Professor George Hagan, Former Chairman of the National Commission on Culture,on Saturday reiterated the need for Africans to promote their culture and not adopt foreign lifestyles that tend to obliterate time honoured traditions.
"We still have to assert our own values as Africans by seeking our own solutions to the numerous challenges facing countries in the continent but we have all become Europeanized". He said.
Prof. Hagan was delivering an address at the maiden Kobina Sekyi Memorial lecture series organized by the Centre for Advanced Study of
African Society (CASAS).
The lecture was organized to eulogize the late Gold Coast Nationalist William Esuman Dwira Sakyi who was born in November 1892 and passed away in June 1956.
Prof. Hagan said the affirmation of cultural identity in African countries required the sustenance of a national discourse that would promote the respect and mass appeal of African cultural traditions.
"Africans need to understand the relevance of their traditional values and promote ideas that can be used to rationalize the continent's
traditions" He said.
Prof. Hagan said during his 40-year public service, Mr. Sekyi pursued a multi-faceted political, legal and literary career that greatly enhanced the racial and social emancipation of Africa.
"Through his literary works, Mr. Sekyi exposed the negative attitudes
of a society towards her own socio-cultural and even political values, and rather sees the values of the "colonial master" as superior and preferable" He added.
Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah, Director of CASAS, urged the youth in Africa to emulate the exploits of Mr. Kobina Sekyi in order to become good future leaders.
Mr. William Essuman-Dwira Sekyi (a.k.a. Kobina Sekyi), was born in Cape Coast in 1892 and died in 1956, the year before Ghana's independence.
After his education at Mfantsipim School, he proceeded to the University of London, where he intended to study English Literature.
However, he opted for a degree in Philosophy instead and later pursued other academic interests.
Kobina Sekyi asserted himself as a cultural activist within the context of Gold Coast nationalism.
Sekyi returned to Cape Coast in 1918, having qualified as a barrister, with a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy. As a scholar, he pursued his nationalist ideals through his legal, journalistic, literary and creative expertise.