Akwaba! Welcome to Culture and Development International!

Message from Chairman Hon. Kojo Appiah-Kubi

It is with much pride that I introduce to you Culture and Development International.

We are an emerging NGO based in the village of Akomadan in the Offinso North District of the Ashanti region in Ghana, West Africa. Across Africa and around the World there is a growing appreciation of the need to not only value culture but to ensure that it is included in all human development programs and processes.

If our history and our heritage are denied we do not know where we have come from. If our customs, languages and rituals are denied we do not know who we are. If our stories, our music, our songs, our art and our culture are denied we cannot begin to tell our children and those around us who we are and what our future holds.

Over the past five decades we here in Africa have allowed ourselves to become the willing victim to the best intentions and goodwill of the developed world. Many of our prior colonial masters have transformed into our benevolent and well meaning benefactors smothering us with aid programs, foreign designed models of improvement and at times an alien sense of a development process that we know we need, but did not fully appreciate its impact on our culture, our identity and our spirit.

When we speak of development we speak of a process – have we forgotten it is but a journey to a destination? Have we allowed ourselves to forget where we came from – of the richness of our heritage and history prior to the colonial era? Do we ever ask ourselves what will Africa look like when we are “developed”? How will we know we have reached the destination – will we know or will someone need to tell us we are there?

As we work towards a future that is sustainable, secure and safe for our children and our children’s children we must work together with our international partners as equals to create a stronger Africa - an Africa that takes its righteous place at the table with all other nations and continents. An Africa that is proud and determined.

It is imperative that we accept the challenges that face us – at times we will be overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation. Perhaps even at times we will doubt our ability to make the jump into the future that we know we are capable of and deserving of. If we are grounded in our identity and confident in the knowledge of who we are and where we come from we can embrace this challenge and move together as one.

Our culture is our strength - it is an asset that we must never let anyone take from us – and it is something that we should never give away or allow to be used as an excuse for not achieving. As we move to a future that is global we will need to, on our terms, acknowledge those cultural practices and traditional customs that are recognized as being unfair, discriminatory and harmful and make the changes as we face each challenge.

It is said that the greatness of any culture is its ability to adapt to change – and over the past centuries Africa and Africans have adapted, survived and grown.

The next great age of Africa in the global societies of the 21st Century lies ahead of us – and by underpinning our development processes with a commitment to our culture we are determining a direction that respects our past, pays homage to our ancestors and assures a future for our children.

I welcome you to Culture and Development International and invite your participation at the 4th International Conference on African Culture and Development in Accra, Ghana – www.icacdafrica.org .

Regards,

Hon. Samuel Kojo Appiah-Kubi
Founder and Chairman