Imposition of foreign values not the way to go

Persons without a culture are said to have no identity. Indeed, culture gives people their identity.

The Ghanaian and by extension the African easily identifies themselves with some of the most advanced, refined and dynamic cultures of the world.

Society must therefore make conscious efforts to ensure that rich cultural values that they hold dear are transmitted to the younger generation in such a manner that they become relevant.

Nevertheless, the many years of contact with the Western world seems to have made us adopt certain cultural norms to the detriment of our time-tested values.

We note with much concern the description of some aspects of our culture by the West as fetish, which has consciously or unconsciously made us to believe that anything originating from the Western world is sacrosanct and the way to go, while anything, no matter its excellence, must be considered impure and discarded once it comes from us.

Through their films, music and powerful media, the West has largely succeeded in imposing its ‘ideal’ culture on us.

Our educative ’local’ music, drama and films have changed to accommodate the violence and immorality in the name of rights of choice.

The development is so rapid and alarming that well-meaning citizens are trying hard to find an antidote to this “cultural crises” that are confusing our younger generation.

The Daily Graphic thus associates itself with the admonition by the Speaker of Parliament that as a country we must not allow the Western world to impose its values on us.

Addressing the Speaker’s Prayer Breakfast in Parliament a few days ago, Professor Mike Oquaye told a gathering of representatives of Parliament, advocacy groups, civil society organisations and the media that we must stand against any negative foreign influences.

He was deliberating on possible consequences of the introduction of a Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) in the curriculum of basic schools in the country.

The Daily Graphic can gauge the mood of the country and see that many of our citizens are sharply against the introduction of CSE in our schools.

But then we think the issue, first and foremost, was able to enter the country’s discourse because of our inability to be totally independent, especially economically, which has given way to some richer nations using that as a trump card to take advantage and impose all manner of influences and policies on us.

We must not forget that a beggar has no choice.

It is an irony and a shame that with all the resources that Ghana and for that matter African nations are endowed with, we still cannot meet the basic needs of our people.

To be able to extricate ourselves from such impositions from the West, we need to hammer it home to all that we must as a people take our destiny into our hands and contribute our quota to make the development we envisage possible.

We cannot develop and become economically independent when we handle public funds and property with careless abandon. We must, thus, work to eliminate the cancer of corruption and free resources for our own development to avoid always going cap in hand for a pittance from the outside world in the name of development partnership.

We also need to be principled, focused in purpose and proud of our heritage as a people to safeguard the high African values of parenting, morality, respect for the elderly and good societal behaviours; humility and hospitality that distinguish us from other people and are an envy to them.

Ghana cannot be an island in cultural adoption and assimilation but surely we can resist imposition of negative wholesale values on us when we are tact, but this can be done when we are able to be prudent with the resources we have and use them to reduce poverty, squalor, disease and ignorance.