<<Print>>

The infiltration and unrestrained broadcast of foreign cultural practices through movies on local television stations has been identified as a huge threat to the preservation of Ghanaian traditional values and cultural heritage.

Ms Prisca Na'ambome Yenzie, the Upper East Regional Director, Museums and Monuments Office, says storytelling, one of the major ways of passing on Ghanaian cultural values from the older to the younger generations are being abandoned.

Parents and their children are increasingly becoming addicted to foreign movies including telenovelas and this she said was influencing the people to adopt foreign cultures and lifestyles.

She told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the situation had not only made the younger generation lose touch with their roots but had adversely affected the behaviour of especially children - their relationship with their parents and the elderly in society.

“It has affected us so much in the sense that children no longer relate with the parents the way it should be at home, that respect and heart to love their parents are no longer there.

Children are now so disrespectful, they go their own way and parents also go their own way and this is the effect of the deficiency of storytelling in the system because the foreign programmes have just taken over and children are now living their own way.”.

The Regional Director underlined the need to move quickly to jettison certain dehumanising cultural practices.

She added that more should be done to develop the various cultural centres, particularly the museums to preserve and device strategies to digitise values and heritage for future generations.