The second edition of Black History Festival held in Columbus Ohio, USA brought together Ghanaian leaders who convinced Africans in the diaspora and Americans to consider Ghana as the ideal destination for investment and development.
The four-day event provided a special forum for participants to gather and celebrate the heritage, creativity, trade, leadership, and invention of Africa throughout American history.
Minister for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, reaffirmed that Africa wants to forge a new alliance with the US and other allies during his speech at the festival.
Mr. Nathaniel Addisi, popularly known as Bola Ray, CEO of EIB Network, said that up until recently, many media houses were not paying attention to the music and arts from Africa, but now many TV shows, etc. play Afrobeats on their programmes, indicating the dominance of Afrobeats in recent time.
The BHF Coordinator, Stephen Selasie Asuo, predicted that the festival’s platform would grow into a solid link that would bring people together to discuss business, trade, and cultural interaction between Africa and the United States.
On his part, Senior Advisor to the President, Yaw Osafo Maafo intimated that US and Africa relations have gone through major phases and there’s the need to bring on board the private sector.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade, Industry, and Tourism, Carlos Ahenkorah, mentioned that the leadership of Ghana is aware of the desire of many people in the diaspora to establish businesses in Ghana, but they are left in doubt about how to safeguard their investments.
Mr. Kwasi Awuah, the Head of Diaspora at the Office of the President, stated that in order to achieve a common goal while acknowledging the difficulties in planning such events, colleagues in Ghana and the diaspora must take advantage of the Black History Festival’s enormous potential.
Mr. Michael Vanderpuye, the CEO of M&C Group who was the sponsor of the programme urged other corporations to support initiatives like the Black History Festival to make more impact and build ties between Africa’s bilateral partners especially in USA.
He further stated that, the M&C decided to support the Black History Festival because it carries the spirit of globalisation of industries, cultural heritage and digital transformation, which according to him are the ideals needed for Africa to catch up with the rest of the trading blocks.
The event ended with an awards ceremony which deserving Africans were awarded for their role in economics, development, media, academia, amongst others.
