Bechem (Brong Ahafo) -Samuel Nkrumah-Gyimah, Vice-Chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC) on Friday noted that a total stocktaking of a community life could best be taken through the organization of festivals of arts and culture.
The festivals also enhance the settlement of personal and communal differences thus paving way for accelerated development, he said.
Nkrumah-Gyimah, Member of Parliament for Dotobiri was addressing this year's Brong-Ahafo Ahafo Regional celebration of Festival of Arts and Culture at Bechem in the Tano District.
The theme for the programme was, "Cultural Development and Ghanaian Identity". "The regional festival of arts and culture must afford us the golden opportunity to resolve our inter-personal and inter-communal conflicts and differences".
Nkrumah-Gyimah announced that the Government had voted 1.5 billion cedis for the organization of the 2002 National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) scheduled to come off in Sekondi in April this year.
He explained that NAFAC should have been held in December last year but was postponed due to some constraints that the National Planning Committee faced. We are happy that these hurdles are being cleared to pave way for the hosting of NAFAC 2002, Mr Nkrumah-Gyimah added.
Nkrumah-Gyimah said the celebration of festivals should not only be seen as an opportunity to make merry, "because participation of individuals and communities also promote greater integration and unity".
Brong-Ahafo Region is greatly endowed with rich national resources, which support livelihood and the creative capabilities of the youth must be fully tapped by each community, he said.
The MP asked resourceful elders in the region to place their knowledge and skills at the disposal of the youth. "These elders can do this better by telling the youth the history of the communities, the need to get acquainted with the positive practices of our forefathers".
The Vice-Chairman challenged the District Officers of the Centre for National Culture to help develop the latent talents of the youth, by linking up with the relevant traditional and political authorities to discuss and plan strategies for the programme.
The National Commission on Culture believes that when the youth are given the desired skills, they will engage in profitable enterprises, thus creating employment and generating wealth, he said.
For such festivals to satisfy socio-economic needs in the country, he said the NCC was ready to encourage small-scale craftsmen, technologists, plant and herbal medicine practitioners to exhibit their products such functions.
Nkrumah-Gyimah added that as a means of getting young men and women to share their thoughts and views on cultural matters, the NAFAC would organise a nation-wide competition in essay-writing, debates and quiz for students and pupils.
Sampson K. Osei, Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of the CNC said the Regional festival was to select the best artistes and groups to represent the region at NAFAC 2002.
He noted that the Ghanaian Culture had been neglected for far too long, as it had not received any positive attention. This is perhaps ignorantly underscored by the belief that the Ghanaian Culture is best described and represented by drumming and dancing, he said, adding that "the misunderstanding of the values of our Culture needs to be dismissed and a better understanding brought into focus".
The new focus should take into consideration the importance of our arts, medicine, agriculture, food, education, health, chieftaincy and social relations. The Regional Director of CNC complained about the long delay in the construction of the Regional Cultural Theatre Complex in Sunyani, work on which was started in 1963 in the first republic.
The project, after nearly 40 years, remains uncompleted, he noted, and appealed to the Government, the NCC, Brong Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council, District Assemblies, Nananom, Companies and non-governmental organisations to assist in the completion of the Complex.
Ernest Akubour Debrah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, expressed dismay at the degeneration of the nation's cultural heritage over the years, placing the youth at a double disadvantage of being bombarded by the worst influences of foreign cultures through the electronic and print media.
He linked the influences of foreign cultures via electronic and print media that depict violence, drugs and pornography that the youth regard as amusing and fashionable. On the other side, as elders, teachers and parents we are also infected with the values of today's material world and as such we are unable to give them the needed help to enable them to steer clear of the confusing and contradictory currents of adolescent life, Debrah noted.
He called on the Regional Centre for National Culture to seriously liaise with the Integrated Centre for Employable Skills to design programmes that would be integrated into the Development Plans of the District Assemblies to train the youth to acquire employable skills.
Such a programme would also go a long way to improve the skills of the already existing artisans in the region on how to add value to their finished products to make them more attractive, marketable and exportable, the Regional Minister said.
He added that such programmes would enable the Region to harness the vast natural resources, including clay for the pottery industry, for the economic benefit of the people in the region.
"While projecting our cultural heritage, there is the need for us to also discard other obsolete cultural practices such as female genital mutilation which, besides the pains and agony the unfortunate girls pass through, as it endangers the health of the victims and also an affront to their fundamental human rights".
In a welcoming address Nicholas L. Anane-Agyei, Tano District Chief Executive noted that Culture could be changed by contact with different ethnic groups.
He complained that as a result of the rapid changes, the nation's customs and traditions had been adulterated and this had affected the nation psychologically, physically and emotionally and called on all stakeholders to help reverse the trend.
Highlights of the celebration were performances by cultural troupes and individual singers. They troupes included Bechem-Kwaasu Kwaade, Yeji Sokodae, Tuobodom Ahyewa, Bechem-Kwaasu Dansuom Gumbe, Sunyani Tanokrom Agoromma, Duayaw-Nkwanta Gumbe, Sikaa Nyaadowaboa and Sunyani-Tanokrom Philharmonic Choir.
The individual praise singers were Ataa Agyeiwaa from Bomaa, near Duayaw-Nkwanta and Madam Yaa Afra of Dormaa-Ahenkro, popularly called "I Go To Farm".
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