By Emmanuel Todd, GNA
Accra, Jan. 9, GNA – Traders at the Centre
for National Culture also known as the Art Centre Craft Market in Accra have
applauded the government for initiating the ‘Year of Return’.
Mr Kodjo Mensah, Manager of Mama Heritage
Shop at the Art Centre, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on
Thursday that patronage at the centre during the period was tremendous and had
a positive impact on their business and finances.
He said the return of fellow Africans
ignited dynamism in business activities at the centre; “the Returnees invaded
the centre all day round forcing traders to go beyond the normal closing time
of 17:00 hours. Even traders who traditionally closed at 17:00 hours had to
stay till 20:00 hours”.
Mr Mensah said very good sales were made and
that one customer could buy a number of art works, cloth and jewelry. “The
government should bring them back, because their coming served as a platform to
unite Ghana and America.
“We can learn a lot from them; if black
people can also look good like this then we here can also become like them”.
Madam Genevieve Klu, a sales person at the
shop, said the initiative by the government was a good one, which brought about
80 per cent boost to sales as compared to previous years.
She urged the government to make the Year of
Return an annual event, which should be observed by all governments.
“Very excellent, we have enjoyed it very
much, everybody in the craft market enjoyed; as you can see my shop is almost
empty, I must be frank with you the organisers have done well seriously,” Mr
Issaka Sulemana of Ila Sulaman Enterprise stated.
He said before the return, business at the
art market was dead with less patronage but the visitors over the period bought
a lot of beads, jewelries, leather works, and some brass works.
Ahmed Mohammed of Shop No 118 at the Centre
said business at the Centre had been revived and even though most of his
carvings were not bought because of their weight, the visitors patronised his
brass ornaments and sculpture.
The Year of Return was declared by the
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Washington Press Club, in
Washington D.C., on September 2018, to serve as a major landmark, spiritual and
birth-right journey inviting the African family from across the globe home, to
mark 400 years of the arrival in 1619 of the first 20 enslaved Africans in
Jamestown, Virginia.
The visit of about 200,000 African Diasporas
to the soils of their ancestors was a year-long initiative with intense
activities and participation within the Christmas festivities and the early
part of the New Year.
GNA
