Services to Africa

Services to Africa include:

Roots African Heritage Tour of Senegal and Ghana

Roots African Heritage Tour of Senegal and Ghana

Far Borders Travel presents group tours to explore the African roots of African-Americans by visiting UNESCO World Heritage sites in Senegal and Ghana. These sites include some of the best-preserved slave forts or castles. In particular, we will visit Goree Island, by ferry, and its House of Slaves near Dakar, Senegal. A drumming and dancing presentation will be included. In Ghana, we will visit the Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle with their dungeons, slave cells, doors of no return, and fortifications. President Obama and his family visited the Cape Coast Castle in 2009 on his first trip to Africa as President and found it profoundly moving.

In addition, we will take time for a modern cultural experience in each country. In Dakar, we will take a city tour to include monuments, the Soumbedioune arts and crafts market, and a safari tour of Bandia Park Reserve and the Pink Lake. In Ghana, we will in undertake a city tour of Accra to include the W.E.B. DuBois Centre for Pan African Culture, and visit markets for shopping for crafts and the famous Kente cloth clothing. Remember Kunta Kente from Roots? Kente is a name with historic origins. While in the Cape Coast region we will go to a village for a very moving “naming ceremony” by village elders in which each participant will receive a unique name. The village will also put on a demonstration of drumming and dancing.

The price of this tour includes air fares from Dulles International Airport, transfers in Africa, hotels in Dakar, Accra, and the Cape Coast, breakfast and dinner at the hotels, internal ground transportation, ferries, admission to sites, tourist fees, and tips. Free time will be available to visit the modern cities of Dakar and Accra, shop, and enjoy cultural presentations. Prior to the trip, there will be a voluntary group visit to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, at no cost, to appreciate the context of the slave trade and its history.