The 2023 Basic Schools Art and Culture Festival has been held in the Kadjebi District of the Oti Region.
The programme, which was held on the theme: “Relevance of Culture Education to Ghanaian Economy,” involved poetry recital, drum language, ampe, traditional dressing, choral music, dance, drama, and sight singing.
The national activity would be held in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.
Mr Michael Zowonu, the Kadjebi District Culture Co-ordinator disclosed this during the Kadjebi Circuit’s Art and Culture celebration at Kadjebi.
He said the Festival of Art and Culture celebrations in basic schools educates both students and the public in diverse ways and that Culture was the lifeblood of a vibrant society, expressed in many ways as we told our stories, celebrate, remember the past, entertain ourselves and imagine the future.
Mr Zowonu said celebrating the festival of Art in our schools makes Ghana children appreciate the core principles and ideas upon which an entire community exists and relies upon for existence and harmonious relationship.
The District Culture Coordinator said the festival was also used to shape Ghanaian children into who they would be as they gain knowledge, learn the language, symbols, values, norms, customs, and traditions.
He said children felt more comfortable and safer with these differences later in life.
Mr Zowonu explained that the festival allowed the children to interact in a wider range of social groups and that made them feel more confident in themselves and in their interactions with others.
He said celebrations also influenced how the children see the world and the community they live in and how they communicate with each other.
The District Culture Coordinator said unfortunately, some reduce the understanding of the celebration as fetishism, archaic and anachronistic acts, while others considered it as just drumming and dancing. Meanwhile, we had other disciplines such as poetry recitals, drum language, choral music, traditional dressing, still life drawing, exhibition, among others.
He thus advised parents to give their children the proper training they deserve, for a brighter future.
Mr Zowonu said the current generation ought to make good use of their culture and forget about the foreign culture which was destroying us and leading us to unknown destinations.
Mr Reuben Kemevor, the School Improvement Support Officer for Kadjebi Circuit, charged the students to avoid copying foreign culture blindly as God knows why they were created Africans.
The Kadjebi Circuit event saw ten Junior High Schools (JHSs) and twelve Primary Schools competing in poetry recital, drum language, ampe, traditional dressing, choral music, dance, drama, and sight singing. A similar programme was organised for the remaining seven Circuits in the District.
Source: GNA