By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Oct. 10, GNA – Mr Fio Richardson Commey, Deputy Executive Director, National Commission on Culture, has said Ghana needed to invest more in its culture to be truly independent.
He said, “our identity stems from our culture and knowing who we are as Ghanaians, taking control of our future and our destiny is all embedded in our culture. The only time we are very independent is when we are free to express who we are to the rest of the globe without any restrictions.”
He said if the country was unable to say no to certain cultures because of the support coming from interested societies, then it showed the country was not independent enough.
“We can call ourselves a republic, but consciously or unconsciously in our minds, we are being influenced by other societies.”
Mr Commey speaking at the Evaluation and Validation Meeting of the UNESCO-Aschberg programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals said Ghana must invest in cultural activities, cultural education, and cultural awareness of the people to enable them to become more patriotic and selfless.
The UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals is aimed at protecting and promoting artistic freedom and the status of the artist, in application of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the 1980 Recommendation concerning the Status of the Artist.
Mr Commey said with funding from UNESCO and support from national experts, the NCC undertook the project, which sought to build the capacities of 400 selected emerging artists and cultural professionals across the country, in four separate zones, each with 100 beneficiaries.
“We had the Tamale zone that captured the Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Savannah and North East regions in Tamale. The Kumasi Zone to also train artists in the Ashanti, Bono East, Bono and Ahafo regions. Then Cape Coast to train Central, Western and Western North regions and finally to Accra to train Greater Accra, Oti, Eastern and Volta regions,” he said.
The Deputy Director said the training was geared towards empowering the artists and cultural professionals on legal frameworks and policies that governed the industry.
Some of the issues discussed include intellectual property rights, how to go into contracts and other agreements, the cultural policy of Ghana, Constitutional provisions that support the freedom of the artists and freedom of expression.
He said the training was done in phases, the first phase was a stakeholder engagement, then selection of conference participants, zonal training and then the evaluation and validation.
Participants were drawn from the Musicians Union of Ghana, Ghana Artists Guild, Ghana Association of Writers, Ghana Association of Visual Artists, Audiovisual Society of Ghana, GAMRO among many others.
Mr Carl Ampah, National Professional Officer for Culture, UNESCO said UNESCO was excited to be part of this journey of empowering artists in the country, saying the outcome of the project was to help artists sustain their work and improve their economic conditions.
He said the project, established by UNESCO in 1956, was revamped over the years to address contemporary issues of creatives, artists, including artistic freedom, strengthening artistic freedom, and then issues that look at social and economic rights of artists and many more.
“In 2021, the Programme was notably redesigned following the COVID-19 crisis, to address the structural challenges that left many artists and cultural professionals, particularly women and youth, vulnerable in the face of economic precarity and multi-faceted crises,” he added.
He said the project also looked at enhanced mobility, which talked about facilitating the mobility of artists and cultural professionals, allowing them to collaborate internationally.
He expressed the hope that at the end of it, artists would be able to interact with others across the borders, emphasizing the importance of AfCFTA.
“Ghana can work in such a way that we engage AfCFTA to have a secretariat that will be looking out for the issues of creatives. It is a big market for all of Africa’s creatives to move their goods and services across borders,” he added.
Mr Ampah said, in general, the project was looking at empowering creatives to be who they were and to give of their best.
“We have provided funding and have provided technical assistance, and we are hoping that at the end of all this, you will find space in there to use your talents and gifts to point out societal ills that need attending to,” he said.
He assured that UNESCO would continue to support and accompany the work of creatives and for that matter the cultural space.
GNA