Professor Drolor Bosso Adamatey 1, King of Kordiabe and Suapolor of the Shai state, on Tuesday said, African tradition and culture were not evil and called for the preservation of the nation’s tradition.
“Our traditions and culture are not evil, contrary to what some Christians say, Christianity brought some harm to Africa, what our colonial masters demonized about our traditions and culture is their opinion and narrative and not the truth,” he said.
Prof. Adamatey 1, who is known in private life as Kingsley Fletcher, made the pronouncement at the Professor James Robert Kwesi Anquandah Lecture and Launch of a Foundation at the University of Ghana.
The lecture was on the theme: “Preserving Africa’s History and Culture.”
Prof. Adamatey 1, who was the main speaker, was also a former Special Advisor to the Assistant Secretary General and Director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said African history should be written by Africans and not written for Africans, saying, “Every society in Africa has its own values, tradition and culture.”
Our African history should be our own story told by us, he said and noted that Africans had a history before colonialism.
“There is the need to preserve our traditional languages, our tradition education and our culture,” he said, and noted that, it is usually “considered that to be educated is to speak a European language but that is totally wrong.”
Prof. Adamatey 1, also pointed out that African countries were not introduced to the concept of education by the colonial masters, “we had our own concept of education, and our educational system, now needs a very serious overhaul.”
“We have migrated from our traditional educational system to colonial education which aims at preparing Africans to always play the subordinate role, we need to develop our own educational curriculum,” he said
Prof. Adamatey 1, commended the Ashanti Kingdom for preserving their culture, saying, they make us proud as Africans.
Dean of the School of Arts, University of Ghana, Prof. Michael Okyerefo, who chaired the ceremony, said good education can help Africans to decolonize their minds.
He said the Prof. James Robert Kwesi Anquandah Lecture series is the University of Ghana’s way of keeping the legacy of the late archaeologist.
Professor James Robert Kwesi Anquandah was Ghana’s foremost Archaeologist and first Ghanaian to head the Department of Archaeology at the University of Ghana.
Some of Prof. Anquandah’s prominent research projects include the Debeira project in Sudan, the Takyiman/Begho Research project, Bonoase and Boyasi hill, Shai Dangme land Archaeological project, Ayawaso, Cape-Coast, Elmina and Fort Eliza Carthago Archaeological projects.
Professor Anquandah trained over three generations of Ghanaians and non-Ghanaian archaeologists and is remembered for indigenising the discipline and archaeological heritage in national development.
The ceremony was also used to launch the Professor James Robert Kwesi Anquandah Foundation.
