Accra, April 10, GNA - Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations on Tuesday toured the Diasporan African Forum premises at the Dubois Centre calling it a reference point for Africans in the Diaspora who want to return home.

The Diasporan African Forum is the first Diaporan Mission in Africa with the objective of encouraging Diasporan participation in the development of Africa.

The Forum supported by the African Union also believes that in order to move Africa forward, there was the need to encourage participation of all Africans who live, work or study outside the homeland.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey in a conversation with Dr Erieka Bennett, Head of Mission, said the establishment of the mission in Ghana gave the country another focal point, in positioning it as the gateway to Africa. He noted that there was very little interaction between Africans living in the homeland and those living in the Diaspora.

The Minister noted: "When our brothers and sisters from the Diaspora visit the country, there is too little interaction between us, they move from their hotels to the bus and back to the hotel." He said to encourage more interaction and better understanding of our kith and kin there would be more durbars held during the "Joseph Project Akwaaba Anyemi" programme in July and August.

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey expressed the hope that such interactions would get more Ghanaians involved in the Joseph Project and create better understand of people from the Diaspora.

Dr Bennett explained that the Mission, the first of its kind in Africa, was set up in Ghana because it was one of the most patronised Pan-African nations on the continent.

"Ghana is the first country in Africa to have a Ministry for Diasporan Relations," she pointed out commending the sector Minister for his immense contributions to the establishment of the Diasporan Mission in Ghana.

Dr Bennett said the Diasporan African Forum would open other missions in other African countries with Ghana as the headquarters and expressed the hope that the Forum would be an umbrella organization for all pan-African organizations worldwide.

The Mission has a wall named Sankofa where the names of African ancestors who were taken as slaves from Africa had been pasted. 10 April 07