Ghana marked the 62nd anniversary of Dr W.E.B. DuBois’s death with calls for Pan-African unity and cultural self-determination amid global inequalities.
The ceremony took place at the W.E.B. DuBois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture in Accra under the theme “DuBois Lives On: The Journey Ahead.”
At the event, Mr. Yussif Issaka Jajah, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to DuBois’s Pan-African vision.
He noted that racial division was the twentieth century’s primary problem and continues to affect efforts towards fairness, justice and representation in the globalised world.
Mr. Jajah observed that Dr DuBois, the pioneering African-American sociologist, historian and civil rights activist, spent his final years in Ghana after being invited by President Kwame Nkrumah in the early 1960s.
“He remains a towering figure in Pan-African thought and Black intellectual history.”
Mr Jajah said that Du Bois equipped people of African descent with intellectual weapons against colonialism, racism and inequality.
“The resilience of Africa’s creative spirit, the vibrancy of our cultural heritage, and the richness of our shared history are our enduring hope,” he said.
“The road ahead may present challenges, but with unity of purpose, guided by the ideals Dr DuBois so tirelessly upheld, we shall honour his memory in the truest sense,” he added.
A wreath-laying ceremony followed, with diaspora representatives joining the deputy minister, who used the occasion to announce plans to advance Du Bois’s legacy through heritage tourism, cultural diplomacy and strengthened Africa-diaspora collaborations.
The Memorial Centre, which serves as his final resting place, houses Pan-African archives and documents Ghana’s contribution to the global Black liberation movement.
Also present were Dr David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning DuBois biographer; Nikole Hannah-Jones of The 1619 Project; and scholars Dr Jonathan Holloway, Dr Philip Luke Sinitiere, Dr Shawki Kojo Haffar and Japhet Aryiku of the Du Bois Museum Foundation.
Source: GNA
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