Eddie Akotey
All is set for the week-long celebration of this year’s Agotime Kente Festival which started yesterday.
The theme for this year’s festival is “Attitudinal Change, the panacea to our future development.”
Eddie Akotey, Chairman of the Central Planning Committee of the Agotime Kente Festival 2018, at a press conference on Friday in Accra said, “We are also expecting dignitaries such as the US Ambassador to Ghana, the Minister for Tourism and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, and a 100-man tourist delegation from the United States of America, among others.”
He said President Akufo-Addo would be the special guest of honour at the grand durbar which would climax all activities on Saturday, October 21.
The people of Agotime instituted the Kente Festival in 1995 as part of measures to preserve the uniqueness of the Kente cloth which has for a long time remained their identity.
The livelihood of the majority of the people depends on their association with the Kente cloth and so the festival offers them an opportunity to market it to the world.
Objectives
Mr. Akotey disclosed that the Annual Kente Festival, also called ‘Agbamevor Za,’ has the foremost objectives of preserving and protecting the cultural and aesthetic values of the Kente cloth and projecting its various uses.
“It’s also aimed at exposing new techniques and innovations in the Kente industry, attracting tourists to Ghana and the Agotime Traditional Area and above all uniting the people for socio-economic development.
“The festival has a history of high patronage from international and domestic tourists, politicians, researchers, students and indigenes from the 37 towns and villages of the Agotime Traditional Area. It always offers us an opportunity to put Ghana on the world tourism map.”
He added that the people of Agotime are very hospitable and known for readily hosting visitors even in their homes.