Celebration Of Festival Not Idolatry-VC

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The Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Professor Domwini Dabire Kuupole, has said the celebration of traditional festivals does not constitute fetishism or idolatry as claimed by people of certain faiths.

wpid-University-of-Cape-CoastUCC.jpgProf Kuupole said: ?In Ghana, the celebration of traditional festivals plays a crucial role in protecting our cultural identity and also serves as tool for educating young ones for accelerated development.?

Prof Kuupole was addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Agona Asafo to climax their annual Akwambo Festival.
The week-long festival is under the theme: ?Harnessing the Full Potential of the Youth for Accelerated Development?.
He said the celebration of festivals provided an opportunity for celebrants to take stock of their socio-economic affairs and to plan for the coming years.
It also revitalized the communal values that bind citizens to reflect ways to build better and prosperous communities, he said.
Encouraging the people to give their children education, the Vice Chancellor stated that education had been identified as an act to support the growth and development of the nation?s economy.
?Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world,? the professor, quoted Nelson Mandela.

Prof Kuupole said education also equipped young ones with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for making them useful and acceptable to themselves, their families and the society as a whole.
Therefore, according to the Vice Chancellor, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Two and Three called for achievement of the universal primary and gender parity at all levels of education by 2015.
He urged the State to continually support educational institutions to produce graduates who would exhibit critical mindedness in decision making to address the challenges facing the nation.
Professor George T.K. Oduro, Director College of Distance Learning of UCC, advised parents to reduce expenditure on funerals and other social issues and spend more on the education of their children, especially the girl-child.
Professor Keri Botchwey, a former Finance Minister in the Rawlings Regime, cautioned parents not to force their girl-child into early marriage.
Prof. Botchwey, who is also Gyantuahene of Agona Asafo, asked the pupils and students in the town to learn from the many role models who had climbed to the highest of the education ladder.
Nana Yamfo Asuako XI, Nifahene of Nyakrom Traditional Area and Chief of Asafo, called on the people to desist from acts, which could let them contract cholera and Ebola diseases.
The people of Agona in the Central Region celebrate the Akwambo, which literally means ?path-clearing?.

The Asafo companies weed footpaths leading to the streams or rivers, farms and other communal places, as well as paths, which lead to shrines.

When the people assemble the following day, the chief pours libation of thanksgiving and seek protection for the ensuing year.

GNA

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