GRi Arts &
Culture 16 – 01 - 2003
Participate in
celebration of traditional festivals
Tamale (Northern Region)
The Rev Prof Kwame Bediako,
Executive Director of the Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission Research
and Applied Theology at Akropong-Akwapim in the Eastern Region, said such
festivals were essentially religious events that serve as a vehicle for
communicating or affirming the values of a society and for strengthening the
bonds that bind its members.
Rev Prof Bediako was speaking
on: "Traditional festivals, culture and the gospel", at a workshop
organised by the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation
(GILBT).
The one-day workshop, which was
attended by 70 participants drawn from 28 language groups, including Gonja,
Tampulima, Dagbani, Builsa, Sissala, Hange, Nkonya, Ahanta, Anufo, Valga and
Nawure, was sponsored by Summer Institute of Linguistics, an International NGO
based in the US.
Rev Prof Bediako asked
Christians to let their cultural values inform and influence their belief in
the Christian faith. ''Some Christian events such as Christmas and Easter have
no basis in the Bible but were a response by Europeans to insert their
pre-Christian festivals into the Gospel message.''
Rev Prof Bediako urged
Christians to explore the religious meanings in festivals, saying, "some aspects of every traditional festival has Christ
message in it." "For example", he said, "most of the
traditional festivals in
"Festivals therefore,
present Christians the opportunity to embrace a people's view and sense of
identity and also explore how the gospel finds a place in the lives, hopes,
fears and aspirations of the people," Rev Prof Bediako said.
GRi…/
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