It's been an unusually hectic week keeping abreast of a multitude of highly stimulating historical, cultural and social events pertaining to the 6th International African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference 2010.

It was a long time ago that the significance of the word DIASPORA was embedded into my consciousness, before I entered high school, particularly as it pertained to persons of African descent. And the work this week of the Bermuda African Heritage Trail Foundation (ADHT) and the impact of what it is undertaking both nationally and internationally resonated so profoundly.

The Foundation itself, set up two years ago, went through a big transition during the conference with its number one motivator, Premier Dr. Ewart Brown fully turning over the reins as chairman to Dame Jennifer Smith; and strategies she and her Board of Directors worked out to take ADHT to a higher and broader level were gives enthusiastic endorsement by delegates visiting from the US, Africa, UNESCO, the Caribbean and Canada.

The Foundation has mandated that every five years the Conference is to return to Bermuda its home base. Nova Scotia was the successful bidder for next year's conference. It won out over Barbados, Toronto and South Africa.

The Foundation's mission, outlined by its executive director Michelle Burrows, is for the ADHT to identify places and phenomena relevant to the global presence and influences of people and culture of African descent, and among other things to promote and facilitate informed and socially conscious travel to international ADHT sites.

Dame Jennifer stressed that nationally the Foundation seeks to establish heritage trails that speak to the Diaspora's Bermuda experience from arrival of first slave brought to Bermuda, through to emancipation, desegregation and equal involvement in every aspect of Bermudian life and to establish heritage trails linking the Diaspora in Bermuda with the Diaspora in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, US, Canada and back to Africa.

Grotto Bay Beach Resort was the conference centre. Its Prospero Cave was the spectacular site for the first big VIP social event, a welcome reception for international and local dignitaries and guests. They were treated to entertainment and authentic Diaspora cuisine from all four corners of the globe.

A major event leading up to the welcoming reception took place at St. George's

Governor Sir Richard Gozney and Premier Brown joined Minister of Culture Neletha Butterfield for the formal opening. It was highlighted by a soul-stirring performance by the youth group Troika, interpreting the passion of Sarah (Sally) Bassett en route to her execution by public burning at a stake; and there was a parade of flags featuring the Warner Gombeys.

Later on Saturday night, the closing event of the conference was an African Diaspora Gala and Premier Brown's farewell.

Saturday panel discussions included the subject "Defining and Moving the ADHT Forward". Panellists were Dr. Edward Harris, executive director of the National Museum of Bermuda; Dr. Joseph Harris, distinguished Professor Emeritus of the History Department of Howard University, and Trevor David, executive director of the Africana Village and Museum in Toronto.

Other items discussed were "Racism and Racial Justice in a Majority Black Government, with a sub-title A Society in Change." It was a special presentation by CURB, short for Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, featuring its president, Lynn Winfield; Philip Ray, chairman of Communications Working Group, and Haile Maryam, member of Working Education. They analysed Bermuda's racial history of slavery, education, segregation, (one-way integration) and "White Affirmative Action".

"Out of Africa and into the Diaspora" was the topic of another panel discussion moderated by the Hon. Clarence Jack Ellis, an international member of the Bermuda Foundation ADHT Board. Panellists were Dr. Janet Ferguson, Biological Researcher at Canterbury University, England; Bermudian historian and community activist Dr. Eva Hodgson; Wayne Hamilton, chief executive officer of the office of African Nova Scotian Affairs; Bermuda's Dr. Clarence Maxwell, who is Assistant Professor of History at Millersville University, Pennsylvania

A most illuminating "Conversations With Friends of the Diaspora", was hosted by the Bermuda National Gallery in association with the BDHT Foundation at the Gallery. It featured James Early of the Smithsonian Institution, Bermuda's Dr. Edward Harris and Dr. Kim Dismont Robinson; and Howard University's Dr. Joseph Harris. The two Dr. Harrises, one white the other black, enabled some banter as to what extent they may have been cousins. The overall discussion was within the backdrop of the Gallery's Biennial exhibition and art work from its African collection.

Dr. Joseph Harris said Bermuda should take great note and celebrate that the whole concept of a heritage trail that was initiated by a Bermudian, who happened to be white, the late David Allen, when he was the first Minister of Tourism after the Progressive Labour Party assumed the government in 1998.

Earlier , Premier Brown, at a special ceremony in the St. George's Town Square, unveiled a distinctive plaque that will be embedded in the surface of the bridge linking the town with Ordnance Island.

The closing event was the African Diaspora Gala and Farewell for Premier Brown at the Lido Complex of the Elbow Beach Resort. The gala was accentuated by presentations to Premier Brown; a Lifetime Achievement Award to Ira Philip, acknowledging among other things his writings about African people in the Diaspora and his work with such luminaries as the late Hilton G. Hill, MCP, in the foundation and promotion of the Bermuda Resort Association bringing thousands of black visitors to Bermuda.

And back to the opening question of what a DIASPORA is all about, the dictionary will state it is a scattering or dispersion of a people of a common national origin, language or culture into other countries around the world. But how and the reason why that scattering came about is not likely to be explained in that volume.

In the case of the African Diaspora, it was through the slave trade, unlike any of the other types of slavery in ancient and modern times, the African Diaspora was based solely on race, when millions of blacks in shackles were forcibly brought to the so-called New World and held in bondage, servitude for centuries providing free labour and service to their white captors or "owners".