Cultural Heritage of Ghana - CAN 2008
By Mawutodzi Abissath
Do you know that a nation without culture is like a man without soul? And a man
without soul is as good as a still-born baby? And a still-born baby is that
entity which could not take in the first breath of life at birth? That first
breath of life is the soul which is part of the Almighty Creator Himself,
without which, no human being can survive?
Perhaps the Holy Bible will help to better illustrate the point I am trying to
make here. Just open the Bible, (King James Version) and see Genesis Chapter 2:
7. It reads: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul."
On Sunday, 20th January, 2008, the MTN 26th Africa Cup of Nations, dubbed Ghana
2008 kicked off in the capital city of Accra. The tournament would be running in
four cities, namely Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi and Tamale until 10th February, 2008.
The object of this piece is to try to review the Grand Opening Ceremony of the
event, where Ghanaian culture was planted like a flourishing rose flower in the
centre of the earth for humanity to behold, relish and cherish. It was fantastic
and "extraordinaire" as the French will say. Analogically, that cultural
pageantry which heralded the event was the breath of life infused into the veins
of the games like the living soul to make Ghana CAN 2008 a living tournament.
First of all, Ghana and for that matter Africa must be proud that there are
citizens of the continent whose creativity is beyond imagination. For the person
or group of persons who sat down, or stood up or were in motion and through
attunement and meditation, received inspiration from the Supreme Creator and
were able to transform their visualisation into the realisation of what was
displayed at the newly refurbished Ohene Djan Stadium for over 4 billion people
to witness globally, merit acclamation. In fact, one would have wished that at
the end of the show, at least the directors and coordinators of the entire
episode should have come to the centre of the stadium to receive thunderous and
endless applauses and ovations. They did fantastically well! Bravo for all
performers and their directors.
I do not know them per se. But I learned that some of the cultural gurus in
whose fertile wombs the baby was nurtured and given birth to included, Prof.
F.Nii Yartey, Prof. Anku, Prof. Martin Owusu, Prof. Kofi Ansah and many, many
others. May Jesus bless them all. Be it known to them that their reward is
guaranteed in heaven! But those of them who want their pay instantly may have to
kick the bucket any way. I permit myself to bestow the title of Professor upon
all those who participated in that historical opening ceremony. And if anybody
dares subpoena me before any lawful court of the land, because of professorship
saga, I shall soberly plead for clemency, leniency and mercy. Period! I don't
want any palaver!
For the benefit of non-Ghanaians, who enjoyed the beauty of the cultural
pageantry but might not have grasped the actual import of the denouement of the
drama, here is the gist of what transpired that day. In the first place, it is
important to know that there are ten administrative regions in Ghana. And every
region is endowed with unique magnificent cultural heritage in terms music,
dances, songs, festivals, cuisines, drumming and artifacts. There is no cultural
or religious discrimination in Ghana. Therefore, any time there is an event of
national dimension, Traditional Priests, Christian Priests and Muslim Priests
are all invited to say prayers to God for the success of the event. Whether they
call God, or Mawu or Nyankupong or Allah, He or She is the same Supreme Creator
of all.
So, too, whenever, a national event is taking place in the country and cultural
performance is organised, dances and songs from all the ten regions of the
country are staged. For example, when the National Orientation Sensitisation
Programme was organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation
where the Five Pillars were officially launched in August last year at the Accra
International Conference Centre, little kids from all the ten regions of the
country performed cultural dances of their respective regions. This is what has
made Ghana a unique land of cultural diversity in unity.
Thus, the mammoth cultural pageantry performed at the Ghana CAN 2008 opening
ceremony was the superb representation of Ghana's culture from all the ten
regions as well as a symbolic representation of all the 16 African countries
participating in memorable tournament in the country.
First, the helicopter that flew Ghana National Flag across the stadium
symbolises that we are all Ghanaians first before any other ethnic
consideration. The colourful fireworks represents the modern form of our
tradition gun salutes when a great national event is about to take off. The
three majestic ladies draped in treasured kente, who sang the National Anthem
depicts the trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit whose presence
must be acknowledged before any national event.
The over an hundred traditional horn blowers who carried the sparkling elephant
tusks colourfully ornamented, was the highest point of the creativity of the
originators who conceptualised the ceremony. Up till now this author is
wondering where they obtained all the numerous gigantic elephant tusks from.
Unless they are some artificial plastic improvisation, I would imagine that
there would no more be elephants in the Bole National Park at Bole in the
Northern region or in other forest reserved in Ghana. The marvel is the
creativity that went into the creation of that traditional musical instrument
used by traditional horn blowers in Ghana. The symbol is what can be found in
the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.
The cultural significance of traditional horn blowing is that; in chiefs or
kings palaces in Ghana, it heralds the beginning of an event of great
importance. Horns are used to announce the take off of an event. Like the
talking drums, horns serve as traditional communication tool to send messages
across people in towns and villages. So, the hundred horn blowers at the opening
ceremony were symbolically announcing to the Africa and the rest of the world
that the 26th edition of the prestigious African Cup of Nations was about to
kick off in Ghana, so the entire globe must be alert and ready to embrace the
event. And the horn blowers emerged from the four corners of the stadium
symbolising the four cardinal points of the earth, namely, East, West, South and
North. And by providence, Ghana itself is positioned in centre of the earth.
Again, symbolically, Ghana through the opening ceremony was radiating Light,
Life and Love to all corners of the globe.
Another mind blowing aspect of the opening ceremony was the acrobatic display by
the youth of Ghana. Besides various magical formations was the African Map with
and Madagascar created by human beings with human bodies. The design was
incredible when viewed on the television screen. As for various national dances
performed, the least said the better. We witnessed dances ranging from Adowa,
Atsiagbekor, Dambai , Kente, Borborbor, Kpanlogo just to mention but a few. They
were performed with artistic finesse with fantastic colourful costumes to march.
It was simply great!
The final cultural aspect the opening ceremony which cannot escape mention in
this review was the parade of national flags of various countries taking part in
the tournament. Many people did not notice this aspect of the ceremony. I
remember when I pointed out the flags to spectators around where I was sitting
near the Scoreboard at the stadium, they marveled. Again the creativity that
went into the creation of those flags was beyond compare.
The national flags of the participating teams, including Ghana, Angola, Benin,
Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Morocco Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia,
South Africa, Senegal, Sudan and Zambia were transformed into colourful
umbrellas, held with reverence in for the parade as it is done in the solemn
procession for a grand durbar of Kings and Queen mothers in Ghana. The scene was
soul moving indeed!.
If for nothing at all, Ghana has used her rich culture through the opening
ceremony of the 26th Ghana CAN 2008 to project the beauty of African culture to
the blue haven. I suggest that the Local Organising Committee (LOC) should adopt
and adapt the opening ceremony on DVD and CD in any modern Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) as African Cultural Heritage for the cultural
advancement of mankind to the glory of the CREATOR.
Mawutodzi K. Abissath is a Ghanaian journalist, writer, poet and blogger. He is
EzineArticles.com Expert Author, author of Kofi Annan the Great - poetry,
Friends of Tomorrow-Poems for Young Children and Co-author of Traditional Wisdom
in African Proverbs.
He writes from Accra, Ghana