Supreme Court Judge, Justice Senyo Dzamefe, has urged traditional authorities to use festivals as tools for development and cultural preservation.
Speaking as Guest of Honour at the launch of the 2026 Avatime Amu Festival, Justice Dzamefe said festivals must go beyond merry-making to preserve identity, values and traditions for the younger generation.
He stressed that the success of a festival should not be measured by the size of the crowd, but by the economic opportunities, unity and lasting development it brings to the people.
“When culture thrives, communities prosper, and when communities prosper, Ghana develops,” he stated.
The 2026 Avatime Amu Festival celebrates Amu, the mountain brown rice cultivated by the people of Avatime.
This year’s theme is: “Celebrating and Sustaining Avatime as a Climate-Resilient Community through Brown Rice Production, Consumption, Culture and Ecotourism.”
The festival seeks to link brown rice production to climate resilience, ecotourism and community development.
The Chief of Avatime Dzokpe and host of this year’s celebration, Okusie Avumako Kpornuglo X, appealed for support to raise GH₵2 million for the construction of a 6-unit classroom block with teachers’ bungalow.
Paramount Chief of Avatime Traditional Area, Osie Adza Tekpor VII, called on the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Environment to urgently address the destruction of forests and water bodies in the enclave, and appealed to government to rehabilitate the deplorable roads in the Avatime area.
