National Commission on Culture launches website

Accra, Dec. 14, GNA - The National Commission on Culture (NCC) on Tuesday launched a website aimed at providing knowledge on Ghana's culture and cultural heritage.

The website would also educate policy-makers on the relevance of culture, especially on burning issues of gender and inform the public about the country's cultural heritage to enable them to treasure the cultural value in Ghanaian languages, proverbs, music, festivals, arts and crafts and traditional governance, among other things.

The Royal Netherlands Embassy and the UNESCO funded the project. Professor George P. Hagan, Chairman of the NCC, said three things - formulating of culture policy, culture trust fund and creation of a website where people could access the Ghanaian culture - were his priority which he promised to accomplish since he assumed office in 2001.

He said government accepted the policy and the trust fund had one million dollars.

Prof. Hagan said they were working on the codification of traditional laws in Ghana and expressed the hope that in future it would be accepted as a working document for the development of the country's culture.

He, therefore, urged the public to access the site - www.ghanaculture.gov.gh to enrich their knowledge.

Prof. James Anquandah, Chairman of the EditorialScientific Committee of the NCC, said to ensure that the website had a total Ghanaian coverage, the cultural data catchment areas included all the 10 regions of Ghana. The regional centres of culture were actively involved in researching and collating data.

He said the website would promote tourism, especially among the Africans in the Diaspora by building a reliable and stimulating cultural data bank.

He urged both academics and non-academics, such as outstanding court linguists, craftsmen, herbalists, artists and musicians to contribute to the website, saying, the ownership and copyright of such presenters would be respected and acknowledged.

Prof. Yoro Fall, UNESCO Regional Adviser on Culture, said African culture was losing its value due to lack of education and stressed the need to increase education on African culture to enable the people to appreciate their own culture.

He said even terrorism and violence were gaining more values than African culture because the two issues are discussed publicly among both the youth and the elderly to the disadvantage of their own culture. Prof. Fall also called for establishment of network educators on culture to address the issue.

Mr. Bob Hansen, an official of the Netherlands Embassy, commended the commission for their efforts, which brought the project to fruition and pledged their continued support for the development of Ghana's culture.