GRi Arts & Culture 22 – 04 - 2003

Re-activate Ghanaian culture

Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 22 April 2003- The National Commission on Culture (NCC) have been called upon to be more pro-active by instituting effective and pragmatic measures that would instil in the country's youth a genuine affection for Ghanaian cultural values and norms.

Opoku-Agyemang Prempeh, Executive President of the Centre for Moral Education (CEMED), a non-governmental organisation aimed at instilling morality in the youth, said the rate at which Ghanaians were adopting foreign lifestyles and values, was a source of worry.

Prempeh made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Monday on the dangers foreign culture posed to discipline and good morals and Ghanaian culture and what ought to be done to check the problem.

He explained that the tendency for Ghanaians in recent times to perceive foreign practices as civil while regarding Ghanaian cultural values as evil and abominable, was enough signal that if swift measures were not taken by the authorities, "our culture could be destroyed".

"Ghana runs the risk of loosing its cultural identity as a people in the not too distant future. We would have no history and, therefore, cease to be a nation", he cautioned.

Prempeh stressed the need for all Ghanaians to get actively involved in the search for strategies to "protect our culture from destruction by desisting from giving preference to the wearing of mini-skirts, transparent dresses and tight jeans and rather go in for long and loose dresses in the case of girls and women".

Prempeh dismissed and disagreed with speculations in certain quarters that the sort of dresses put on by girls had nothing to do with enticing people to rape them. "It is a fact which is undeniable that the mini-skirts and transparent dresses that young girls of today put on that virtually expose their body and vital parts, was a major contributory factor to the incidence of rape", he stressed.

He said the CEMED had already initiated various moves including the formation of virgin and drug-free clubs to enlighten and encourage the youth to cherish the Ghanaian culture and to appreciate the value of living morally upright life.

GRi.../

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