GRi Arts & Culture 10 – 02 - 2003
Bechem (Brong Ahafo)
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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Ho (Greater Accra)
The Congress retained Diana Akiwumi as the
Dr Cosmos Mireku,
a Lecturer at the Winneba University College of Education got 67 votes to
defeat Okyeame Bediako who
had 14 votes to become the General-Secretary. Elizabeth Brebi,
with a slim margin of 41 votes to 40 beat Kofi Abraham for the post of
Treasurer.
The elections were conducted by
a team of officers from the
The atmosphere of anxiety and
suspense before the proceedings fizzled out giving way to excitement when
Professor George Hagan, Chairman of the National Commission on Culture (NCC)
invited the 82 delegates and invited guests to the dancing floor.
Professor Hagan who chaired the
function said he considered the congress as "terribly important" as
MUSIGA was the flagship association of all artistic groups in the country.
He said no impediment must
therefore, be put into its operations. "When the flagship is moving well,
then the other battle ships would fall in line," he stated. Professor
Hagan was grateful that in spite of "some little misunderstanding",
MUSIGA had been able to assemble for the congress, which it was enjoined by its
own constitution to hold every four years.
He promised them the support of
government and urged musicians to do nothing to undermine its operations. Professor
Hagan requested the
Mawutor Goh,
Ho District Chief Executive (DCE), who represented the Regional Minister
criticised the adulteration of Ghanaian music by performers. He said a
distinctly Ghanaian music holds the promise of doing better on the
international scene.
Mawutor Goh
also spoke against the increasing use of sexually suggestive lyrics in recent
productions, saying it had the potential to corrupt morals especially the
youth. Alhaji Sidiku Buari,
said during the four years of his tenure, the
He appealed to government to
reduce duties on musical instruments to make them affordable to musicians,
whose products could fetch more foreign exchange. Togbe
Ansah Volta Regional President of the
In attendance were popular music
stars including Jewel Ackah, Pat Thomas, Amakye Dede, Papa Yankson who led the congress to sing, "we shall over come"
to herald the commencement of proceedings.
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