Ambassador of Ghana to Qatar H E Dr. Emmanuel Enos has highlighted Africa’s rich cultural offerings and urged visitors from Qatar to visit the continent.

Delivering a keynote speech recently at the American University Forum titled, “Our African Heritage: Seeking Solutions for Africa, From Africa,” the envoy said Africa needs to be visited to be understood.

“Africa has a unique culture including a full range of inherited traditions, values, norms, mores, culture, monuments or heritage sites and objects,” he said.

“Africa is sometimes described as a poverty-stricken continent with corrupt governments, dangerous and violent, in dire need of aid to develop infrastructure, and politically and economically unstable. Without a doubt, in reality, these are, to a large extent, myths and misconceptions. Africa is not a one-stop place, but a continent of 54 countries with abundant rich heritage and resources.”

The Ambassador reiterated that according to Unesco’s June 2020 assessment, Africa is home to 145 heritage sites and a rich tradition of arts and crafts, including sculptures, paintings, and pottery, which continues to attract visitors.

“The richness of the African culture is identified in our music, art, religion or beliefs, languages, dressing, traditions, stories, and our attitudes towards other groups of people. In sum, it is the embodiment of how we live.”

In recent years, many African countries have developed mechanisms to generate sustainable income by boosting local production, improving tourism, and easing diaspora remittance processes.

“Many African countries are now devising various strategies to harness the resources of their diaspora in the form of remittances, investment, tourism drive, and skills transfer. Also, some African countries, including my own country- Ghana, have declared zero tolerance for western development aid. Hence, they have embraced prudent economic management policies, bold industrialisation programmes, sustainable educational policies (free education in the case of Ghana), and technological drives to transform their economies,” he said.

In 2019, Ghana hosted the ‘Year of Return’ to mark 400 years of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Virginia. According to Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, about 1.1 million people arrived in Ghana in 2019, compared to 956,372 in 2018.