In a contemporary cosmopolitan city like Accra, it was quite a thrilling and unforgettable experience to tell the rich and diverse culture of the Ghanaian people through local food at the Back to Your Village Food Bazaar.
As someone who is very restricted in my food choices due to personal reasons, being a part of the two-day event cleverly put together by Citi TV/ Citi FM to crown the month-long Heritage Month broadened my knowledge of the various indigenous foods that we seem to have abandoned due to our thirst for foreign delicacies.
I was initially sceptical about how the event was going to pan out since it was my first time being a part of any Food Bazaar, but upon arrival at the forecourt of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) office, it was clear that the event had been oversubscribed.
You would be forgiven if you thought for a moment that you were attending a musical concert. The sheer number of people at the premises wasn’t only overwhelming but confusing just as deciding to select a food stand to patronize.
The negative effects of globalization which had led to the springing up of several foreign-owned restaurants dotted across the country would make you think that Ghanaians have fallen out of love with their indigenous foods, but that was not the case on Saturday, March 25, day one of the Back To Your Village Food Bazaar.
It was obvious that Ghanaians will patronize their local foods and brands when they are well packaged and given the necessary platform. It is shocking that as a country, whose economy is heavily dependent on farming, our local indigenous foods are missing from the shelves in the major Supermarkets across the country.
Seeing the numbers at Back to Your Village Food Bazaar only reinforced my perception that Ghanaians will patronize their local foods if only they are well-packaged and accessible. Most Ghanaians, I believe, patronize what is available and accessible to them.
One interesting observation I made was how a platform like this can help small-scale local businesses thrive, particularly those owned by women. More than 70 per cent of the local kitchens were small-scale businesses that needed the platform to showcase their products. These local businesses do not only need media houses to provide them with the platform to flourish but also government support as well.
Imagine a situation where the majority of these local companies that packed the AMA forecourt had branches in various parts of the country and what that would mean for the youth unemployment scourge and our never-ending foreign exchange woes.
Our economy would have been buoyant. And making an economy flourish is often a deliberate decision by governments, it rarely happens by chance.
As platforms such as Citi TV/Citi FM endeavour to contribute their quota to help local businesses thrive, owners of these businesses must also strive to improve their quality and be willing to take on the world.
In no time, they must be ready to compete favourably with established brands in their line of trade. But what is needed is a deliberate government policy to complement the efforts of these individual local companies and provide them with some incentives to push the Ghanaian industrialization agenda. It must not just be all talk and slogans.
We must be deliberate in what we do and how we do it to support our local businesses.
I cannot talk about Back to Your Village Food Bazaar without mentioning the indigenous music from GG Brass Band, Dromo Naa and Kwan Pa Band.
The highlight of the second day of the Food Bazaar was the moment when the reigning Ghanaian highlife band, Kwan Pa, took centre stage with an enthralling performance. Even though they perform with traditional musical instruments, they also add a modern touch to most of their compositions. Typical of their style of music, palm wine highlife band started with typical highlife music, before doing a mishmash of contemporary highlife and hiplife, among others.
They had patrons dance to live performances of contemporary Ghanaian music such that for a moment, you were likely to confuse the Food Bazaar for a live musical event.
Obviously, attendees couldn’t hide their delight, making it a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them. Some patrons expressed excitement and satisfaction with the various cuisine and music and asked for more of such events.
Others wondered if it was possible to hold the event at least once a month and also replicate it in the 16 regions to help local businesses grow.
Cornelius, a patron who has attended the event for the last five years was full of praise for Citi TV and Citi FM, and the consistency with which they had delivered the event.
In my view, the Food Bazaar was the perfect crowning moment for Heritage Month – an educative, entertaining and fun-filled month-long celebration dedicated to showcasing Ghana’s rich culture on Citi TV and Citi FM.