Wa, Oct.30, GNA - The Centre for National Culture has appealed to the traditional rulers in Upper West to create a regional festival to serve as a rallying point for uniting the various ethnic groups of the area.

The synergic effects of such a festival, the CNC noted, would not only promote the tourism and arts and crafts potentials of the various districts but as encourage the preservation of the cultural entities of the area.

Mr. Mark Degbee, Upper West Regional Director of the CNC, made the appeal at the Regional Festival of Arts and Culture in Wa on Thursday. The festival was organised for the nine districts to compete for the best cultural troupes to be selected to represent the region at this year's National Festival of Arts and Culture, to take place next month at Tamale.

Mr. Degbee said the practice of individual ethnic groups organizing their own annual festivals was not enough to encourage unity and oneness.

He said the region has a lot to learn from countries that have made their culture the bedrock of their knowledge, attitudes and skills, which has helped to enhance their development. He said the people go back to trace the good cultural values and attitudes that they had lost and avoid copying western cultures that have the potentials of destroying the youth.

Mr. Degbee said CNC was always faced with financial constraints to organise the National Festival of Arts and Culture and appealed to corporate bodies and public spirited individuals to continue to support the CNC to organise the festival annually.

Mr. Caesar Kale, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, who graced the occasion, appealed to the chiefs, CNC and other stakeholders to come out with a blueprint towards producing a marketable brand for the region to be fed into the "Brand Ghana Project."

He advised the youth to develop interest in knowing more about their culture and exhibit them as their identity, pointing out: "If we loose our culture as a people, we will loose our history as well." He said the government had set in motion a progressive study to interpret and codify various customary laws into a unifying system of rules to help inject sanity into adjudicating bodies, including the courts, so that they do not solely rely on oral history. The government has also supported the queen mother concept to empower women and make them more relevant in the governance of the country.

The festival was on theme: "Promoting Unity, Technology and Wealth Creation for a Better Ghana: The role of the youth in nation building".