Birmingham Festival's Royal Link With Africa
Annual event to have a regal flavour this year
Written by Poppy Brady
25/06/2015 03:45 PM
FLYING THE FLAG: REGAL: Prince Ebrahim (centre) at the Birmingham launch with Chester Morrison and poet Ita Gooden
BIRMINGHAM'S FOURTH annual Caribbean festival will have a royal flavour this year as the landmark even has had the backing of West African-based Prince
One of Africa’s foremost investors, the prince has just had a whistle-stop tour of Britain’s second city where he also finalised plans with Birmingham International Airport for direct flights to the Gambia with Africaada Airways.
As the chairman of Royal Africa Holdings, Prince Ebrahim’s proposals will bring a much-needed jobs boost, while also opening up West Africa to the people of Birmingham as a potential new holiday destination.
Direct flights from Birmingham would operate three times a week with Gambia as the central hub connecting Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Speaking at the launch of the three-day Africaada Caribbean festival, which will be held between July 30 - August 1, the prince said the Gambia was planning to almost double the size of its tourism industry by 2017. He said a dozen new hotels had been built in the past 18 months to provide the bases for package holidays to West Africa.
He told The Voice: “I think Birmingham has more cultural commonalities with the Gambia than places like Spain or Greece. For a start, we speak the same English language and we have one of the lowest crime rates in Africa – in fact our crime rate is lower than the UK’s.”
The prince, whose dynasty dates back to Africa’s Kaabu and Mali Empire, was welcomed on his second visit to Birmingham by the city’s new Lord Mayor Councillor Ray Hassall. He first came in 2009 to promote his Invest in Gambia initiatives.
Prince Ebrahim told the launch that he was extremely proud to be forging links with the city because of its strong culture. He said the forthcoming festival would be an excellent platform to display that culture, while also expanding potential trade links between Africa, the Caribbean and the UK.
Culture
“A society that has no culture has no lifeblood,” he said. “It gives the next generation the chance to learn about each other’s cultures which then can be a bed rock for peace and co-existence. An educated society is a tolerant society.”
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/articl...al-link-Africa
Africaada Airways | Pride of ECOWAS