A very good morning to all of us as we gather here in this very special place, the Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, to observe the eleventh celebration of the CULTURE FORUM of Ghana. I deem it no small honour to be asked to deliver the keynote message of this anniversary on the theme; STRENGHTENING THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRY FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.
With the deepest appreciation, I salute the conveners of the GHANA CULTURE FORUM, Togbui AKUNU DAKE and Professor ESI SUHERLAND-ADDY. I salute also the Chief of Esikado, Nana Kobina Nketsiah and veteran Filmmaker, the celebrated Egya Kwaw Ansah and all patrons, officers and members of the forum. Greetings and a joyous anniversary to us all.
Allow me also to send up my humble regards and recognition to this wonderful company of stakeholders, the minister of Tourism, Culture and the Creative Arts, culture practitioners and professionals of our broad industry, traditional leaders, members of the diplomatic corp, state functionaries and friends. I acknowledge the presence of our partners from the media. I bid you all welcome once again to the symposium.
Friends, our culture as Ghanaians predates us way beyond the colonial usurpation of the continent of Africa, encapsulated in the way our people lived, close to nature and yet developing beyond the vagueness of our primordial ancestry to an age of organized communities and massive empires.
There was a vibrant indigenous industry until someone came along, sacked our origins, vandalized our heritage and succeeded, almost, to supplant our vernacular with a civilization totally alien to our African philosophies and religion.
In our traditional past, most of our forebears then were farmers, fish mongers, traders and merchants. The coastal people farmed the sea and the inland and offshore indigenes farmed the land. I feel like a man selling ice in Iceland or coal in New Castle, or to bring it home, a merchant bringing a cargo of fish from Lake Bosomtwi to sell in Anomabo.
The primary occupations of our aboriginal communities produced their social activities and complimentary industry. It defined their belief systems and philosophies, their festivals, observances, enactments, production not only of food, but tools and implements, utensils, reliquary and communal relationships.
The interdependency of cultural practices shaped the community providing the balance and stability needed for peaceful and productive coexistence. Perhaps this is an over beaten drum, I daresay, and our ears are dulled to that resonance, as we strain to hear a new song, the sense of a new rhythm, that we may dance a new dance with fresh energy, to stir up the dust of our past that we may perform today the overtures of a new victorious tomorrow.
I’m referencing our recent past not because I want to add to the tenuous choruses about our colonial subjugation, but to make a case for cultural awareness and exploitation as a view to socioeconomic development. Needless to say, our focus, first and foremost, is to find and lend meaning to our heritage as Ghanaians. The Osagyefo once said, and I quote, “The black man is capable of managing his own affairs” unquote.
Socioeconomic development is a measure of the stability, security and buoyancy of a people. We use it as a barometer to gauge the state of the nation. Contemporary Ghanaian Culture appears to be at a crossroads as through a number of political regimes the socioeconomic communication of our country has been turned this way and that way. And yet, in spite of ourselves we progress.
We must always keep this focus that we do not exist in isolation. We cannot wish away the crisis of globalization, systems of political extremism and intolerance. What we call the new normal will persist until significant stabilization gives birth to a new phase of global development and domestic rationalization. We are in the middle of it.
I believe that a socioeconomic crunch can also produce the springboard that can inevitably lead to a profound qualitative change in our development if we can internalize restructuring in our own vernacular. Do you remember Mr. Dan Lartey’s Domestication?
Playing the culture card promises a secure platform for systemic, institutional, and political reengineering. In my view we cannot stay on the same old trajectory of socioeconomic uncertainty and speculation. I believe the blueprints of our development can be found in creativity and innovation.
I was in a meeting where someone did an excellent presentation on STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics). When I suggested that the experts extended it to STEAM, (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Mathematics), someone said I was indulging in semantics. I still insist that if we do not teach our children Art in all its forms we are done for. Too many lawyers, if you ask me.
Culture led development communication can position us as a potential regional or zonal broker on the AU map. While this may sound beyond the remit of this message Nkrumah’s cardinal statement that the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa, should propel us towards viable cultural integration within our ECOWAS region.
The creation of a comprehensive digital environment is a huge plus for technology, and industry in Ghana. Connectivity has greatly enhanced our drive for socioeconomic emancipation. Access to this grid is our doorway into a functional reality of industry and accomplishment. Today internet access links us to achievable targets in any sphere of endeavour. It is on this highway that we need to make our socioeconomic development a cultural enterprise.
