The eighteenth Basic Schools Festival of Arts and Culture was held at Tamatoku in the Ada East District last week. About 12 schools participated in the one-day event.
Drum language interpretation, poetry recitals, choral music, reading and interpretation of music notes and varieties of cultural dances were some of the events they participated in.
In an interview, the Circuit Supervisor, Patrick Tetteh Dosu, said the event was to promote the indigenous way of life of the forebears of the land, not only of Ada but of Ghana as well and re ignite the fire of our true cultural identity in the mind of the children and adults as well and to sustain it.
He lamented that the current trend of globalization has severely hurt our indigenous way of life with the youth imbibing anything that comes their way just because adults, who are to be their mentors, have also deviated from our way of life and are blindly copying Western lifestyle which, to a large extent, has influenced the youth.
‘So you see our children adorning miniskirts, ‘I am awares’, show your breast, show your back, Otto Pfister and all without the slightest hint of shame,’ he said.
He said parents are to blame because they have the primary responsibility to groom their wards in the rich cultural heritage our forefathers have left for us—a culture of dignity and excellence—but unfortunately most of them are wallowing gleefully in the strange trend of Western culture which they seem to be enjoying to the detriment of their own African identity.
By Mike Avickson