Dr. Sarah Dogbadzi Ossei – Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Artistic Director of Lododo Art Foundation, has said the various forms of art in the country, should not be abandoned as they remain “the lifeline” of the nation.
According to her, “the solution to the problems we have in the country is in the arts”, hence the need to pay critical attention the sector.
“Art is the soul of every society. The art is what keeps the society alive and balanced; it is the lifeline of society, but we don’t pay attention to it. If the soul decides to desert, we become miserable,” she said.
The CEO, also a Senior Lecturer at the Theater Arts Department of the University of Ghana School of Performing Arts, was speaking to the Ghana News Agency, after staging the show titled: “Na Wo Se Sɛn” (What Do You Say) at the Efua Sutherland Theater Studio, Legon.
Described as night of “art conversations”, the show blended poetry, music, dance, and Ghanaian folktales. It was one of the events held as part of the 13th Edition of the Chale Wote Street Arts Festival in Accra.
Dr. Dogbadzi Ossei, whose stage craft won the admiration of audiences, observed that indigenous story-telling culture was gradually fading especially among youth, hence the effort to revive the culture by combining various forms of art on one stage.
She said “Na Wo Se Sɛn” was to create a platform for important conversations that would inform policy decisions.
The academic, on a mission to revive storytelling in Ghana, said the concept emerged from the need to pass on the rich values embedded in local folktales.
“When my son was three years old, he told me to tell him a story. I sat in many story telling sessions, but I couldn’t remember any story I was told as a child.
“It was time to introduce him to the holding of our ancestral archive; I could not say I have lost the key, I had to find it. So I got inspiration to start doing revival of story-telling,” she noted.
As an art enthusiast, she has been on the mission for past 15 years but the activities of Lododo Art Foundation, which was established five years ago, she said, had been self-funded.
“I have intentions of making them [Ghanaian folk stories] into animation for young people on the internet where we don’t have proper representation of what is called African. But it all requires funding,” she added.
Dr. Dogbadzi Ossei said a number of folk stories had already been translated into audio-visual format for research purposes, but further stressed the relevance of creating a platform for young people to “express themselves and share their experiences”.
Her team organises an end of year event in December dubbed: ‘Bronya Apata’ to create an ambience for participants to experience Christmas in the traditional Ghanaian setting, where children, built Christmas huts and enjoyed folk stories and music.
The foundation again organises the Lododo Story Telling Festival in March, inviting the custodians Ga, Akan, Ewe, and Dagbani culture to tell their stories in their language.
By Ernest Nutsugah.
