Bermuda?s central role in creating an ever-growing African Diaspora Heritage Trail community has been praised at the opening of a second conference to discuss the way forward for the multi-nation organisation.

And a defining vision and role for the African Diaspora Heritage Trail has been discussed by early arriving delegates.

This morning Hollywood actor Danny Glover is due to deliver a special message as the main business gets underway at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel.

Around 150 overseas guests will discuss and explore ways of linking communities, countries and people of African descent that have a shared history through slavery and the enforced movement of millions of people between Africa, Europe and the Americas.

Bermuda?s efforts to further the African Diaspora Heritage Trail project has been praised by conference co-organiser Jacob R. Henderson Jr, who said: ?Had it not been for Bermuda we would not even have been here. I can?t think of a country that would have the resource to build an entity like this.?

Mentioning the Island?s hosting of the first and second ADHT conferences, a planning event last year, as well as its own heritage trail, educational source books, and a statue of black slave Sally Bassett who was burned at the stake in 1730, he added: ?They have students and schools going to these sites and having lessons. This is just the beginning for Bermuda. This is how we might benefit.?

Co-project director Gaynelle Henderson-Bailey paid tribute to the late Tourism Minister David Allen who helped formulate the ADHT, saying : ?He had in mind connecting all the countries of the African Diaspora so we would work together to promote our heritage and establish a real global ADHT.?

It was US university professor Richard A. Long who guided the opening session discussing the vision and core values of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.

?We have a general sense of a need for an African heritage project not only in Bermuda but in much of the authentic Diaspora world and the need for an association,? he said.

?It was felt any kind of African heritage tourism should have two or three components. It should have a concern for the underlying communities that are represented in the tourism trial so the tourism should be sensitive to the economic problems in those areas.?

Prof. Long, of Atlanta?s Emory University, whose interest in the African Diaspora stretches back over his 40-year academic career, said the general feeling was that creating tourism opportunities linked to African Diaspora heritage needed to be done in a way that benefited and enhanced the prospects of the communities they touched, so African-descent people who live on the heritage trails do not become mere exhibits.

?There is a feeling African Diaspora sites should take into account the people involved. The people who are visited should identify with the whole thing rather than be exhibits and that they are given assistance to take pride in their heritage,? he added.

That theme continued in a second session that focused on creating an identity and branding for the African Diaspora Heritage Trail.

It was pointed out by New York State?s Prof. James Small, president of Cultural Heritage African Tours, that other ethnic groups supported their far-flung communities of descendants, with Chinatowns, Koreatowns and ?little Tokyos? given as examples.

It was indicated that these communities, spread around a range of cities in the world, increasingly receive backing from their distant homelands and sustain a proud identity for their people.

He argued that African Diaspora Heritage partnerships should model these types of economic development. Another speaker lamented that while countries such as Japan and Korea had brought forward their cultures the African Diaspora had not.

Edmond Moukala, of UNESCO, said: ?The African Diaspora can only be protected by those of African-descent.?

He expressed a desire of the African Diaspora Heritage Trail to be a platform to make available the truth of the African Diaspora story to children and students, making it an authentic non-political place where ?many can come and learn? adding: ?This is where the ADHT is unique.?

Other ideas thrown up by the roundtable discussion related to whether the main purpose of the ADHT should be to promote tourism in the member communities, should it be an accrediting and authenticating body for African Diaspora projects, and should it work to encourage travel agencies and member countries to work in partnership to actively promote the different heritage trails.

Some voiced the view the ADHT should help African-descent people to gain ownership of their heritage rather than allow that culture and heritage to be marketed by, and for, the benefits of others.

The conference lasts until Sunday. Delegates are expected to visit the Uptown Culture Festival in Court Street this evening to enjoy Bermudian food and entertainment.