A Feature by Paul Achonga Kwode

It was the most spectacular, youthful and energetic and unforgettable
memories when the young boys and girls gather at the village or town play grounds to
engage in all interesting and fantastic games of ‘ampe’ hide and seek, ‘anansesem’
or tell captivating stories that depicts the real identity of our unique culture.
That was when our culture and tradition was well told through peer and family
socialization with nostalgic feelings and instilled in us the growing youth whom we
are and origins. It was usually told during the evenings especially during the
moonlight. Then came the eroding, infiltration and influence of so call
modernity with its associated foreign culture. The youth have no choice but to cling
unto it pathetically oblivious of the lost of identity and origin. Some call it the
global village where the world had become closer through a click of the button. But
does that make us loose our identity as Africans
or Ghanaians?, the opposite is rather the case in some parts of the globe.
It is common these days to come across young men and women who do not know their
origin or culture while others cannot even speak their language of birth and rather
turn to speak only a foreign language particular English. Such people probably
might have lost their identity and are confused creatures. One can simply described
such indoctrination of culture as a form of culture self colonization. Contrary to
this is the desire of the African-Americans who troop into Africa in search of
their ancestral homes. They could be pardoned because their fore fathers were taken
to Europe as slaves hence their inability to perfectly trace their origin but the
same cannot be extended to people who knowingly undermine their culture and
tradition. Culture as we all know, is the way of life of a people. They could
live in a geographically defined territorial area or be
spread across a locality. Among some of the elements that make culture include the
food they eat, the cloth they wear, the language they speak, dances, festivals,
religion, believes, values, norms, perceptions and among others. Culture is
relative, dynamic, diversified, transferable and unique to a people. It is usually
learnt through informal socialization or at times through formal educational
institutions. Culture is an aspect of humans as living beings.
NAFAC 2010 The National Festival of Art and Culture (NAFAC) is a
bi-annual rotational festival which showcases the cultural, traditional and
artistic artifacts which distinguishes Ghanaians as a people with a common destiny.
The festival which started in the 1967 with some reformations along the line seems
to be the most important heritage that must be maintained, upheld and improved upon
for the generations yet to be born. Its
celebration had always shown different cultural performances from all parts of the
country to the delight and admiration of viewers and hence the internalization of
the country’s culture to the youth. The NAFAC had over the years served a useful
purpose of unifying the entire nation, building bridges and networking of
individuals and institutional organisations, hence the ubiquitous presence of
exhibitors at the 2010 NAFAC. The 2010 NAFAC had been celebrated in Tamale in
the Northern Region and had witnessed a number of cultural and traditional
performances from all the regions of the country. This year’s celebration which was
a weeklong one was celebrated under the theme; “NAFAC-Promoting unity,
technology and wealth creation for a better Ghana: the role of the youth in nation
building”. The organizers of the programme had earlier suggested that the NAFAC was
going to create more jobs for the people but these claims are yet to
be fulfilled. It is a celebration that would forever linger in the minds of the
people for a long time to come. The cultural displays were not only ecstatic and
unique but mind boggling since most of the audience could not believe the country
was endowed with such beautiful cultures, arts and crafts. Although they seem to be
some infiltrations of foreign bits into the cultural performances displayed at the
grounds, it brings to bare the element of cultural universality and dynamism.
