Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, October 24, 2012 --(PR.com)-- GC Media is the communications partner for Goree Challenge IV - The Spirit of Malabo. The closing ceremony of the International Conference of Municipal Leaders was held in the presence of Vice President of the Republic, Head of Presidential Affairs, Ignacio Milam Tang on Saturday. During the event, it was announced that two of the sponsors of the conference, Gloria B. Herndon and Mayor Johnny Ford (American Citizens), would receive Equatorial Guinean nationality.

In 1976, Alex Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based on his family's history, starting with the story of Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped in The Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave. Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and Haley's work on the novel involved ten years of research, intercontinental travel and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew up and which is still in existence, and listened to a tribal historian tell the story of Kinte's capture. Haley also traced the records of the ship, The Lord Ligonier, which he said carried his ancestor to America.

Equatorial Guinea is �The Roots� for today, says Victor Mooney, transatlantic rower. �Here [Equatorial Guinea] we can have an immediate impact in the President�s Horizon 2020 Development Plan, working side by side with our brothers and sisters for the betterment of the motherland�.

�President Obiang has turned on the light and I plan to carry it across the Atlantic Ocean in the 'Spirit of Malabo' � a five �thousand mile transatlantic row from Las Palmas, Canary Islands to New York City later this year�, Mooney added.

Vice President Ignacio Milam Tang, representing the Head of State, referred to the atmosphere of profound friendship and brotherhood that characterized the development of the conference and stressed the desire of the President of Equatorial Guinea, through works like this, "to unite what others separated".

Additional reporting from Equatorial Guinea Press & Information and online resources. For more visit goreechallenge.com.