The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mrs. Maame Efua Houadjeto, has called on Africans to reject xenophobia and all forms of division, saying the continent must live up to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of unity.
Speaking at the 2026 Emancipation Day commemoration ceremony held at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Mrs. Houadjeto said emancipation is “a continuing journey toward dignity, justice, identity and unity.”
“We cannot gather to honour those whose chains were broken centuries ago while allowing new chains of fear, violence and exclusion to bind us today,” she stated.
The event was attended by government officials, diplomats, traditional authorities and members of the African Diaspora. Dignitaries present included the Presidential Special Envoy on Reparations, Amb. Dr. Ekow Spio-Garbrah; Head of Mission for Diaspora African Forum, Amb. Erieka Bennett; Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Yussif Issaka Jajah; High Commissioner of Barbados to Ghana, H.E. Juliet Bab-Riley; Executive Director of Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Dr. Collins Rawlings Nunyonameh; and CEO of Ghana Tourism Development Company, Prof. Kobby Mensah.
As part of the commemoration, officials and guests laid wreaths at three historic sites in Accra to honour ancestors who contributed to Ghana’s freedom and Pan-African liberation. The delegation first visited the W.E.B. Du Bois Centre to lay a wreath in memory of the late Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. They then proceeded to the George Padmore Library to pay tribute to George Padmore, before concluding the ceremony at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park with a wreath-laying for Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
At the park, Mrs. Houadjeto reminded guests that Nkrumah believed “the destiny of Africa is inseparable from the destiny of all people of African descent.”
“Standing here today, we are reminded that Osagyefo’s dream was never confined to the borders of Ghana. He envisioned an Africa united by a common destiny, an Africa where no nation would regard another as foreign, and no African would ever be treated as a stranger on African soil,” she said.
Quoting Nkrumah, she added: “The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”
Mrs. Houadjeto said the Ghana Tourism Authority remains committed to preserving sites and stories that connect Africans everywhere to their shared heritage.
She cited flagship initiatives such as the Year of Return, Beyond the Return and the Black Star Experience as platforms extending “an open invitation to the global African family to reconnect, rediscover and reclaim their place in the African story.”
She made a special appeal to Africans on the continent, and particularly to “our beloved brothers and sisters in South Africa,” to reject xenophobia.
“The African who crosses a border in search of opportunity, refuge, education or a better future is not an outsider. He is our brother. She is our sister. They are our family,” she said.
The GTA CEO concluded by honouring both named and unnamed ancestors whose sacrifices secured freedom, and urged Ghanaians and Africans to build “an Africa united in purpose, prosperous through cooperation and bound together by mutual respect and shared humanity.”
“May today’s commemoration strengthen our resolve to protect our shared heritage, deepen the bonds between Africa and its Diaspora and inspire us to build the united Africa envisioned by our founding fathers. May God bless Ghana. May God bless Africa. And may the spirit of freedom forever unite us all,” she added.
