The National Commission on Culture under the auspices of Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has launched the ‘2022 edition of the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) in Accra.
NAFAC, one of the flagship event of the National Commission on Culture was institutionalised in 1961 by the late Dr. Alexander Atta Yaw Kyeremanten, the founder and the first Director of the Ghana Cultural Centre now the Centre for National Culture Kumasi. The festival serves as a platform where diverse Ghanaian cultures converge to showcase their ethnic and regional cultural prowess, our diversities merge into a single driving force which has the potential to unite us around common beliefs and ideals which we all cherish as a people.
The week-long celebration will this year be held at Cape Coast and will involve several activities including choral and indigenous music, a night of highlife, a day for young people and the youth, a colloquium, football games and a day to revive our story telling and traditions with the intentions of creating awareness and enthusiasm among the general public about our culture and the values that portray our “Ghanaianess”.
The Executive Director of National Commission on Culture Madam Janet Edna Nyame speaking at the launch expressed her profound gratitude and warm appreciation to the initiators of this festival and all those who have contributed in any diverse ways to sustain the festival as it has been one of the flagship programme of the Commission for six decades.
“We are confident that, NAFAC over the past years has contributed to artistic development, peaceful coexistence, unity in diversity, creativity, and socio-economic development of our country”, the Director stated.
According to the Executive Director, the theme for this year’s festival “Reviving Patriotism, Peace and Unity through cultural diversity for sustainability development” generally enjoins us to situate our Ghanaian culture, norms, values and practices at the centre of our development agenda.
“In all aspects of a nation’s development, there is the need to pay a critical attention to how culture impacts our strategies and I am much optimistic that when the theme is critically discussed at the festival, we shall derive a guide that will inform policy formulation in the country”.
Madam Edna concluded by appealing to all well-meaning Ghanaians, groups and organisations to come and support this year’s festival to make it a success as our culture has the potential of rekindling our patriotic spirit and reinforcing peace and unity towards national development.
The Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Hon. Mark Okraku Mantey in a speech expressed his sincere appreciation to the National Commission on Culture for spearheading this flagship programme for the past six decades as from its inception has aimed at promoting unity, peaceful coexistence and nation building through Ghana’s rich culture and arts.
He asserted that, the theme for NAFAC this year was strategically chosen to awaken our consciousness about the moral duties we have towards our country within the context of the global development agenda currently in force.
He added that, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are goals set by comity of nations, sees the need to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach towards the realization of the peculiar needs and aspirations of member countries.
“I strongly believe that through the effective implementation of the SDGs and our act of patriotism, we will help curb prevalent issues on poor sanitation, environmental degradation, nepotism, corruption and dishonesty which demean our cultural and moral values as Ghanaians”.
He stressed that; concerted efforts will be required of all stakeholders to lend their supports to help drive such a laudable initiative through to a success.
“As a nation, we can only make progress and be recognized amongst our peers as trekking on a sound development trajectory when we take what belongs to us seriously, package it well, and present it to others”.
“Thankfully, from intangible through to tangible aspects of culture, Ghana is endowed with fascinating repository of many cultural elements that show prospects for investment. We therefore have good reasons to believe that when NAFAC is raised to an international status, it will lead to a substantial improvement in its celebrations thereby creating opportunities for Ghana to generate revenue”.