By Yunus S Saliu
The Minister of Tourism and Culture has tasked National Centre for Arts and Culture, without delay, to remove all unwanted layers on the wall of Fort Bullen in Barra to retains its originality.
Minister NK Bah gave this order on Monday at the inspection of the Fort one of the cardinal places in his itinerary to visit on its ongoing facilities tourism tour which kicked-up, Monday, 3rd February 2020.
Minister Bah on tour fulfilling one of his mandates as Tourism and Culture Minister is currently accompanied on tour by the Permanent and Deputy Permanent Secretaries of MoTC, Director Generals of institutions under his purview – Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard), Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute (GTHI), National Centre for Arts and Culture, Tourism Security Unit, Chairmen Board of Directors of GTHI, GTBoard, officials from the three institutions and members of the Press.
Minister Bah dilated on the importance of the Fort which was built as anti-slavery as he emphasized that “NCAC should hire expert to remove the layers from the wall.”
He went forward to advise that they should look support particularly from the American embassy to bring international experts to do it.
Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of National Centre of Arts and Culture gave a brief historical background of the Fort. He said it is one of the UNESCO Heritage Sites in The Gambia.
Among it is significant, he said it was the only Fort along the West African Coast which was specifically constructed in 1830 to control illegal shipping of slave and as well to stop slave trade.
In the past the Fort, according to him, suffered a setback which affected the building “but we worked with the British Embassy to upgrade the site to the present stage,” Hassoum disclosed.
He however noted that his centre is now working with Barra community to enable them to use venue/host of the annual Barra Colonial Heritage Festival.
DG Hassoum however explained that the facility was tampered with which has made it to lose part of its originality “now the instruction from the Minister is that we should engage technicians to remove the cement layer so the Fort can regain its originality.”
