CULTURAL NEWS
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Chief teaches culture, others in Western Region
From: Clement Adzei Baye
HE Nana Kobina Nketsia IV Trust, has begun an outreach programme to teach junior secondary students of the Essikado traditional area Ghanaian heritage, culture and history.
The programme which are in phase will be extended to other communities within the Sekondi – Takoradi metropolis after the first phase.
On Wednesday, the Chairman of the Trust, Nana Kobina Nketsia IV led a team to the Methodist school, Catholic school and the Nana Kobina Nketsia JSS, to teach the students about the African family.
He began by exposing students to the Ghanaian family and lineage.
“You don’t decide on your lineage or family; it’s gift from God,” Nana Nketsia, who is also the Omanhene of Essikado said.
Explaining further, he said although a child might trace his or her lineage from the mother’s side, in the case of the Akan and other tribes from the father, the responsibility of taking care of the child, is borne by the father with assistance from the mother.
He said that the downgrading of the Ghanaian culture had presented the society with daunting challenges.
That, he said led to neglect of “our way of life and created the frustrations we find among the youth.
“We have even enacted laws that looked at the society from the perspective of the Whiteman’s culture,” Nana Nketsia told the students.
He admonished the students to take the trouble to know their heritage so that they would reflect on the world from the Ghanaian perspective.
“I have always been wondering, what kind of legacy we are leaving for our children,” he said.
The chief said that from the kindergarten to the university the educational curricula had been tailored to suit colonial legacies.
He said that culture was not just dancing but the sum total of what the Ghanaian did each day saying, “We don’t practice culture, but it flows from a pot of life. Culture is you”.
“We must be proud of our identity, our culture and ancestors,” Nana Kobina Nketsia told the students.
Miss Comfort Ackon, a student of Nana Nketsia JSS, told the Times Education that the lectures had exposed her to understand the African family and heritage.
Later, in an interview with Times Education Nana Nketsia said that the cultural policy of Ghana talked about heritage clubs to let Ghanaians know their culture.
He said that his predecessor, who was a Pan Africanist and an educationist spoke against Western lifestyle and vowed that “we teach who we are and our world view”.
*Source
The Ghanaian Times - Wednesday, July 18, 2007 Page: 15 |