Zosimili Naa, Ife Bell II, in collaboration with Ghana Diaspora community at New Jersey, has over the weekend celebrated its first Damba festival in the United States of America.
This year Damba celebration brought together Dagombas and other sister tribes from Northern Ghana, and it was to honor the Chief at New Jersey.
Zosimli Naa II at the ceremony welcomed the delegation from Ghana, the Ghanaian community in the US especially the Northern people and chiefs, who came to celebrate the beautiful culture of the Northern people.
In her Addressed Naa Ife Bell, indicated that her office is working closely with other stakeholders, most especially Northern people within the United States and Ghana to create an alliance for a movement.
“Every great movement is proceeded by a sound, and tonight the drummers have provided us with that sound”. “Defining a movement as
a sustained campaign in support of a collective goal. They are a result of people-to-people collaboration whose relationships are defined by the shared common outlook of the development of a society. Movements replicates themselves, and stand the test of time. Yet, a movement requires that each person engages in collective action toward a common goal, which is the development of Tamale”, she stated.
She called on people of the North in the United States to support her developmental agenda for the people of Tamale and the Northern Region at large.
“We have to produce a greater impact, especially the vulnerable in the society. I believe that leadership is a lifestyle and the people are our greatest resource in life. It is my mission to expand the capacity of people to bring their very best. As leaders, our actions and decisions are to make strong connections, friendships with other leaders in support of accomplishing a goal”, she said.
She explained further that “today, we as leaders came together in support of the goal of celebrating our culture and the second goal of fostering development, and I assure you of my commitment to the development of the people of Tamale and the Northern Region by leveraging my network and platforms”.
Zosimli Naa while addressing the dignitaries, also highlighted action plans to achieve developmental goals for the people of the Northern Region and the country as a whole.
She mentioned that, her palace will bring diverse leaders who are young, energetic, and committed most especially professionals who will register with a yearly fee, and be members of the Tamale-Louisville Sister Cities Committee adding that the Tamale and Louisville have been Sister Cities, collaborating and achieving a lot for over 40 years by members in both cities, and encouraged the youth especially professionals to register, join, and pay annual dues to keep the committee in Tamale vibrant.
“This approach will demonstrate the preparedness of the youth to be stakeholders in the work of development for Tamale and I encourage everyone to reach out to Tamale- Louisville sister cities office to join the movement.
She disclosed that the office of Zosimli Naa is committed to establishing a formidable group known as the “Friends of Tamale” and that the group will be a diverse group of Americans; African Americans and White, women, and men, young and old with a particular focus on the African American community, who desire to visit their ancestral home to participate in building or to investing in Ghana as well as visiting tourist sites to boost tourism in Northern Ghana and Ghana as a whole.
“Members of this association will be organized by their areas of specialty and partnered with their Ghanaian counterparts to work together towards the development of the North, while also learning from each other, and I have already begun to invite interested persons and groups to sign-up and support this movement to create developmental opportunities for the good people of the North and also showing our culture and tourist site to the world”.
“I will again focus on bolstering existing programs and strengthening relationships with the individuals and professionals from the Northern Region who are now living in the US to make connections with every Northerner abroad or within the US to join the movement and develop a database and share a link for individuals to sign-up to help us keep in touch and support one another when the need arises”.
Naa Ife Bell II assured that the New Jersey community and all of the many communities present in the US will have the first opportunity to register.
“The existing programs and activities the planning committee has been engaged, and implored will help to strengthen the current initiatives such as the Dagombas Youth Association, Northern Youth Association, and the other groups so that together, we will make Northern Region strong. We are leaders, and together we are ready to take action today to develop Northern Ghana, she stated.
Source: Alhassan Yakubu| www.diamondfmonline.com| Ghana
