�Help Upgrade The Salaga Slave Market�

Mr Mohammed Aminu Lukumanu, District Chief Executive of East Gonja, has appealed to benevolent organizations to support the District and the Ghana Tourist Board to upgrade the Salaga Slave Market site to attract more tourists. He said there was the need to preserve and transfer all knowledge on the history of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade to generations yet unborn; saying this could only be done if the Slave market at Salaga was upgraded. Mr Lukumanu made the appeal when some students toured the Salaga slave heritage site to mark the International Day of Remembrance of the victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Salaga, in the Northern region. The event was organized by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) with support from the Ghana Museums and Monument Board, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Ghana Education Service. Sixty (60) students from selected Senior High Schools in the region participated in an exciting educative tour on slavery in West Africa, Haiti and the Caribbean. Mr Lukumanu, who educated the students on the Salaga Slave Market, said from the 18th to the 19th century, Salaga became the biggest Slave market where humans were exchanged for cowries or by barter. He said presently, remnants of the activities, which took place, still remained there, and they include slave wells that were used to wash slaves and spruce them up for a good price, and also a huge cemetery where slaves were buried. He stated that the Ghana Museums and Monument Board (GMMB) was making all efforts to use the site as a Museum. Dr Zagba Narh Oyortey, Executive Director of GMMB said, �The GMMB is keen to develop a museum in Salaga and it is in discussions with several local stakeholders.� Mrs Cynthia Prah, National Information Officer of the United Nations Information Centre said there was the need to use the platform to instill in the youth a sense to abhor prejudice and racism in the country.