New York City Pays Hommage At African Burial Ground

During the closing Wreath-laying Ceremony at the African Burial Ground in lower Manhattan yesterday, The Honorable Edna Wells Handy, Commissioner of Citywide Administrative Services, on behalf of Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the residents of New York City, paid hommage to free and slave Africans.

"On Saturday, the wreaths will be released into the Atlantic Ocean as a memorial", said Victor Mooney, executive director of New York based South African Arts International. Later this year, Mr. Mooney will make his fourth bid and row the "Spirit of Malabo" from Las Palmas, Canary Islands to New York City for an AIDS-free Generation and to raise funds and awareness for the Permanent Memorial at United Nations In Honor of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The three-day wreath-laying ceremony was designed to coincide with the opening of the 67th session of the General Assembly at the United Nations in New York.