Alhaji Saalim Mansur Bamba, Ashanti Regional NPP Nasara Coordinator, has stressed the need for tribal communities to revive and promote their cultural heritage and identity.
This, he said, was the only way to trace their ancestral roots and be closer to their traditional and spiritual inclinations.
Alhaji Bamba was addressing a durbar to climax the Damba festival by the Gonja community in the Ashanti region.
The festival is celebrated to mark the birth and naming of Prophet Mohammed, but the actual content of the celebration is a glorification of Gonja chieftaincy.
Alhaji Bamba said promoting cultural and traditional people’s activities was the surest way of sustaining ancestral heritage, tribal lineages and unity among the people in that tribe.
Explaining the significance of the festival, he said aside from the merry-making, the Damba festival was meant to foster socialisation and unity among family members as well as settle their differences.
The Damba festivities according to him displayed beautiful
traditional dances and served as an occasion for the glorification of chiefs and royalty in Gonjaland.
He said the Damba festival was important in the daily lives of the people since its essence was to be displayed through traditional pageantry.
The Nasara Coordinator said there was a need to embrace cultural heritage to promote sustainable development.
Alhaji Bamba called on the people to commit themselves to peaceful coexistence and unity as the country prepared for the next general elections.
He advised them not to allow any political party to divide them.
Source: Ghana News Agency