The Northern Region representative to the Council of State, Zunglana, Col (Rtd) Alhaji Mahamoud Tahiru, has encouraged the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to take steps to create inter-cultural linkages among the ethnic groups in Ghana.
This when done, the Chief believes will engender cultural diversity and further deepen the cohesion and cultural tolerance in the country and promote cultural exchanges and integration amongst Ghanaians.
He indicated that the rich annual festivals celebrated by the ethnic groups across the country can be used as a tool to assimilate culture and tradition among people.
The Chief in an exclusive interaction in Tamale told THE CUSTODIAN this will also promote domestic tourism and improve the local economy and revenue generation for the country.
Damba festival
The people of Dagbon in the northern region recently commemorated the 2021 Damba festival and a delegation of fifty Nzema Queen Mothers traveled to the region to witness the weeklong celebration.
Alhaji Tahiru said it was a personal initiative to host the Queen Mothers during the period to deepen ties between the people of Nzema and Dagbon.
He asserted the colorful moment was historic in the annals of both traditions as it brought them closer to understand each other’s culture and heritage.
“It was surprising how they could even dance to our tunes and vice versa. In one of the palaces they invited me to dance to their tune and it blended so well – so it’s very important to have such cultural interactions so that we link up, blend together and confirm our cultural difference which might not be so much”
After all, we are told that we’re created into different tribes and race so that we know each other, so this cultural integration is very important so we know each other very well” he said.
He indicated in spite of the fact there wasn’t adequate planning ahead of the weeklong tour, the Queen mothers were so excited for the wonderful and memorable experience they had whilst in the area.
However, he disclosed the gesture will be repeated next year but with the male chiefs from the Nzema traditional area who have developed interest to visit Dagbon to witness the festival.
“The experience I had was, usually, before one undertake such a venture, there is the need to do proper planning which I failed to do, so eventually I was constraint with logistics but God being so wonderful, we were able to accommodate and took care of them and they were very happy and they have even told me they want to comeback this year.
Indeed, one of the male chiefs came to attend the funeral of the Vice President’s mother and declined to greet me because he thought that I wasn’t fair for inviting only the Queen mother and without inviting the male chiefs too and therefore, I have put it upon myself to invite the male chiefs from the Nzema land to share with us during the Damba festival” Naa Mahamoud Tahiru stressed.
Rationale
The Council of State member reiterated the purpose of this initiative is to promote domestic tourism, explaining, “You realize that we always talking of expanding the tourism industry but we’re always looking at external tourists to come but I think that it’s important for us to know our country first before we can sell our country to non-Ghanaians to come and share with us.”
