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Peace Education
International Association of Traditional Chiefs Launched in Ghana
Written by UPF-Ghana
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Accra, Ghana—On August 25, 2019, UPF-Ghana held the launching of the greater Accra chapter of the International Association of Traditional Chiefs for Peace (IATP). This is in line with the call by the co-founder of UPF, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. During the 2018 Africa Summit in Dakar, Senegal, she launched the African chapters of three peace initiatives: the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP), the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development (IAPD), and the International Association of Traditional Chiefs for Peace (IATP). Then she asked all present to return to their nations and do same. According to Dr. Moon, these organs are to work together to contribute toward peace and human development at the national and continental levels. The traditional rulers, who are the custodians of the land and the people, opened widely their doors for the initiative.
The event began around 3:30 pm with prayers from the Christian, Islamic and Ga religions respectively. As culture demands, a traditional chief priest also came on stage, and with two bottles of schnapps, offered an invocation in the form of a libation.
The chairman of the occasion was the former Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Nii Lantey Vanderpuye. His co-chair was the Upper East Regional Deputy Minister Hon. Frank Fuseini Adongo. Along with the traditional rulers, they were ushered to the head table with the sound of the traditional talking drums.
In his opening remarks, the former minister thanked the organizers for the effort in putting the program together and the honor given him to chair it. He stressed the efforts of the forebears to foster peace in the land and the importance of togetherness for development to take place within this generation. He further urged all traditional rulers to understand their positions and do everything possible to offer righteous examples to the younger generation who are to take over from them. Mr. Vanderpuye warned, “As the wind of election has started blowing, no one should sell his conscience and right because of money.”
Other speakers stood on the ground of fostering peace in the nation. They cautioned all seven clans in the Ga State to maintain peaceful co-existence with each other and with the general public, as political parties and leaders are gearing toward campaigning for the 2020 election.
The venue for the event, Bokum Square, is known to be a historical ground where all political leaders began their campaigns, right from the days of the late Dr. Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah until now. As such, the area is known as a conflict zone and is the reason UPF was invited to hold a peace initiative at that ground.
There were more than 50 traditional rulers in attendance (both chiefs and queen-mothers). In all, the event comprised about 200 people including government ministers, religious leaders, business men and women, youth groups and Ambassadors for Peace.
Notable figures present at the program included the developmental chief of the greater Accra State, Nii Akwei Osabu; the national president of the Rastafarian community, Nii Ayeh Mpese Congo I; the Queen-mother of the Ga State, Naa Deidei Omadro; and the national leader of the Ghana chapter of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), Rev. James Aidoo, to mention but a few.
At the end of speeches/remarks, the secretary general of UPF-Ghana, Dr. Helen Osei, gave an overview of UPF activities worldwide and presented a power-point on Dr. Moon’s visit to Senegal in 2018 with her vision of a New Heavenly Africa. She pointed out that in Senegal, Dr. Moon outlined some steps to developing Africa and called on all African leaders (political, religious, traditional) to unite with her vision to make the new Africa a reality.
Recalling once again her efforts to bring the three new peace initiatives together since the Senegal summit, Dr. Osei pleaded with the traditional rulers to collaborate with UPF to bring Dr. Moon’s developmental plans to the heart of the leaders of Ghana. Notably enough, she mentioned that over 16 nations in Africa have signed onto the vision of New Africa. Those nations, she said, have also invited Mrs. Moon to visit their nations with great blessings from heaven. She announced that at the present, Dr Moon is preparing to return to Africa. Videos of the Senegal and South Africa summits were shown as evidence.
Ambassadors for Peace awards were presented to the seven clan heads. Each of the clans also received “A Tree of Peace” (avocado plant) from UPF as a symbol of peace for both the present and future generations. The peace tree is meant to represent the tree of goodness that originated in the Garden of Eden, mentioned in the Scriptures. Therefore, UPF called on the chiefs of the seven clans to become trees that can bear good fruits. The trees will be planted jointly in the seven clans by both UPF and the clan heads at the appropriate time.
In response, Ga State Developmental Chief Nii Osabu thanked the UPF for launching the IATP. He promised to invest all his energy in peace building, not only in Ga but throughout the nation. He therefore pleaded with UPF to move along with plans for a national peace education campaign in preparation for the 2020 election.
The climax of the launch was the signing of the Peace Resolution by over 40 chiefs and everyone at the head table. At the closing ceremony, the co-chair, Hon. Fuseini Adongo (who was also present at the Senegal summit), declared the launch of the greater Accra chapter of the IATP.
The program was brought to a close around 8:30 pm with a prayer offered by an Ambassador for Peace, Apostle Solomon Siaw Kweitsu.
It was a successful event due to the combined efforts of UPF/FFWPU and the Ga Traditional Council, who was marking its Homowo, (annual food festival), as well as a Welcome Home ceremony of African Americans.
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