Ghana and Africa will continue to be the feeding fields for external exploitation and domination unless their developmental agenda is premised on defined progressive cultural values, Mr. Akunu Dake, Executive Director of Heritage Development has said.
The culture of a people and the society is the basic essence of their lives ad existence and unless they can express themselves, their ideas, forms and structures to resolve and satisfy their needs, would continue to be a dependent.
Mr. Dake said this at the just-ended maiden edition of the Ghanaian Times National Development Forum in Accra on Tuesday.
His paper was titled “culture and development in Ghana and Development in Ghana’ under the general Theme “re – Orientation for Accelerated Development.”
Mr. Dake said Ghanaian altitude towards culture and its relationship to development has been largely ignored based on erroneous notions of how culture is perceived.
“There is a certain notion that sees culture as simply institutional practices and beliefs from the past, like chieftaincy, funeral rites and traditional drumming and dancing”.
He said people erroneously tend to represent the fundamental character and essence of culture with its expression, “that is why the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 11 focuses in the craft, music and film industry and the medium term national development framework reference to culture will be on its creative industry and economy.
Mr. Dake said those aspects of culture captured in Ghana‘s development policies are only expression of culture, “That is, its creative and artistic manifestations and forms of activity”.
He said culture must be seen as material and spiritual expression of the people’s life and their struggle on a daily basis.
“The basic material needs of food, clothing, shelter and security are central to the reproduction of life and a guarantee for the sustainability of the human race”, he said.
Mr. Dake said institutions, the social contracts of legal and political systems, belief systems, values and the creative expressions tend to ensure a legacy of the continuous reproduction of life’s in harmonious and sometimes contradictory ways.
He said from a more developmental perspective, culture informs the organization of production systems such as agriculture, technological and industrial development within the economy carried out according to the dominant socio-cultural norms of the society.
“The state of our national culture behooves us to pursue policies and programmes that affirm our heritage and identity as a people and nation that preserve and project them for posterity, he said.
He said the sense of pride that is being developed by the African Diaspora and programmes in Africa, particularly in Ghana, as well as the growing recognition of the wealth of indigenously derived cultural expressions and its impact on world culture and socio-economic development” should inspire us in applying ourselves more assiduously to the development of what is ours”.
The culture of a people and the society is the basic essence of their lives ad existence and unless they can express themselves, their ideas, forms and structures to resolve and satisfy their needs, would continue to be a dependent.
Mr. Dake said this at the just-ended maiden edition of the Ghanaian Times National Development Forum in Accra on Tuesday.
His paper was titled “culture and development in Ghana and Development in Ghana’ under the general Theme “re – Orientation for Accelerated Development.”
Mr. Dake said Ghanaian altitude towards culture and its relationship to development has been largely ignored based on erroneous notions of how culture is perceived.
“There is a certain notion that sees culture as simply institutional practices and beliefs from the past, like chieftaincy, funeral rites and traditional drumming and dancing”.
He said people erroneously tend to represent the fundamental character and essence of culture with its expression, “that is why the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy 11 focuses in the craft, music and film industry and the medium term national development framework reference to culture will be on its creative industry and economy.
Mr. Dake said those aspects of culture captured in Ghana‘s development policies are only expression of culture, “That is, its creative and artistic manifestations and forms of activity”.
He said culture must be seen as material and spiritual expression of the people’s life and their struggle on a daily basis.
“The basic material needs of food, clothing, shelter and security are central to the reproduction of life and a guarantee for the sustainability of the human race”, he said.
Mr. Dake said institutions, the social contracts of legal and political systems, belief systems, values and the creative expressions tend to ensure a legacy of the continuous reproduction of life’s in harmonious and sometimes contradictory ways.
He said from a more developmental perspective, culture informs the organization of production systems such as agriculture, technological and industrial development within the economy carried out according to the dominant socio-cultural norms of the society.
“The state of our national culture behooves us to pursue policies and programmes that affirm our heritage and identity as a people and nation that preserve and project them for posterity, he said.
He said the sense of pride that is being developed by the African Diaspora and programmes in Africa, particularly in Ghana, as well as the growing recognition of the wealth of indigenously derived cultural expressions and its impact on world culture and socio-economic development” should inspire us in applying ourselves more assiduously to the development of what is ours”.
