Director of the Community Youth Cultural Center at NCC Dr Akosua Abdallah
The Director of the Community Youth Cultural Center at the National Commission on Culture (NCC) Dr Akosuah Abdallah has called for collaboration to develop video games that can be used as a tool to promote Ghana’s culture.
Dr Abdallah believes that Ghanaians playing virtual games developed based on the cultures of the west does not help boost the Ghanaian culture.
She added that volumes of virtual games about the historical events of our ancestors for the global gaming community including stories about Queen Yaa Asantewaa, The Great Savanna Warriors, Okomfo Anokye, Togbui Sri I and Togbui Tsali, Regent Dɔde Akaibi, and Nii Tackie Tawiah I must be created.
She was speaking at the launch of the Made In Ghana-UK Festival 2021 on Thursday, August 5.
The theme of the event is ‘Promoting Ghanaian culture, Beyond the Return’.
Dr Abdallah made the submission as she addressed the event on behalf of her boss, the Executive Director of National Commission on Culture Janet Nyame.
Ghana through its Year of Return initiative in 2019 made strides in positioning Ghana as a key travel destination for African Americans and the African Diaspora.
The events planned throughout the year served as a launchpad for a consistent boost in tourism for Ghana in the near and distant years.
Subsequently, the Beyond the Return Diaspora Initiative to succeed the Year of Return was launched by the government not only to promote tourism and homecoming of Africans and Ghanaians in the diasporas but to foster economic relations and investments from the diaspora in Africa and Ghana. The Made In Ghana-UK festival is one of these activities.
Dr Abdallah amongst other things indicated that “Ghana is endowed with various forms of arts and artistic expressions such as customs, traditions, festivals performing arts and rituals and these art forms thrive very well and account for a significant proportion of employment and revenue generation both in the formal and informal sectors.”
“In this festival and beyond, the only instructive word that whirls in me is “collaboration”. We must seek to collaborate with the diaspora to harness the various aspects of our culture that can be repackaged and repositioned for a mutually beneficial relationship.”
She noted “technology keeps influencing the evolution of cultures across the world. Most Ghanaian youths play virtual games that are inspired by the cultures of other countries. Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, GTA and Mario Brothers.”
“Can we not collaborate to create various volumes of virtual games about the historical events of our ancestors for the global gaming community? Stories about Queen Yaa Asantewaa, The Great Savanna Warriors, Okomfo Anokye, Togbui Sri I and Togbui Tsali, Regent Dɔde Akaibi, and Nii Tackie Tawiah I. Would that not serve as an interactive medium through which young people in the diaspora and in Africa can appreciate the history and heritage of the nation and continent?”
The Made In Ghana-UK Festival 2022 will be held in London in March 2022.
The NCC as an institution is mandated to promote and ensure the growth and development of our Culture and make them more relevant to human-centred development.
The mission of the outfit is to maintain the unique cultural identity and values for the promotion of an integrated national culture, as well as contribute to the overall economic development of the nation.