The 28th annual Samanpiid festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Bawku traditional area in the Upper East Region has been held.
The Samanpiid festival is a traditional post-harvest thanksgiving event meant to thank God and the ancestral spirits for a successful farming season.
It is also an occasion to discuss other social and developmental issues affecting the people. There are hosts of sacrifices followed by merry-making to climax it.
The occasion brought together people from all walks of life including Chiefs, Ministers of State, MPs, MMDAs and Heads of Departments.
Speaking on the theme \u201cSustaining Cultural Reforms for Unity and Socio-Economic Development of Kusaug\u201d a Council of State Member for the Upper East Region, David Adenze Kangah, said culture is a determining factor of the identity of any group of people and for the perpetuity of such an identity, culture must be kept alive and sustained.
Mr Adenze Kangah who was the Guest speaker, said in recent times festivals have become a means for homecoming for those of them in the diaspora to renew their commitment to this historicity.
Meanwhile, festivals have also become periods to chart development agenda, choose a theme to guide the celebration and thereby commit them to the theme for the rest of the coming year and thereafter.
Mr Adenze Kangah, who was a Former Deputy EC Chairman, advised Ghanaians to allow the EC a free hand to operate in conducting the 2016 general election.
The Upper East Regional Minister, James Zuugah Tiigah, said a culture worth sustaining is one that rallies people together to see one another as a brother or sister and consciously promotes dialogue, reconciliation, development and peace building.
He said the promotion of culture for development is non-negotiable in the country\u2019s development paradigm.
The Minister said that is why the government of Ghana under the pillar of Transparent and Accountable Governance re-aligned the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to provide a firm, stable policy environment for effective mainstreaming of Ghanaian culture into all aspects of national life.
He pledged to help maintain and sustain the peace the people living in the Bawku municipality and its environs are enjoying.
He stated that the development of the area could rescue the people from poverty, ignorance and diseases that have plagued them as a result of conflicts and mistrust between leaders and their subjects.
The Paramount Chief of the Bawku Traditional area, Zug Rana Naaba Asigri Abogrago Azoka, expressed worry about the bad nature of the Bolga-Bawku road and called on government to construct the road to avoid any inconveniences.
He appealed to his people to reduce the number of cows they use to dowry their wife\u2019s to two.
He said this will go a long way to reduce the high level of unmarried men and women in the traditional area.
The Paramount chief also pledged his outfit\u2019s readiness in finding a lasting solution to the Bawku conflict.
Zug Rana Naaba Asigri Abogrago Azoka commended the Mamprusis and the other tribes for their diverse contributions in maintaining and sustaining the peace in the area.<\/p>\n
Source: GBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The 28th annual Samanpiid festival celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Bawku traditional area in the Upper East Region has been held.The Samanpiid festival is a traditional post-harvest thanksgiving event meant to thank God and the ancestral spirits for a successful farming season.It is also an occasion to discuss other social and developmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11694,11695],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-regional-news","category-upper-east"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=178707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=178707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=178707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=178707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}