By: Godwin Yirenkyi

The Vice President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has commended the University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Michigan, USA, for plans to create a cultural village at Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region in Collaboration of with the Techiman Traditional Council.

He said the cultural village will benefit the local community and also create wealth for the people of the traditional area through tourism.

These were contained n a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a three- day conference dubbed “Heritage Matters” held at Accra International Conference Centre this week.

The Vice President said that the “issue of heritage is very appropriate at this period of our national development when we need to harness every available resource at our disposal, especially our heritage which forms the basis of our very existence and therefore becomes a guiding principle for our policy formulation.

He added that the Ministry responsible for Chieftaincy and Culture, in collaboration with Attorney General’s Department is in process of reviewing the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board Law to address some of the challenges that hinder the board in their operation towards the effective development, preservation and sustenance of our rich culture”.

In her address, Dr. Kelly Askew, Director of the African Studies Centre, University of Michigan, defined heritage as sites of enslavement and political violence; objects and performances and other forms of tradition; houses and other forms of spatial organization; pre-colonial, colonial and post —colonial legacies, including legacies of political struggle, told in stories, performance and rituals”.

Heritage also includes inheritances of poetry, dance, script and religion” she said.

Dr. Askew noted that the “Heritage Matters!” conference which brought together an international group of scholars, practitioners, curators, archivists and activists would help spark the interest of Ghanaians in their past and urged government to invest resources in the preservation of the country’s rich heritage.

She noted that while Ghana has only scarcely began to realize the profit to the nation psychologically, economically and socially by investing in heritage management, she was optimistic that the bringing together of stakeholders from government, civil society, the private sector and academia would help in the generation of strategies to assist in the effort of safeguarding of Ghana’s rich heritage.

In his speech, Dr. Kwesi Yankah, Pro- Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, praised our ancestors for bequeathing to us a rich heritage and called on participants to give more attention to the values of heritage.

Other speakers included Dr. Brigid Sackey, Acting Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and Prof. Emmanuel Akyeampong of Harvard University, United States.