West holds arts festival

THE Western Regional Centre for National Culture (WRCNC) has ended a six-day Regional Festival of Arts under the theme ?Culture, Development and the Ghanaian Identity? at the Government Secretarial School, Sekondi.

The programme of the Festival which comprised a bazaar and grand sales, exhibitions of Arts and crafts, a radio discussion on the ?Relevance of Culture in National Development,? Traditional Dances and drama by local groups, a Youth Night of music and dance, Film shows, a Children?s Day, a Highlife Night and a special Key Soap Concert Party presentation was spread over the six-day period.

With the theatre almost completed but not yet in any state to hold a programme, the WRCNC turned the Government Secretarial School in the heart of Sekondi into a theatre. The dinning hall became the auditorium and hosted drama, the hiplife and highlife programmes as well as the Film Show.

The school?s grounds became the durbar grounds for the bazaar and other outdoor activities. Thus despite their missing the big National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) event for the moment the Regional Festival of Arts became a mini NAFAC that gave them a taste of what the real thing will be like come next April.

The need for a Theatre which will enable them continue to appreciate the arts and culture of the country as well as host other entertainment programmes long after NAFAC has come and gone has prompted their desire to wait a few months more to enjoy the NAFAC in a grand manner.

Thus the prayer of the WRCNC and the people of the Western Region are for government to release enough funds for the Theatre to be completed. The mood at the Festival is that of fun and children can be said to be the ones who most enjoyed the programmes. The presence of Good News FM 96.3 a local radio station ensured that those immediately not at the Festival are kept informed of the happenings there.

The bazaar and grand sales had a variety of items ranging from textiles to food and beverage products as well as arts and crafts. The movement of people, the beautiful ?noises? of drumming, music and general chatter of people pervaded the atmosphere at the Government Secretarial School which also had its compound enclosed by wooden barriers with a gate and car park in front of the school along the main road.

On Thursday, December 12, in the afternoon for instance, the Adehyeman and West-Deaf Cultural Troupes together with the Frafra Donno entertained visitors to the Festival with traditional dances. The dancers from the Deaf school were an attraction especially since visitors were surprised at how well they related to the drumming even though they do not hear it.

That night, Efo Kojo Mawugbe?s hugely popular Aluta Continua was performed by a local amateur group and the cast of Franklin Owusu Denkyi (Patrick, the house boy), William de Graft Wilkinson-Allotey (Kofi Thompson, the father), Ernestina Kirk-Mensah (his wife),Fiifi (the son, Nana Yaw Barimah) and Mami Ekua de-Man (the daughter) brought back memories of the play that took the country by storm some years ago as a result of its powerful message that call on new graduates to accept postings to the deprived regions of the country but not before the Serafina a group of eight female dancers have put up a pulsating dance as a prelude.

According to Efo Kojo Mawugbe the response of the people to the festival is very encouraging and gives testimony to the fact that NAFAC 2003 in April will be a very successful affair.