Revitalizing African Youth for Unity and Peace Building: Celebrating African Culture, History and Values (Published)
The study examined revitalizing African youth for unity and peace building: celebrating African culture, history and values. The study highlights the potential of African cultural revitalization to foster a sense of shared identity, pride and belonging for unity and peace building. Two research questions were raised and answered in the study. Survey design was adopted for this study. The population for this study comprised all African youth. The sample for this study was 1000 respondents. Stratified random sampling method was used to select youth while cluster sampling technique was used to select 5 countries in Africa in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire titled “Revitalizing African Youth for Unity and Peace-building Questionnaire (RAYUPQ). The questionnaire were administered using online platform such as Google Forms and Microsoft Forms. Descriptive statistics of simple percentage, mean score and standard deviation was used to answer research questions. Benchmark of 2.50 was established to accept any item with a mean rating of 2.50 or above as agreed while any item with a mean rating less than 2.50 was regarded as disagreed for research questions. It can be concluded that revitalizing African youth for unity and peace building requires a multifaceted approach that celebrates African culture, history and values. By embracing their rich heritage, youth can develop a strong sense of identity, pride and belonging. This in turn can foster a culture of unity, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. It therefore recommended that government, traditional rulers and African leaders should integrate African culture history and values into educational curricula. Support youth-led initiatives. Foster regional collaboration. Promote cultural exchange.
Keywords: African Culture, Peace – Building, Unity, Values, history
PAN-AFRICAN ARTISTIC REFLECTIONS IN KWAME NKRUMAH MEMORIAL PARK (Published)
This paper attempts to make an in-depth visual analysis of the monumental freestanding sculptures at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (KNMP) and the frieze that clothes the museum next to his figurative sepulchre to establish its symbiotically symbolic relationship with the coalesced adinkralization (using adinkra motif designs) and Egyptology in promoting the African nationality and unification agenda. Again, it addresses some wider politico-cultural metaphorism and rhetorical issues emerging from the freestanding sculptural arrangements in the entire park resulting from the intercourse of Egypto-Ghana artistic cultural exegesis. It also examines the costuming of the sculptures in blending Egyto-Ghana dress culture in projecting the ideologies of Nkrumah’s proposed common continental African unitary government
Keywords: Adinkralization, Costume, Egyptology, Pan-African Aesthetics, Symbology, Unity