 CaribWorldNews, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Mar. 25, 2008: Caribbean American
musician, Academy-winning actor, goodwill ambassador and social activist, Harry
Belafonte, is set to join the UN`s top diplomat and members of the CARICOM
consul core of ambassadors, in remembering the victims of slavery and the
transatlantic slave trade today, CWN has learnt.
The 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. UN event will include statements by
Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey as well
as representatives of UN regional groups in Conference Room 1 at UN
Headquarters. Payne`s bill to establish a US Commission to coordinate
activities for the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave
Trade Act was recently signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Belafonte is set to key note the first annual worldwide commemoration of the
the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the
United States. Artistic renditions by drummers and dancers from Guinea, Mali
and Senegal, poetry from Liberia and a steel pan troupe from Antigua and Barbuda
are also set to add a festive touch to the remembrance ceremonies. The event
will be telecast live by UNTV and simultaneously webcast at www.un.org/webcast.
The event will kick off a weeklong celebration on the slave trade that will
include an exhibition titled, `The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo,`
which opens tomorrow at the UN; a panel discussion and UNESCO film titled `The
Slave Route: A Global Vision,` which is set to premiere in the Dag Hammarskjold
Library Auditorium Thursday and a student videoconference titled ‘Breaking the
Silence on the transatlantic slave trade,’ set for Friday in the Dag
Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at United Nations Headquarters. The discussion,
to be moderated by Eric Falt, director, Outreach Division, will include students
aboard the Freedom Schooner Amistad retracing the slave trade route; experts and
students in Canada, Cape Verde, Norway, Sierra Leone, St Lucia and the United
Kingdom.
CaribWorldNews.com
- Global Caribbean Daily Newswire
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