Our government’s call for digital transformation is an ongoing venture for government agencies, and the private sector alike to strive to build a functional environment based on the spread of digital means and knowhow to conduct business, education, and other daily tasks. We are in a position to create a vast and growing array of industries. Digitally speaking, The Cloud is the Limit.
The bedrock of socioeconomic development is the human resource, our people. There cannot be any progressive development without communal engagement. We live with a seeming disconnect between our aspirations as a people and our performance. As any culture practitioner will tell you a proud people make a successful nation. We have an identity crisis as a people.
Our poorly assimilated democratic dispensation has suffocated nationalism because the things that bind us together are overwhelmed by the things that divide us. Our populations ought to be taken through conscientisation within the ambit of our constitution and along the building bridges of cultural awareness and embrasure.
In identifying the challenges that confront us we ought to be dispassionate and embrace neutrality as persons belonging to an overriding constituency of culture, creativity and innovation. Development strategies on the back of digital technology are required to impact on social inclusion, innovation and an integrated communal dialogue. Culture and creativity are unifiers in our ethnic and social diversity.
Deliberate focal engagements in creativity, lateral thinking and imagination are valuable in generating new ideas to solve industry issues through the creation of new products, services and models.
We already possess a network of cultural assets right across the country to develop the music, film, performing arts, visual arts, publishing, technologies like metal working, ceramics and many other related creative industries. We have the colonial legacy of forts and castles strewn across our coastline from east to west. The Centres for Culture under the National Commission on Culture present a network of support agencies well positioned to implement any culture-led enterprise that policy makers are ready to embark upon.
I’ll cut to the chase and conclude with a drone shot of our creative industry proper and my wish list. Over time I have had a number of engagements with a number of state agencies and initiatives. So like many of you gathered here listening to my roller coaster submission, we have waited for a long time for attention to the accelerated expansion that a properly resourced culture industry can bring to our country. 35%/45% growth?
The Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture is missing a number of agencies. The GTA, Ghana Tourism Authority is working well as a regulator and facilitator for all the tourism industry. I believe that model ought to be replicated for Culture and the Creative Arts. For years we fought for the establishment of the Film Authority after that industry almost disintegrated. We are still waiting for the Legislative Instrument.
The Creative Arts Council ought to be converted to the Creative Arts Authority to be the regulator for the literary, performing, visual and plastic arts. The Commission on Culture which has oversight of The National Theatre, Centres of Culture, and other disciplines ought to also become a regulator and facilitator, The National Culture & Heritage Authority. Something like that. The details can be worked out. This way we can monetise and pursue bankable investments.
I propose in the short term, pilot culture communes designed and engineered by young creative professionals that can take in National Service personnel to create prototype models in all sixteen regions. I’ve called that venture THE NEW PEOPLE. The Film Authority as a matter of necessity ought to look at the creation of a national audiovisual hub for the digital market. This can be done in collaboration with The Arts Authority, should we accept to modify.
All the communities on our coastline from Aflao to Elubo should be engaged under supra ministerial arrangement to convert Southern Ghana into Global tourist destination. The Marine Drive is not enough. Think about it. Instead of trying to fight the sea why not let it in where we have Ramsar sites to build beautiful waterfronts. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum built Dubai which is a phenomenal touristic statement not because he had oil but because he was running out of oil.
Dubai is a manifestation of what a threatened economy can do when you bring in the artists, the designers, the engineers. Look what happened when tourism launched the year of Return. Massive. Phenomenal. Why have we not added value to our foremost forts and castles. Every year in the UK there is a Shakespeare festival. What we must do is be deliberate in considering the international market.
East and Southern Africa have their Serengentis and Kruger National Parks. We have to create it. I don’t want to state the obvious. But a strong culture and creative industry can only rise on the back of all stakeholders, particularly policy makers, resolving to make it the engine of socioeconomic development, by venturing, by participating and by consolidating a culture driven agenda.
All the anxieties notwithstanding, we are still in that place where all we need is a trigger to launch out into global relevance as a remarkable 21st century emergence. There are statistics that bear out the fact that Ghana may be on the verge of a renaissance and in need of a new narrative. I have so much more to share as you can see. I’m grateful for the opportunity and thank you for listening.
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