For the heritage of any nation to be passed on from generation to generation, it is critical that culture including entertainment is inculcated in children.
However, with the advent of technology, Children tend to take on foreign culture from Movies that have inundated the airwaves. This has to a large extent relegated the indegenous forms of entertainment to the background.
This was the kind of atmosphere few years ago as children converged on playgrounds in circles to socialize.
It was a delight to watch children play while they learn as most of these indigenous games taught children how to count and identify odd numbers. The story is different.
The indigenous games like ampe, chaskele, piloloo, oware are dying out as they are in serious competition with video games on smart phones, tablet and computers.
Children’s content like by the fire side, Kyekyekule, fun world and the like have been replaced with soap operas which are flattered with sex scenes.
Ask a child about a program on TV or Radio and they will take you through the kumkum Bagya’s, Kucheran and the like.
The famous Ananse stories which taught children to be responsible, diligent, and respectful is not known to the current generation of children.
The intermittent ‘Nana so wo Bodua mu’ which literary asked the story teller to catch some breath as they sang and stretched legs when fatigue sets in made it interactive and built confidence and thinking ability of many children.
Veteran Actor David Dontoh believes drama clubs set up in schools years ago contributed to the sustenance of such games and content at the time and should be introduced.
For many, the absence of such traditional games and content on TV is one contributory factor to the upsurge in fraud, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and defilement among other social vices.
It is about time the country has a serious conversation on how to reintroduce these traditional games and content to ensure that Ghana’s heritage is not lost entirely.
