One of the many things several countries especially those in Africa derive much income from is our numerous tourist sites. Countries like Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa etc. all make much foreign exchange from tourism.
Ghana abounds in tourist attractions capable of earning us a lot of money. The question is how are we utilizing these potentials?
This post is to bring tothe fore some of these tourist attractions in the Assin District of the Central Region and how we can make money from it as a people.
The Assin District has a great historical back ground as far as the slave trade in West Africa is concerned. Two great rivers lay claims to this. These are the Pra RIver in Assin Praso and the Ndonkonsu in Assin Manso.
Assin Manso was the place where the slaves being brought from the interior parts of the country such as Salaga, Gowllu among others sojourned. They had to walk over four (400) hundred miles bare footed through the Pra river in Assin Praso (which served as the crossing point between the forest zone and coastal zone) to Assin Manso where they are rested, bathed, sorted out and re-sold, then taken via the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles to waiting anchored ships ready for the Americas,Sautome, Jamaica and others. Not only that, it was place where the slaves were fed with different kinds of meals that would enable them put on enough body weight rendering them attractive for sale.
Some of the important landmarks are; the Slave River, locally called “Nnonkonsuo” where the slaves had their last Ghanaian bath. The“Okye” river was the river that served as the only source of drinking water for the people of Assin Manso and its environs. The others consist of a Garden of Commemoration which incorporates various monuments including the graves of two great slaves, Samuel Carson and MotherCrystal, whose skeletal remains were returned from the United States of America and Jamaica in 1998 for re-interment to Ghana signifying the return to the home land. There is a Prayer Hall located adjacent to the two graves with chapel-style benches, a grassy Meditation Lawn where the slave masters and traders use to worship.
The walls of the Ceremonial Lawn in the slave market are decorated with the portraits of some of the leading names in the struggle against slavery and its abolition and spearhead of Pan-Africanism. Notably, they include Marcus Garvey, George Ekem Ferguson, Frederick Douglas, L’Ouverture, Harreit Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Dr. Martin Luther King, and great Pan-Africanists like Dr. Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, William Edward Burg hard Du Bois, George Padmore.
There is a Memorial Wall of Return where Africans from the Diaspora can engrave their names, “Nnonkosie”, where those who died were buried, as well as the Caravan Route where thousands of the captives and slave merchants walked. Assin-Manso serves as a pilgrimage site for many Africans in the Diaspora in quest of their cultural homeland in Africa and one of the main venues for reverential events.
Some of the activities that one can undertake at Assin Manso include the ancestral walk whereby an opportunity is given to you to empathize with the slaves. One can also undertake a bath at the Nunkonsuo River where the slaves had their last Ghanaian bath. The path to the “River of Last Bath” is 200 metres away from the receptive center. It begins from an arched entrance, and goes along the edge of a forest grove in which a former slave cemetery was located.
The banks of the river are shaded by tall bambootrees. Rest benches are provided on the river bank for visitors to relax and reflect on the tribulations of the slave trade. Photography can be undertaken .Assin Manso can be visited throughout the year.
However, apart from the annual emancipation days celebrations which occurs on the 1st of August every year, the place stay dormant with absolutely no activity. This great tourism potential lie fallow when small other places in thecountry are cashing in on very small attractions they have. This is indeed a worrying development that has to be addressed.
One way to harness this great resource is to make the place more attractive. There are many artisans in Assin like the famous Kentey weavers of Assin Dompim, the wood carvers and several other artisans
who can be given spaces to make their crafts there so that visitors to that historical site can buy some souvenirs. This will increase sales for these artisans. Revenue from regular visitors can also help improve the lot of the people in this area as well.
The whole world over cultural collaborationsbetween communities of different countries has help improve knowledge between these communities and this can open up opportunities.
It is now left with the District Assembly andthe Traditional Authorities to map out a strategy so as to improve the marketing potential of this place.
The youth of Assin will be the ultimate winners if they are made stakeholders in this venture. There are other places in Assin that has equal potential like the two rivers that are as close as four meters but never merge nomatter how flooded they become. This i will talk about in my next post to reveal the tourism potential in the Assin district.
samuelmensah 