Traditional leader proposes the use of creative means to help address human trafficking

Founder and leader of the Concerned Traditional Rulers in Africa Against Trafficking in Persons (COTRATIP) and Mankralo of Adjena in the Eastern Region has proposed the use of creative arts and culture as a means to effectively address modern-day slavery and human trafficking in the country.

Nana Ayimedu Brempong III noted that the use of creative arts as a medium by chiefs and players in the industry could be effectively exploited as an alternative towards dealing with the age-old canker.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a stakeholder and consultative meeting for the development of the new human trafficking national plan of action (NPA) held at the Anita Hotel in Kumasi.

The event was organized by the human trafficking secretariat of the ministry of gender, children and social protection with the support of UNICEF and was under the theme, ‘Working together to end human trafficking.’

The Mankralo while urging traditional leaders to adopt an utmost commitment to the fight against the canker proposed a bottom to top approach to solving dire challenges noted that the method was the most effective in addressing any problem.

“In circumstances where there are social vices, you cannot have the top-bottom approach to the solution. What you have to do is to have an extensive consultation from the bottom to top so you’ll get the needs and wants of the people and associate that with the menace you want to solve,” he noted.

According to him the use of various creative means by traditional authorities could be very effective in partly addressing the challenges posed by the menace of human trafficking and slavery.

“Traditional rulers have various means of addressing serious vices in society such as human trafficking and slavery through the use of folklore, artifacts, drawings, cultural displays and other things that sink well with the indigenous people,” he opined.

Nana Ayimedu Brempong III furthered that chiefs can through their opinion leaders resort to these creative means as a way of educating and raising awareness about the dangers and improprieties associated with the practice.

He however emphasized that these could be effectively employed by resorting to prototypes through the use of technology such as social media and other innovative means.

With the gender ministry playing a critical role in ending the practice, the Mankralo noted that these institutions could liaise with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to adopt various concepts of the UNESCO and the Gender Ministry which they can conceptualize into the local culture with the incorporation of the traditional values.

Identifying the medium of music as another effective means to promote awareness and education on the canker, Nana Ayimedu Brempong III nana said the country’s musicians, through their various music genre, can help achieve this, adding that a blend of new and old music classes could be effective in this drive.

The approach, the Mankralo was hopeful, would not just help address the phenomenon in Africa but on the African continent as well.

To successfully utilize this approach, he called for increased budgetary allocation for the Gender ministry, adding that, the budgetary allocation for the ministry equally addresses other areas including domestic violence.