow Ghanaians and Africans with resources in citizenship, employment, housing, education, health, and fellowship.

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Many traveled from various areas in Ghana and beyond to participate in the festival, which will be climaxed with a durbar on Saturday, July 8, 2023.

A delegation from Aneho in Togo believed to have roots in Elmina was also present for the festival.

Rites were performed at the banks of the Benya lagoon to traditionally lift the ban on fishing in the lagoon.

The lifting of the ban will allow for fishing in the Benya Lagoon.

There was a display by mostly women groups on canoes with the traditional colorful Tekua, a traditional head style on the lagoon, and a regatta that added excitement to the occasion.

The annual Bakatue is the festival of the people of Elmina and would be climaxed on Saturday.

The theme for the festival this year is, “Eat what we grow and grow what we eat”,

The rites

A net is cast three times by traditional priests after traditional rituals to signify the lifting of the ban after which the fish caught is presented to the Omahen, Nana Kodwo Conduah VI.

There was enough fish caught which was presented to a visibly elated Nana Kodwo Condua VI which signified a bumper fishing season.

Meaning

Bakatue, which in Fante, translated to English means “the opening of the lagoon.”

The history

According to history, the founder of Amankwakrom, which became the Edina State, Kwa Amankwa, migrated from the Savana-based Walata Empire and settled at Techiman for some time before moving to Eguafo near Elmina.

In search of drinking water, he discovered a small stream and exclaimed “Be-enya” which means “I have found or got it”.

He erected a hut near the lagoon.

History indicates that after finding the lagoon Kwa Amankwa bowed and worshipped solemnly, the god of the Benya Lagoon self-manifested and was with him for eight days, after which a covenant was concluded between him and the deity.

The festival date is said to be the celebration of that meeting as agreed by Amankwa and Nana Benya, the deity.

Some activities mapped out for this year’s celebration include the ‘All colors carnival’ and a state dance.

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