Let us return to our culture as a people – Chairperson’s Remarks at Cultural Forum Conference

I am passionate about keeping our culture as a people, because that is what gives us an identity as Ghanaians even in our diversity. I agree with Marcus Gavey when he says “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”

Without attempting to claim any special knowledge on the subject of culture – and I am being careful because Opanin Agyekum is here – I wish to define culture in simple terms as the way of life of a people: the way they dress, their language, food, custom, music and other forms in which they manifest uniqueness from other peoples.

In Ghana, we have a rich culture made up of many foods, dresses, languages and customs. Ayikple, Fufu, tuo safi, and Aprapransa come to mind as some of the foods, while Kente and Batakari easily come up as our cherished cultural dresses.

In addition to these, we have festivals and unique forms of music, especially the Kete, Tzagbekor, highlife, which gave us a unique music identity in the early years.

These form a unique cultural heritage that the nation can develop into a huge source of revenue by turning it into a much-sought-after tourism product, with the required devoted attention.

Already, the tourism sector has shown strong signs as a good revenue source. According to a World Travel and Tourism report, the travel and tourism sector made a direct contribution of $1.1 billion and an overall contribution of $2.6 billion to the country’s GDP in 2014.

In terms of jobs, the report says the sector generated a little over 122,000 direct jobs and 298,000 direct and in direct jobs in that year. We could really do better, especially when we start first with getting our people to first appreciate our culture and that of their other tribes and peoples. So for me our focus should be getting our people to appreciate our culture and be proud of it, know where we are coming from to know where we are going.

We need to ensure that our children are proud of their language, their names and the things that make them unique. This what will build their confidence and give the ability to go into the global world and compete as strong force. We will not succeed doing that as a copy of other people. We cannot let our kids to lose the cultural identity, it is a fatal error and we need to start the process of correcting that.

This is why I think that the carefully selected theme of the forum is very appropriate and timely: Projecting our Culture: The Quest for Creativity, Excellence and Relevance.” If we project our culture creatively, and get the Ghanaian people well engaged and involved the country stands to benefit through domestic tourism first before other people will also come in and the people will be a more united and understand each other and we will produce a proud and confident people.

My worry, however, is that the youth seem to be drifting away from our beautiful culture as a result of the distractions of foreign cultures, mostly served on television and radio. This is disturbing because they form the pillar of the country’s future. We have surrendered our media to all form of foreign influences. Our prime time is taken by other cultures and there is a colonialization of our youth’s minds and once we lose that, the battle is gone.

The youth have developed a taste for everything foreign but their own. They find oily fried rice a better food than Ayikple, tuo safi, Tubaani, Aprapransah. Instead of Batakari, Ghanaian print, they see suit as a symbol of enlightenment.

As for highlife music as we knew it, the least said about it the better because it has been diluted in so many forms into something else, while others have maintained their music forms. When you hear Nigerian music, you easily identify the Nigerian beat and you cannot miss the South African rhythm. We cannot say the same of our music. We are losing our music identity. For some of it others have taken it and made it theirs. Even in our villages some of the repertoires are becoming extinct. We need to find ways of archiving them and making them very relevant.

Also worrying is the love for foreign language that has gripped our people. Increasingly now, many educated Ghanaians are losing their mother tongue to fluency in English. In fact, in some homes, parents have a deliberate policy of not speaking their own mother tongue to their children. I am sure you remember “Speaking Vernacular is not allowed” How dare all of us, our teachers call our languages as vernacular, vernacular is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary defines vernacular as using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language

Please, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that it is wrong to learn other languages. I am drawing the country’s attention to the danger of practically making a foreign language our first language. It is the case that some children cannot speak their parents’ mother tongue. This is clearly a worry we need to deal with as a country.

This is why I am happy that we have the respected professor, Opanin Agyekum as the keynote speaker on the theme and I am sure that he will give as food for thought as he is known to do always.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion.

Thank you.

This post has already been read 956 times!