Ghanaians asked to embrace culture for development
Mr James Adabuga, Northern Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture on Friday, expressed the need for the country to protect her cultural heritage in order to promote development and national cohesion.
He said it is necessary for Ghanaians not to neglect the positive side of culture in order to accrue the eventual benefits.
Mr Adabuga made the call in Tamale during a stakeholders’ capacity building workshop for state and non-state actors collaborating to promote the cultural industrial sector.
The Centre for Eve Language and Cultural Research (CELCuR), a Ho based non-governmental organisation, organised the day’s workshop with funding from the Commonwealth Foundation.
It aimed at assessing the influence and relevance of the Ghanaian culture within the framework of the implementation of the National Cultural Policy.
Mr Adabuga said cultural policies had become important components of the national developmental framework of most nations.
He said development in all respects must have a cultural construct.
Mr Adabuga said some of the industrialised nations such as China and India are still adhering to their cultural heritage, stressing: “In this technological era, China and Korea still use sticks to eat rice instead of spoons and this tells of the importance of culture.”
Togbe Enos Adiko-Mensa, Executive Director of CELCuR said Ghana’s National Cultural Policy has remained mainly cosmetic over the years with the institution of Culture Day in March 2012 and a trust fund established to give financial backing to Ghana’s diverse culture remains dormant.
He said a meaningful development must be based on a sound cultural foundation and that attention must also be paid to Ghana’s chieftaincy institutions as an integral tool for sustainable development.
The Centre for Eve Language and Cultural Research (CELCuR) is a community based institution established in 1988 in Ho in the Volta Region with the aim of collaborating with various organizations to promote culture and especially indigenous language.
The centre has been in partnership with the African Studies Department of the Leiden University in the Netherlands from where students studying the Eve language visit the centre to do courses in Eve every two years.
Source: GNA