From William N-lanjerborr Jalulah,
Bolgatanga
THE VICE President of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW), Dr. Gheysika Agambila, has appealed to Ghanaian movie writers and producers to include scenes of people reading books, bookshelves and books in their movies, to revive the crumbling interest in reading in Ghana.
He observed that movies greatly influence the life choices of the young, but unfortunately, producers concentrate so much of their movies on eating, drinking and dancing, which would not help the people. Speaking at the launch of Ghana Association of Writers Schools Outreach Programme (GAWSOP) in the Upper East Region, Dr. Agambila said “our movies hardly show people reading. What they glamorize is eating, drinking and dancing.
“Our destiny is to be a developed nation of proud Africans who don’t beg from people for handouts. Life is not one long vacation, where all you do is eat, drink, dance and watch TV”. He noticed that the reading culture in Ghana today was not what it used to be some years ago, as reading has lost a lot of its shine, and this concern was being expressed by parents, teachers, and the Ghana Education Service.
As reading is the market for writers and writing, GAW made the rekindling of interest in reading a central focus of its activities, through its schools’ Outreach Programme. The plan of the outreach programme was to eventually institute literary clubs in all second and third cycle institutions, in order to stimulate reading and writing among the young people of country.
Dr. Agambila said GAW signed an MOU with the Ghana Education Service in February 2012, to establish literary clubs in the more than 500 Senior High Schools under GES. The first phase of the plan was the Regional Launch, after the national launch in September 2012 in Accra. He explained that due to financial constraints, the regional launch of GAWSOP covered six regions last year. The remaining four regions, comprising Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Upper Regions have also had their turn.
In the Upper East Region, 15 schools, 20 students per each school, as had been the approach in other regions were invited to the launch through Ghana Education. All the schools were expected to identify a teacher or teachers as patrons, constitute an executive, undertake literary activities of their choice, including reading books and discussing them. Members reading their creative work (prose, poetry) and benefiting from a discussion of their work, and submitting work for inclusion in the GAWSOP student magazine to be published this year. Work could be prose, poetry or cartoons.
Dr. Agambila hinted that GAW intended to start a Writing Academy to fulfill a public need and achieve the result of eventually increasing the stock of quality writing in the country. He paid glowing tribute to some Ghanaian writers whose work he acknowledged had shaped the nation. They include Kobina Sekyi, J.B. Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Efua Sutherland, Sussana Alhassan, Joe de Graft, Kofi Awoonor, Rev Fiawoo, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayikwei Armah, Cameron Duodu and a host of others.
The Vice Rector of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Dr. Samuel Erasmus Alnaa, who chaired the function applauded GAW for its initiative and warned people who violated intellectual property rights to desist from it, since was an illegal act.
