Harlem Tourism Board at 2025 Oneness Festival in Ghana by William A. Rogers, President Harlem Tourism Board

Categories: Black History & Culture,

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The Harlem Tourism Board is a co-sponsor of the annual Cultural Oneness Festival in Northern Ghana. One of the sub-themes of the 2025 Cultural Oneness Festival was The United States of Africa. There is a growing movement in Africa to unite the continent as one. This is not a new concept, but it has always been discouraged by the colonizers.
Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana talked about uniting Africa and the diaspora, a Pan-African philosophy he studied under W.E.B. Du Bois while living in Harlem
Many young African heads of state are taking a stand together in the spirit of the Pan-African philosophy uniting the country by doing away with the years of division caused by European and American influence.
The African diaspora will have to play a major role in the unification of Africa and that discussion was another part of the talks between Africans who were born in America and Africans during the 10 day festival. The Cultural Oneness Festival is held in Northern Ghana.
The African culture in the North has maintained many of the traditional African ways of living and thinking. This was a wonderful opportunity for Africans born in America to talk with youth, Kings from Kanya and Zambia. Educators and business owners during the festival.
The annual festival is not for everyone. It is truly a cultural tourism, business development and educational journey into a part of Ghana that many from the diaspora have not seen or experienced.
Ghana has something for everyone, and Accra the capital of Ghana is very exciting. The North is a little different. I would say that a large percentage of Africans living in Accra have never been to Northern Ghana.
In my opinion when the Northern warriors ran the colonizers out, many of the investments then and now did not focus on Northern Ghana development. The annual festival has brought attention to Northern Ghana. I have been given the honor of becoming a chief of a village in Northern Ghana.
One of my responsibilities will be to provide a link between Harlem and Northern Ghana. Talks are underway to develop a partnership and educational exchange initiative between the City College of New York and the University of Development Studies in Northern Ghana. Several African American businesses have started conversations about partnership business initiatives in Northern Ghana.
There are plans underway to have discussions focused on business opportunities, cultural tourism options and educational initiatives in Northern Ghana during the 2026 Cultural Tourism Summitt on August 13th during the 52nd annual HARLEM WEEK celebration.