-By Nana Nyarko Boateng

African cities in the past were renowned centres and institutions of some sort as a result of the status they had earned for themselves. Such was the glory of some ancient historical cities like; Songhai Empire, Timbuktu, Dahomy, Bini among others that became famed for various reasons ranging from trade and commerce, farming and agriculture, arts and craft, wars and monarchical reverence among others.

Today, Accra’s shores are gradually becoming a studio and stage in a way. Young reggae artists hit their hearts away to the waves; they make music-melodious or discordant. A guitar in their arms or a drum in between their thighs and you shall taste their talent! In a like manner, the Oxford Street in Osu often is a spring of aesthetic pleasure. Paintings, beads, fabric, and various wooden and leather handmade African crafts create a colorful on-foot-collage as Hawker-Artists follow pedestrians around.

These hawker-artists build up ‘mobile art galleries’ on the streets. They grow in numbers each day and one wonders what keeps them coming. Chances are they are tired of sitting quietly at secluded Arts Centre’s hoping that the next day would be a better market day. As an alternative, they get on the street and pray to the traffic jam god to grant them, in return for their striking handiwork, our attention and cash.

While massive Art Galleries are built to target high profile individuals and tourists, hawker-artists target the common people. Their “mobile galleries” become a significant show room for contemporary Art. They keep us in touch with our roots. They lighten the traffic stress.

The Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Musiliu Olatunde Obanikoro has commended Tribe Media for the efforts of the organisation towards successfully facilitating the Ghana/Nigeria Culture Showcase 2011. Obanikoro who was a special guest at the Ghana/Nigeria Culture Showcase conference and exhibition noted that Public Private Partnership was the
surest way to achieving the government policy objective and development initiative.

According to him “This bilateral cultural platform is quite a commendable one that should be sustained given that the two countries share so much in common”. The High Commissioner who later played host to the Nigerian contingent which included: Niger State Commissioner for Arts
and Culture, House Committee Chairman on Arts and Culture, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, music maestro, Sunny Neji, Bayero Agabi-President of Tribe Media among others.

The event afforded participants an avenue for discussion, interaction and performances geared towards building social and cultural exchange platforms to sustain better relations between Nigeria/Ghana. Part of the activities on show included the very best of indigenous and Afro-centric
music and dance as the audience was thrilled by various groups like Abankaba cultural troupe, Niger State Cultural troupe and Wuzawuza Cultural troupe while music was in no short supply as guest savoured the rhythm and beats from the spirit-lifting reggae star Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi, Bobo Ranking and Wind Afrique. Speaking at the event, a former university Don Prof. Ablade Glover urged Africans not to be carried away by the influence of western values but to cherish and sustain African culture with utmost dignity as expressed in our dress code, music, language, arts and generally our communal tradition. The theme of the forum was Arts and Culture in the 21st
Century: The Needed Balance.

The Ghana/Nigeria Culture Showcase 2011 was organized by Tribe Media Company Nigeria in collaboration with Pan-Africa Ghana with the endorsement and participation of the Federal Ministry of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Abuja the National Council for Arts and Culture, Abuja, the Ghana Ministry of Tourism, Ghana Tourist Board and the Nigerian High Commission in Ghana.

Ghana reggae star and president of Pan-Africa Ghana, Ras Caleb Appiah-Levi was at his soul-lifting best when he mounted the stage during the gala nite of the recently held Ghana/Nigeria Culture Showcase 2011 which took place at the pool side of the serene Airport West Hotel, Accra

The reggae exponent who told Tribe Times that he draws inspiration from God and his dread-lock which he has been carrying for almost thirty years re-enacted the spiritual connection that the reggae music genre inspires as his performance charged the atmosphere reminiscent of the likes of Burning Spear, Culture and Lucky Dube.

While the sonorous rhythm and lyrics of his songs conveyed deep thematic preoccupation which left many transcended into a supernatural realm, Ras Caleb held the guests spell-bound with the message for Africans to Live as One…such was his captivating performance that many guests took time out to have photo sessions with the prophetic Rastaman.

Dr Segun Rusewe the Director General of the Nigeria Tourism Corporation in this chart with Tribe Times opines that history and culture are crucial for national development and that the importance of promoting indigenous language cannot be over emphasized

There are several aspects of Nigeria's culture that are not been showcased. What is your advice to our traditional rulers as custodians of our heritage?