NAFAC 2010 did not go smoothly just as any human endeavour that cannot be
perfect. Long before the celebration, the organizers of the programme foresaw the
financial challenges but nothing was done by the state to surmount the problem but
left the coming problems to stare nastily on the NAFAC 2010. The financial
constraints were so much that even at a point in time, the organizers could not
purchase A4 paper for printing. An individual who would prefer to
remain anonymous had to withdraw his life savings to salvage the situation. One
therefore cannot but wonder whether the government was really serious in preserving
our culture as a nation and if the government does, why was the programme left to
face such a financial calamity? It was therefore contrary to the demands of the
President Prof. John Mills that Ghana must preserve its culture. If indeed Ghana is
not paying lip service to the preservation of its culture to attract foreign
exchange, then it behooves on the nation to make financial commitment to such a
course else we must as well forget it. If publicity of 2010 NAFAC was
anything to be rated, then it is one of a national programme with very poor
publicity in the media. The opening programme of the event was though telecast live
on the nation’s broadcaster; the GTV and Radio Ghana, it received very low
publicity in almost all the other networks. Although the Ghana News Agency and
the Daily Graphic though gave some publicity to some of the weeklong events; it was
nothing to write home about since those publications were not given proper
prominence. One may therefore wonder why such a national event of that dimension
did not have a proper space in our national mediums. The organizers again must take
the blame since some of the journalists argued that they were not properly
positioned as major stakeholders of the programme. In my estimation, in the modern
era of which Ghana is not an exception, anything without the full involvement of
the media might not achieve the desired results and going by those arguments, one
might conclude that the NAFAC 2010 was a total flop. GHANA MUST
HARNESS HER CULTURE Ghana could be described as a nation flowing with
bobbling, rich artistic cultural traditions and artifacts that have been left to
corrode by nasty artificial and confused foreign culture that does
not give any meaning to the people. The desire of Ghanaians for foreign culture had
wetted their appetite for foreign goods and materials. This incessant desire for
anything and everything foreign could be blamed on colonialism and our educational
system where more value is placed on borrowed culture. The design of our
educational syllabi had given much premium to our colonial masters by making
English a compulsory subject right from class three at about age seven or eight of
a persons life, where the person was supposed to learn more about the culture,
language and everything of the parents, he/she is introduced to somebody’s culture
and made to believe that was the best culture for him/her. Why Ghanaians can’t
choose one of our indigenous languages as our official language? The
President, Prof. John Evans Attah Mills in a speech read for him at Tamale during
the 2010 NAFAC directed all Regional Administrations to begin work on the
setting up of regional museums, art galleries and exhibition complexes to redeem
the nation's culture. According to him these institutions would be used for the
collection of arts and artifacts for preservation and also constitute important
complementing centres of education for the acquisition of knowledge on arts and
crafts for historical purposes. This good step in the right direction if the
directive is backed with financial commitment else the goal of redeeming our
culture was still far from being addressed. Whiles calling for the
preservation of our culture, it is timely to consider demystifying some of our
retrogressive cultures or beliefs to reflect the changing times. For instance,
believe in witchcraft, widowhood rights, female genital mutilation, trokosi and
among others are some of the barbaric cultures that have outlived their usefulness
and must be scraped. The society must be commended for fighting some of these
outmoded cultures
but more needs to be done. The chieftaincy institution in Ghana is a great
masterpiece for the preservation of our culture. Our chiefs as role models have
been at the top most in maintaining our cultural dignity and heritage by
symbolically abiding by our various festivals across the country. Such celebration
of our ancestral legacy rekindles in us our unique identity. These and many are
reasons why some of us do not support arguments of scraping the chieftaincy
institution but must be made to reform to reflect the changing times. It is not
late for Ghana to develop cultural tourism just like it happens in other countries
including some African countries. South Africa has a rich experience when it comes
to enriching and modernizing culture as was exhibited during the 2010 FIFA World
Cup. The directive given by the President of setting up museums is in the right
direction but must be backed by political will. The conviction that the government
was
going to pay particular attention to our culture would have been welcome news.
Nigerians have successfully nurtured and promoted their culture through their movie
industry which had depicted their culture to the delight of the viewers. What
directions then can our beloved country Ghana, the trailblazer of democracy in
Africa do to promote her culture? We are endowed with various expertise who could
develop ideas to also promote Ghana’s culture and the time must be now. It is
unfortunate that politicians must always be called to shoulder most of these
policies since they wield the power in contemporary political dispensation.
Our universities particularly at the University of Ghana had over the years
insisted that African Studies should be a must requirement for the award of a
degree in any field. Such a policy if implemented across all the tertiary
institutions across the country, the literate Ghanaian would be empowered with his
culture.
Sadly also is the fact that most educated Ghanaians have children who cannot speak
their parent language or mother tongue. It is funny and disgraceful for a Ghanaian
living in Ghana and the children cannot speak their mother tongue. Please, follow
Ghanaians; it is time to respect our origin and culture. I would have been grateful
if Ghanaian language was re-introduced into the BECE as a compulsorily subject.
Linguistically, children who had been introduced to their mother tongue (LI) stand
at an advantage in class performance than those who have not, since they can easily
translate expressions and concepts from the LI to any other language. The time
to respect and honour our culture is now and Ghana as a nation must bring heads
together to fine tune and make amends to redeem our culture since we as a people
cannot afford to loss our cultural heritage and sit unconcerned. Our culture could
serve as entertainment piece, tourists’ attraction, an
avenue for employment to the teaming youth and bring income to the nation and as
well as serve as a catalyst for social cohesion and also set us apart as unique
“homos sapiens”.