Re-activate the African Culture through concerted efforts at re-integration between Africans at home and in Diaspora. Build a yearly pilgrimage to the “Motherland” through high- standard festivals lasting about seven days in various participating African villages and towns.
Establish dedicated language/ history/ oracle schools to encourage the rediscovery of our lost past and adopt African languages for connecting Africans and Africans in Diaspora.
Establish a very versatile African Festivals, programmed between different villages/ towns in Seven days starting from Badagry to the hinterland of Yorubaland and finish off at the Slavery Memorial Park in Badagry.
Re-invent African Religions with modern interpretation.
Return African morals/ traditions into society.
Bring about this “African Pilgrimage” awareness amongst Africans in Diaspora through both grassroots and mainstream media abroad.
Twin African Towns/ Villages with similar in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba etc, where there are still strong African Influences.
Build new dedicated African villages, with modern amenities, amongst existing ones to cater for Diaspora Africans willing to spend more time in Africa to appreciate and learn their past history/ culture.
Promote Unity between Africans and Africans in Diaspora.
Introduce unrestricted Diaspora working/ living Visa for those willing or considering relocation to Africa.
Benefits:
Improved Local Infrastructure in participating Towns/ Villages
Employment generation through developed Tourism industries in participating Towns/ villages and surrounding areas
Resuscitation of dying religions, beliefs, traditions, arts, cultures etc.
Modernization of African Arts, Architecture and Cultures
Reveal hidden African history of a developed society with empires and functioning traditional government institutions and values
Encourage transatlantic trade between Africans and Africans in Diaspora
Re-unite broken families for those Diasporas willing to trace their ancestries to its’ roots
Increase in Foreign Direct Investment by re-settling Diasporas with Capital Investments
Increase in Technological transfer to Africa by Africans in Diaspora
Re-introduce African foods to Diaspora Africans thus creating a larger market for Africans to increase their earnings.
A more sensitive and people-friendly terms of trade between participating Nations
Memorial Park/ Structure contains:
“Buried Chambers” or exhibition spaces with limited lighting for graphic representation of past evil as visited upon slaves in ship’s hull during the transatlantic crossing
Exhibition spaces tell different stories from one space to another
Two big walls in the shape of a slave ship’s hull, one representing the past and the other, the future. Future wall is not affected by the past wall- a symbolic gesture of what the future of Africans should be.
Future wall is deliberately light, colorful, and transparent. It sees the past but also looks forward to the future
Past wall is heavy with names of descendants and victims of the trade in scripted on stone tablets built into the wall. Past Wall also tells the story of the slave trade with images sculpted onto it and names of participating slave ships from the Western World
Future Wall also tells a more positive story of Anti-slavery campaigners, both white and blacks joining forces to fight the evil of slave trade.
A baptism and prayer centre for converts to African religions.
Final Burial rights and procession for the ghost of those lost souls in the transatlantic passage.
