Principal Programme Officer at the Ghana Commission for UNESCO, Moses J. Gemeh has urged Ghanaians to not shun away from the art of poetry as he highlighted the significance of the literature genre
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.tv Ghana’s Fact Sheet, Mr. Gemeh emphasized the importance of poetry in preserving endangered languages and promoting cultural diversity.
“Poetry embodies everything from our culture, indigenous language, and actually gives hope to other languages that are endangered as well. We are looking at a time where poetry will become very relevant in all spheres of our life.”
The UNESCO Officer acknowledged that Ghana has made strides in recognizing the importance of poetry, but there is still more that can be done to promote it. “I can say we are doing well to give poetry the importance that it deserves, but we can do even better,”.
Mr. Gemeh pointed out that poetry has not died in Ghana, but rather it has not been given the attention it deserves. “When we look at other old writers from the early independence era, we are still writing poetry but the only thing is that we’ve not been able to bring it to the fore to make people love poetry and to learn how to really compose these things,” he explained.
Mr. Gemeh added that there are several people in Ghana still writing poems and putting them in books, but the challenge is getting people to read them.
He encouraged Ghanaians to embrace poetry and make it a part of their daily lives. “Poetry shouldn’t be remembered only on World Poetry Day. We should embrace it wholly and make it a part of our culture and our daily lives.”
World Poetry Day is celebrated every 21st March, and was declared by UNESCO in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”. The theme for this year’s World Poetry Day is “Always a Poet, Even in Prose.”