Ashan­ti King Otum­fuo Os­ei Tu­tu II of Ghana vis­it­ed Fort George, St James, yes­ter­day, to com­mem­o­rate the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of Fort George and the in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions of Prince Kofi Nti of Ashan­ti, West Africa, in con­struct­ing the sig­nal sta­tion atop this ma­jes­tic fort.

The tour comes in con­junc­tion with Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions. His Majesty is the guest of ho­n­our.

Speak­ing at the event, Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell said, “Fort George is a time­less em­blem of our na­tion’s past and holds a spe­cial place in our hearts and minds, as it bears wit­ness to the in­ter­wo­ven threads of his­to­ry that have shaped the cul­tur­al ta­pes­try of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Orig­i­nal­ly built un­der British rule, the fort served as a strate­gic van­tage point to safe­guard our beloved is­lands from po­ten­tial threats and in­cur­sions, but it is the sig­nal sta­tion con­struct­ed by Prince Kofi Nti of Ashan­ti that adds a pro­found lay­er of sig­nif­i­cance to this icon­ic land­mark.”

The min­is­ter said as we delve in­to the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of Fort George, “we can al­so recog­nise the trans­for­ma­tive im­pact that this site has had on at­tract­ing vis­i­tors from near and far”. “Fort George stands as a tes­ta­ment to the glob­al con­nec­tions that have de­fined our his­to­ry and en­riched our cul­tur­al her­itage. Trav­ellers in search of au­then­tic cul­tur­al en­coun­ters find so­lace with­in the walls of Fort George as they learn about the as­ton­ish­ing tale of Prince Kofi Nti, a man whose jour­ney from West Africa to our shores left an in­deli­ble mark on our col­lec­tive iden­ti­ty. This ex­em­pli­fies the re­silience, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and in­ge­nu­ity that runs through the veins of our na­tion.”

Al­so in at­ten­dance were Min­is­ter of Plan­ning and De­vel­op­ment Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne, Min­is­ter of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon and High Com­mis­sion­er for Ghana to T&T Samuel Yaw Nsi­ah.

The Ashan­ti King, who spoke at the event, said, “With joy and emo­tion, I stand here as the oc­cu­pant of the Gold­en Stool, and I ac­knowl­edge that Kofi Nti is my son. He was tak­en to Britain, where the British thought they were go­ing to school him to come back and ed­u­cate peo­ple as if we didn’t know what we were do­ing, and that he need­ed to be schooled in Eng­lish be­cause our lan­guage was not ac­cept­able.

“They in­tend­ed to come back and Chris­tianise us, but due to tu­ber­cu­lo­sis, the two sons were tak­en away, one died, and the oth­er, Kofi Nti, was sent to Trinidad be­cause the weath­er was sim­i­lar to Ghana,” he said.

“This ed­i­fice that I see here, he came to de­sign and con­struct. So, when the British thought they were send­ing him away, I now stand here, ben­e­fit­ing from my broth­ers and sis­ters here in Trinidad through this ed­i­fice.”

He added, “So to me, it is glad­den­ing to be here, look­ing at this ed­i­fice and proud­ly say­ing that my son de­signed and built it.”

Ac­cord­ing to the king, “This goes to show the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Ghana and af­firms the re­silience of black peo­ple. We can­not and shall not be con­quered or sub­dued by any oth­er race but our­selves.

“We need to de­vel­op and ac­cept that civil­i­sa­tion start­ed in Africa, whether we like it or not.”

Fort George was built in 1804 by for­mer British gov­er­nor Brigadier-Gen­er­al Sir Thomas His­lop to pro­tect Port-of-Spain from any per­ceived mil­i­tary threats.

How­ev­er, the for­mi­da­ble struc­ture nev­er saw con­flict and the mil­i­tary even­tu­al­ly re­tired it in 1846.