Accra, April 26, GNA - Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital City, at the Launch of this year's PANAFEST and Emancipation Day celebration invited Africans living in the Diaspora to visit Ghana frequently to keep the linkage.

He said: "We hope to inculcate in all African people the world over to resolve that every year, each African in the Diaspora will visit the Homeland, not just alone, but with an offspring or friend."

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said Ghana intended to use both PANAFEST and Emancipation Day to regenerate the Spirit of the Continent and the Homeland.

He said joint committees and sub-committees had been set up to facilitate the objective and urged Ghanaians to give this year's celebration the maximum support and assistance.

"PANAFEST and Emancipation Day as events have become international in character, serving as magnets to draw attention to Ghana as a base for pure African self rediscovery and spiritual awakening and indeed to promote the country as a preferred tourism destination" he said. This year, the seventh PANAFEST would be celebrated under the theme: "The re-emergence of African Civilization" and with a sub-theme: "Preserving and Uniting the African Family in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS."

Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey said PANAFEST had been a powerful vehicle to get people living in the Diaspora to come home, hence the decision to celebrate PANAFEST and Emancipation Day together this year.

Emancipation Day, he said, was to honour those who worked to overcome the challenges of the past and to secure the commitment of all Africans to true and full emancipation.

For this year's celebration of Emancipation Day under the theme: "Our Heritage, Our Strength" and a sub theme: "Honouring Our African Heroes" is expected to bring to the fore the role of people of African descent in the struggle for emancipation of the black man from the evils of the slave trade and slavery.