NAACP Announces Partnership to Commemorate 400 Years of African Diaspora

NAACP President Derrick Johnson and Ghana Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia

Source: The Skanner

The NAACP
Published: 31 March 2019

During the 50th NAACP Image Awards, the NAACP will announce its historic Jamestown to Jamestown event partnership, marking the 400th year enslaved Africans first touched the shores of what would become America.

An official event of Ghana’s ‘Year of Return,” Jamestown to Jamestown will allow for NAACP leadership, NAACP members and members of the African American community to honor both ancestors and the struggle for Black liberation in a groundbreaking trek from Jamestown, Virginia to Jamestown Ghana in August of this year.

“Jamestown to Jamestown represents one of the most powerful moments in the history of the Black Experience,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.

“We are now able to actualize the healing and collective unity so many generations have worked to achieve in ways which bring power to our communities in America, Africa and throughout our Diaspora.”

The Jamestown to Jamestown events kickoff August 18 in Washington, DC where participants will travel via bus to Jamestown, Virginia for a prayer vigil and candle lighting ceremony marking the African “Maafa,” a term describing the horrific suffering embedded in the past four centuries related to the enslavement process.

Participants will travel back to DC for a special gathering at the National Museum of African American History and Culture designed by Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, prior to departing to Ghana on a direct flight for 7 to 10 days of rich cultural, spiritual and cathartic experiences designed to connect our present to our African past in ways to empower and invigorate the continued struggle for full liberation and justice worldwide.

Some trip events include:

• Prayer Vigil at Jamestown, VA Settlement
• Direct Chartered Flight to Ghana from Washington, DC
• Ancestral Healing Ceremony at Jamestown, Accra
• 4 – 5 star Hotel Accommodation
• Business, Investment & Development Summit
• Black Tie Gala
• AfricanAncestry.com DNA Reveal Ceremony
• Cape Coast and Elmina Castle Visit
• Assin Manso Last Bath Slave River
• Akwasidae Festival @ Manhyia Palace in Kumasi