Kwame Dramani, Chairman of the Bore Anasa Cultural Group, Gonja
The Gonja community in the Tema Metropolis has honoured Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), as Gonja Development Chief for his contributions towards education in Gonja land.
Working as a teacher at Central and West Gonja, Damongo and Kusagu, Isaac Ashai Odamtten, the Tema Gonja community explained, had nurtured a lot of their children, who had grown up to become responsible citizens.
Kwame Dramani, Chairman of the Bore Anasa Cultural Group, Gonja, honoured the Tema MCE on behalf of the Tema Gonja community at the forecourt of the Assembly, where the third durbar of the Tema Greenwich Meridian Cultural Festival was held.
He said Mr. Odamtten dedicated himself and was selfless in his teaching days.
“Furthermore, Isaac Odamtten was a disciplinarian and a father to every pupil who encountered him in Gonja land,” Kwame Dramani explained.
The women of the Ga community in Tema also recognised Isaac Ashai Odamtten for the numerous developmental projects Tema had seen in his time as MCE.
They honoured him with the title Development Chief, and later decorated him with a Ga traditional cloth.
The Tema Greenwich Meridian Cultural Festival was the initiative of Mr. Odamtten, and is to showcase and promote diverse Ghanaian cultures and tourism in the area.
Dubbed MeriFest, this year’s celebration was themed ‘Peace, Unity and Development in Cosmopolitan Tema’, where Mr. Odamtten said Tema needed to work hard to regain its cosmopolitan beauty in the area of housing, greenness and sanitation.
He said the beauty of the diverse cultures and traditions in Tema should bond the ethnic groups to instill in the residents, the need for proper sanitation practices and respect for authority.
Isaac Ashai Odamtten explained that the Assembly had far advanced plans to include Chinese, Koreans, Indians and South Africans resident in the area in the next MeriFest.
“We want to include our brothers and sisters from these countries to afford us the opportunity to learn their cultures and traditions too.”
The tribal chiefs in Tema, on the day, paid homage to Nii Adjei Kraku II, Paramount Chief of Tema, after gathering at the ancestral home of the people of Tema at the former Meridian Hotel grounds, where a huge baobab tree stands, to perform some traditional rites led by the Tema Chief Priest.
Nii Kraku II expressed gratefulness to all the tribal chiefs for working with him to ensure that Tema remained united and peaceful for the working population.
He encouraged all the tribes in Ghana to uphold their enviable cultures and traditions, “because that uniquely defines us. Above all, let us not forget the national culture and tradition.”
Despite their holding in high esteem the various ethnic norms, culture, traditions and values, Nii Kraku II reminded the ethnic groups living in Tema to obey traditions, values, culture and norms when the Gas are observing their traditional festivals.
The MeriFest saw the various ethnic groups in Tema performing their enviable traditional dances to the admiration of the large gathering.
