a631: Cameroon Attaches Importance to "Slave Route" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

YAOUNDE, Feb 5 (Xinhua) -- The Cameroonian government attaches great
importance to the launching and organization of the touristic project of
"Slave Route", inspector of the Ministry of Tourism Mathilde Mbede said
Tuesday.
   The project, initiated by the Republic of Haiti and coordinated by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) , aims at
putting an end to the silence concerning slaving practices and making the
causes and consequences of slavery universally noticed, said Mbede.
   "It is not by and of hate. It is to promote inter-cultural dialogue,
pluralism, peace and human rights," she said.
   "'Slave Route' is considered as a project of tourism par excellence,
which results from the fact that the slave trading activities could be
traced by their routes, from the places where black people were caught for
deportation to their destination," said Mbede.
   The Cameroonian Ministry of Tourism envisions to attract tourists,
notably from the North America, to trace the transatlantic route of
"enforced journey of tear, blood and death" once employed by slave traders
from the 16th to 19th century, she added.