2017 Kumdum Festival launched

Mrs Eugene Gifty Kusi, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, says Ghana has rich and interesting traditions that could be adopted to help chart the path for development into a middle income country.

She said culture teaches values like morality which are crucial to leadership and effective governance.

The Deputy Minister said this when she launched the 2017 Kumdum Festival on the theme “the role of tradition in community and national development.”

Ms Kusi entreated traditional authorities to therefore embrace the basic tenets of the Kumdum festival as the bedrock of ethical living in society.

She said the government was passionate to see all Ghanaians to live together in peace irrespective of the varied backgrounds.

The President, according to her, would ensure that everyone was catered for under the national development crusade, adding “it is in this connection that I appeal to Nananom to lend your support to the key policy development initiatives and flagship Programmes”.

Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX, the Omanhene of Lower Dixcove who gave the background to the festival, said a hunter on one of his usual expeditions saw some dwarfs in a forest at Ahanta Aboadze in the Western Region performing the dance.

He said the practice continued for a long time and after several observations, the hunter copied the movement of the dance and later taught community members.

Nana Kwesi Agyeman IX stated that the essence of celebrating the Kundum festival was to engender communal spirit, promote oneness as well as use the occasion to settle long standing family disputes.

He urged natives abroad to discard the perception that something untoward would happen to them should they come home for the celebration and rather come home to support in building better communities.