It has been a long journey
When Nat ‘Amadzeba’ Brew recorded his famous ‘Wogbejeke’ (We Have Come a Long Way) song sometime back, he referred to our cultural history and the arduous journeys we have endured to get this far.
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The message in that song, to some extent, is symbolic of our national travails on the arts and culture front over the last 60 years. We have rejoiced and also felt pain; we have bloomed and also withered; we have made progress and also stagnated.
As intangible as it may seem, arts and culture help us brand ourselves the way we see fit in the eyes of the rest of the world. They distinguish us as a people capable of standing tall to proclaim the good things we have been endowed with and how we can proudly influence the world from where we occupy.
Being able to achieve such stature, however, requires careful planning, hard work and a visionary state of mind. Luckily, our first President possessed ample doses of those elements and he sought to project not only the Ghanaian personality, but also continental pride through culture.
That was why his regime offered scholarships to musicians, actors, tailors, sculptors and other creative artists to hone their skills abroad and return to help propagate our unique abilities. That was also why facilities were put in place for film, theatre, music and other forms of artistic production to enhance creativity on a national scale.
We cannot deny the fact that after a flourishing take-off, we slumped and stayed in the decline mode for a while. We relinquished our leadership position to people who learnt at our feet and preferred to imitate what they were doing.
It is, however, heart-warming to say that we have in recent times repositioned ourselves as a culturally-conscious people primed for growth again. Young spoken word artists and musicians are showing their exquisite skills around the country and beyond. Also, theatre and movie producers, fashion designers and others have found their groove and working regularly.
It has been a long journey to this stage and we can only maintain the momentum as we keep striving for improvement and
Excellence!
