By Emelia Nkrumah
Accra, July 24, GNA – The Sraha AdMa Basic School, in the Adentan Municipality, has emerged winner of the 2023 Adesa Village Folksongs and Storytelling Competition for basic schools in the Greater Accra Region.
The school beat 19 schools to come out as winners of the competition organised by the Greater Accra Regional Centre for National Culture, (CNC) at the Arts Centre.
It was an exciting moment as the young ones left the audience enthralled with their passion and creativity in folksongs and storytelling.
All the 20 schools that competed showed extraordinary skills and talent bringing stories to life.
The Sekyewere M/A Basic School placed second while Mercy Islamic School picked the third position.
The reason behind the competition was to bring back storytelling and folksongs in primary and Junior High Schools.
It was also to revive the dying art of storytelling and folksongs, teach the children English and local languages, and promote reading habits and the need for social interactions.
The winners were awarded a trophy, certificates for participation were given to all schools, while special prizes were awarded to the best-behaved school, best folk song, best story and best storyteller.
Mrs Alice Alima Kala, the Greater Accra Regional Director, CNC, said it was necessary for young ones to develop an interest in studying storytelling, understand it and have a passion for it.
She noted that “foreign cultures are good, but we should not forget the fact that we are Ghanaians and, therefore, going by tradition, we should always embrace our culture, eat what we have, wear what we have, speak our language and do things like Ghanaians that shows us our true identity.”
The Executive Director of the National Commission on Culture, Nana Otuo Owoahene Acheampong, said the competition brought out the rich culture in the stories and songs, which were the hallmark of the Ghanaian tradition and exposed the young ones to their cultural heritage as a people.
He appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education (MoE) to place more emphasis on culture and art, adding that organizing a programme like this would help the children to know their culture and traditions.
The Adesa Village Competition is a storytelling competition for Primary and Junior High School students that seeks to revive and bring back the fading art of storytelling and tap into the rock elements of storytelling like folk songs, riddles and proverbs.
During the competition, contesting schools are expected to bring their own storylines to be performed.
GNA