By P. K. Yankey
Axim (W/R), Aug. 10, GNA – The Paramount Chief of the Lower Axim Traditional Area, Awulae Attibrukusu III, has announced that the 2024 Axim Kundum festival will be celebrated in a grand style.
It would showcase the rich cultural heritage and tourist potential of the chiefs and people of Nzema to the outside world.
The festival marks the end and beginning of a new season to thank God for bountiful harvest and spiritual protection from evil.
It is celebrated by all the chiefs and their subjects in the traditional area and climaxed at the Paramountcy in Axim with a grand durbar where the Paramount Chief is paraded in a palanquin amidst singing and dancing.
The annual event, which is usually celebrated in September and October in Axim, is expected to attract tourists and investors to the area to boost the local economy.
Awulae Attibrukusu III, President of the Lower Axim Traditional Council, who announced this at the Traditional Council meeting, said feverish preparations were ongoing to kickstart the festival as he launched the 2024 Kundum festival.
He urged the chiefs and people to keep Axim clean and tidy as the Paramountcy climaxed the festival being celebrated from one town to the other on weekly basis.
He said the government alone could not do all and appealed to the traditional rulers and their subjects to ensure sanitation sustainability prior to the festival.
As part of the celebration, all structures which would hinder free movement during the celebration would be pulled down.
Awulae Attibrukusu noted that tricycle drivers with their vehicles popularly known as Keke were creating a lot of nuisances in the area with minors under 15 years commuting in the area as drivers.
He cautioned that the Traditional Council might ban them from operation as the nuisance was getting quite beyond the town.
Awulae Attibrukusu appealed to companies in the Nzema area as well as corporate Ghana to donate generously towards a successful festival.
Mr. Kofi Arko Nokoe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Evalue Jomoro Gwira, pledged to be instrumental in the celebration of the Kundum Festival.
The MP promised to team up with the Municipal Assembly to reshape deplorable roads in Axim and environs before the festival.
Mr. Eric Essien, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nzema-East, said after the commissioning of new machines for road construction by the government next week, all deplorable roads in the Municipality would be put in good shape to make the road network accessible.
He said the government had voted enough funds with 30 workers and three operators as well as fuel to each of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to reshape the roads.
Mr. Essien also assured the Traditional Council of the Assembly’s readiness to support the celebration of the Kundum Festival.
Companies in the Nzema area such as Ghana National Gas Company, ADAMUS Mines and Tullow Oil also pledged their support towards the celebration of the festival.
GNA