CNC and NiPDA hold maiden biennial traditional talent festival

The Centre for National Culture (CNC) and the Ningo Prampram District Assembly (NiPDA) has held a traditional talent festival aimed at promoting the arts and culture of the people of Ningo and Prampram.

The festival, which takes the form of a competition among senior high schools, is the first of its kind in the district, also seeks to empower the youth to identify and grow their talents as they promote the rich culture of the people of Ningo Prampram who are endowed it many untapped tourism resources.

The Ningo Prampram District Director of Education, Mrs. Beatrix Ollennu, in a speech read on her behalf by Madam Mary Stella Kofitse, observed that the arts was a critical tool in national development and therefore society should free artists to follow their talents and express it and that will ultimately inure to the benefit of the nation.

Mrs. Ollennu indicated that, “Our forefathers pursued arts and culture, handed it over to our fathers and today it is our turn. In one way or the other, this brings income, honour, dignity, and respect to the nation and the individual.”

Speaking on the theme, “Empowering students’ craft through arts and culture,” Mrs. Ollennu stressed the need to hold onto Ghanaian indigenous craft by insisting that the beginning of all forms of manufacturing was arts and craft and therefore entreated students to accord extra importance to arts and craft.

In projecting the healing prospects of arts and culture, she said, “The country is so wounded, bleeding and hurt right now, the country needs to be healed; it’s not going to be healed from the top,” but through the creative work of arts which had the power to bind the nation together as one people.

Mrs. Ollennu urged students to be patriotic, observing that they embraced the Ghanaian pledge, the national anthem, and the cultural forms which were found in our patriotic songs.

“It is our duty as parents and stakeholders to encourage our students not to shy away from arts and craft,” she stressed.

The Ningo Prampram District Tourism and Culture Officer, Ms. Joyce Ayorkor Guddah, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), observed that the people of Ningo Prampram were not promoting their culture even though they had wonderful tourism sites in the district, therefore the need for such a programme to highlight their cultural and tourism potentials.

In her quest to project the culture of the people, Ms. Guddah saw students in the high schools as the right people to begin the cultural revolution, “Because they are young with the vision and talents, so if we promote students' crafts, they can do something to maintain our culture which is wearing off and also identify their craft and what they are good at.”

The District Tourism Officer indicated that arts and culture was an opportunity for students to secure jobs once they were out of school since the crafts they were good at could be developed into job opportunities for them.

At the end of the competition, Ningo Senior High School emerged as the overall best in the drama and dance, and cooking and arts competitions.

Other schools which participated were Global Senior High School, Prampram Technical and Vocational Institute (Community Development), and Prampram Senior High.