Basically among these, there are three departures I believe we must come back to; our language, our culture and our history. These are three fundamental areas we departed from. In the 50's we had the Language Integration of Africa, which was Pan-Africanist. All those things are no longer there just because we have not been able to hold tenaciously to our cultural values, our language and our history.

These are three fundamental areas we must come back to. So for our traditional class or traditional rulers, these areas are those we must inculcate in the youth.

You just mentioned our language, our culture and our history, as a matter of fact, history as a subject is fast disappearing from the Nigerian secondary school syllabus, what is an agency like yours doing to encourage the teaching of especially indigenous history in our school system?

As a person, I believe if we do not understand our history well, it will be difficult for us to know where we are going to . So our history is very important to us and we must come to terms with our history as a people because lack of a good knowledge of our history is why you see guys or young men of this age plaiting their hair, putting on ear-rings and telling you it is fashion. It is absolutely crazy! I cannot be leaving in the same house with my wife and both of us are looking for ear- rings, I mean, the madness of this age should be reduced to a certain percentage. So as a person, I make this passionate appeal that we must come to terms with, come to appreciate that we must respect our history. Our history is what will give us the platform for the next level.

In India, China and even in European countries like Italy, France… the language of parliament is the indigenous one but in Nigeria, it is not so. What do we need to do to promote the use of our languages even in or political system?

Can you imagine that if you speak bad English now, people will laugh at you? But then people do not even reason that they can speak bad Hausa, Igbo or Yoruba, nobody bothers. We must understand as a people that for anyone to reason in his own language and act in the same way, we must connect with certain value systems which are not embedded in a foreign medium. You see, except a peoples technology, sciences, medicine, education, fashion, politics speak their own language and express their culture they can never be truly developed. German technology must speak German language and culture for her people to apply and use it gainfully, Japanese science has to do same for her people's benefit and it is the same way the Indian medicine has to act to be potent for the people. Maybe you should spare me the question of where is Nigeria's science or medicine but our fore-fathers did practice medicine or you want to ask me what the language of our politics is? Who says the Indians do not have the same challenge of multiple languages. Check out Bollywood movies, they speak Indian language, carry Indian content and express their culture to the rest of the whole world, does that make them inferior? I cannot say the same of our own. Today we hear of Indian marriages or wedding, Chinese marriage, but for us including our traditional rulers if we do not do what they call white wedding, it seems marriage has not taken place. So we must come back to reality, respect our language and let our everyday life reflect what makes us unique which is our culture to make Nigerian a better place.

Ganvie, referred to by many as la Venise de l' Afrique, (the Venice of Africa), a picturesque village on Lake Nokoue which was in 1996 listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site is only assessable through water as it plays host to hundreds of thousands of foreigners every year. It takes a journey of approximately twenty minutes in an engine boat from the shores of Abomey-Calavi, the Beninese university town.

Ganvie, a lake village in Cotonou, Benin Republic is a picturesque aquatic experience. Hilary Damissah writes that the inhabitants who mainly live from fishing play host to tourists across the world despite the ecological challenges

Ganvie, referred to by many as la Venise de l' Afrique, (the Venice of Africa), a picturesque village on Lake Nokoue which was in 1996 listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site is only assessable through water as it plays host to hundreds of thousands of foreigners every year. It takes a journey of approximately twenty minutes in an engine boat from the shores of Abomey-Calavi, the Beninese university town.

Life in Ganvie is completely that of an aquatic experience as the entire inhabitants of the village have their wooden houses with predominantly thatch roofs built on water with the aid of wooden suspension as supporting pillars. It is obvious to visitors that the villagers from the young to the old and the men to the women are mainly fishermen whose lifestyle is a demonstration of human resilience, determination and the survival instinct of mankind even in face of oddities.

One will easily get amazed to realize that even commercial activities or the market is a floating one so much that buying and selling of local food commodities also takes place on the water as both buyers and sellers do their transactions while riding in their respective canoes.

Despite the resilience of the people for survival, the village is threatened by environmental hazards. The proliferation of water hyacinth in some parts of the lake certainly is of effect on aquatic life as much as it disrupts the natural flow of water and navigation. Besides, the residents are faced with the challenge of space constraint to build new houses as the population keeps growing.