ACCRA — In a major double-launch under the broader “Black Star Experience” initiative, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts, Ms. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, has officially unveiled the 2026 National Heritage Photo Competition and the AfroGastro Festival. Both flagship programs are designed to express Ghanaian identity, preserve national heritage, and vigorously promote the local creative economy.
This year’s photo competition is running under the theme “Promoting Creativity and Heritage Through the Eyes of the Youth”. The contest is open to young people aged 25 years and below, challenging them to use their camera lenses to document Ghana’s tangible and intangible traditions, including local festivals, landscapes, crafts, rituals, and indigenous architecture.
During her address, Minister Gomashie fondly recalled the success of the maiden edition, congratulating the previous winner, Kelemne Aduvandepoy, whose photograph captured the historic meeting between the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, and the Ga Mantse, Nii Tackie Teiko Tsuru II.
Turning her focus to the AfroGastro Festival, the Minister described it as Ghana’s premier platform for celebrating African culinary heritage and cultural diplomacy. The upcoming event will gather chefs, culinary innovators, traditional food practitioners, nutritionists, and agribusiness entrepreneurs from across the continent.
The Ministry is currently strengthening collaborations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) to scale the festival. Mr. Symerre Grey-Johnson, Director at AUDA-NEPAD, attended as a special guest and pledged the agency’s support to expand AfroGastro into a global platform, noting that African gastronomy remains an under-commercialized powerhouse that can drive massive intra-African trade and youth employment.
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