Members of the national organising committee of the 9th edition of the International Roots Festival 2008 on Friday held a press briefing at the Paradise Suites Hotel, marking the launch of media campaign ahead of the grand cultural festival from May 30 to June 7.

The one-week biennial event is observed in commemoration of the forced enslavement of millions of Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is organised by the Department of State for Tourism and Culture in collaboration with the National Centre for Arts and Culture and Gambia Tourism Authority.

Speaking at the launch, Angela Colley, secretary of state for Tourism and Culture, said the festival got its inspiration from the famous book "Roots" author by the celebrated African/American writer, the late Alex Harley, who succeeded in tracing his ancestry through empirical research to a small village in The Gambia called Juffureh.

According to her, the festival which started in 1996, continues to be a form of cultural pilgrimage for African/Americans and Africans in the diaspora in search for the African experience and to return to the motherland, where over 243,000 Senegambians were forcibly transported on registered Trans-Atlantic slave ships between 1645 - 1800s.

Amongst them was Alex Haley's great grandfather Kunta Kinteh of Juffureh, who was caught as slave and taken to America.

SoS Colley disclosed that the 9th edition is expected to receive the culture ministers of Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

"We at the department of state and the National Organising Committee deemed it fit to decentralise the festival for the first time to cover Central River Region, notably Kerr Batch moving it away from Banjul and KMC to the hinterland," she said.

She said the festival is designed for everybody to participate - from Banjul to Koina - to showcase the Gambian culture to the visitors coming from North and South America, the Caribbean Islands, Europe and other parts of the world.

Modou Joof, executive director National Centre for Arts and Culture and chairman of National Organising Committee, said his committee has started work behind the scene since August 2007, with much progress towards the preparation of the roots home coming festival.

Mr Joof called on the public and private sector to support the Pan-African event as a way of complementing government's efforts for a successful hosting.