The Year of Return is about 2019 PANAFEST/ Emancipation Day which will mark 400 years of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the history of the black man.
It is basically to encourage our brothers and sisters of the African family to return to Ghana and for that matter Africa to invest and help develop their roots.
Underscored by the United States Congress’ recently passed Act, H.R. 1242 – 400 Years of African-American Experience, the Year of Return, Ghana 2019 is the only centrally organized public-private partnership with an African nation commemorating the quatercentenary of the arrival of Africans in the United States.
The Office of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana leads the steering committee, which is coordinated by The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the Auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in collaboration with the PANAFEST Foundation, Cultural Heritage African Tours, and The Adinkra Group. Given Ghana’s longstanding reciprocal relationship with African-Americans and the African diaspora under the banner of Pan- Africanism dating back to Ghana’s Independence, this partnership is both highly appropriate and inspiring.
The “Year of Return, Ghana 2019” is a major landmark marketing campaign targeting the African – American and Diaspora Market to mark 400 years of the Slave Trade.
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture is leading the project in collaboration with the Office of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, the Panafest Foundation and the Adinkra Group of USA.
The project is also aimed at making Ghana the focus of activities to commemorate the landing of the first enslaved Africans in the English colonies in North America and also to offer huge opportunity to entrench Ghana’s leadership.