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Participants at a lecture on new ideas for engagement with the African diaspora, have called for the institution of a truth and reconciliation process to help settle and assuage the scourge of slavery and to hasten the integration of African -Americans and Afro- Caribbeans back to the African continent.

The event was organized by the Institute of International Affairs, Ghana (GhIIA.org) under the theme ‘New ideas for engagement and integration: Africa and its forced Diaspora’ at Mmofra Place headlined the eminent Professor Esi Sutherland-Addy, a noted academic and public servant as the keynote speaker. The event was moderated by Dr. Kwabena Opoku Agyemang of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon.

The event was highly patronized with an audience consisting members of the Institute, retired and serving diplomats, members of the diplomatic community and the African-American and Afro-Caribbean Community in Ghana.

Professor Sutherland-Addy in her presentation noted that though Ghana had done well to champion integration and the ‘return’ of the diaspora, more had to be done for Africa’s forced diaspora to come back to the country. Predicating her presentation on her personal experience, she noted that the draw of Ghana for African-Americans and Afro-Caribbean was strong in the pre-war and colonial era.

She noted that her father, Bill Sutherland, moved to the then Gold Coast with fellow African Americans like the Dr. Lee, as part of a desire to re-integrate and to promote Pan-Africanism, which led to being part of the effort in convincing Martin Luther King to attend Ghana’s independence celebrations.

She further indicated that, Ghana had done well with initiatives like PANAFEST and the YEAR of RETURN, but more had to be done to achieve a deeper level of engagement with the forced African Diaspora. In response to a question from Dr. Opoku-Agyemang, she agreed with the latter’s assertion concerning the weakness of the current educational syllabus in teaching Ghanaian students about slavery.

Professor Sutherland-Addy was gravely worried that if the battles on stories around the tragedy of slavery are not won, the narrative on slavery will be morphed into a warped recollection and will lead to a severance of ties with the Afro -American and Caribbean communities.