The word Culture, added to the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts is only making the ministry’s name as long as a sentence for nothing, because, that portfolio of the ministry has no work to do – Ghanaians are now subsets of Western culture.
Do you known that every 14th March, 2014 is Ghana Culture Day? Well in case you never knew, it is. I recently read that during the March 14, 2013 edition of Ghana Culture Day, Ghana Culture Forum called for a tangible change in the policy environment and attitudes towards culture in the country.
I ask myself – does Ghana still have a culture? What is the practical evidence of or to Ghana’s culture? Ghanaian ladies are now interested in wearing Brazilian hair, Bolivian hair, Indian hair, etc. as against our organic natural hair styles like: Ntekua, School Girl, Aware So, Kenten, Adesewa, and others which defines who we are – not to talk of the artificial eye lashes, eye brows, pedicure, lip sticks, manicure, etc.
Our young brothers and sisters now don’t listen to our folkloric arts like Anans3m (example By the Fireside in the 90s) and Anwens3m (poetry), do not mould cars from empty milk tins to manifest their creativity, or mould things from the sand or clay, play Alikoto, Stay, etc. but rather, watch and play; Nintendo Mario, Mortal Combat, Tom and Jerry, and others.
We organize events in Ghana and prefix it with the name, Ghana, yet you attend these events and about 90% of the event’s patrons are in foreign (Western) fabrics or dresses. Can you imagine organizers of Ghana Movie Awards once came public to announce that if you attend the event and you are not in Tuxedo, you won’t be allowed to enter the auditorium? Well they did!