The Ga Traditional Council (GTC) has announced that this year’s ban on drumming and noise-making within the State is to commence on May 6 and run till June 6, a one-month period.
The Council specifies that the ban prohibits noise-making activities, including clapping of hands, use of tambourines and other musical instruments during the period.
Thus, churches, mosques and pubs, for instance, are expected to refrain from the use of musical instruments, placing of loudspeakers outside their premises and carrying out open-air activities.
Roadside evangelists also are expected to cease their activities during this period.
Other open-air activities banned include funerals as they also involve noise-making.
The Ghanaian Times joins the GTC in urging the public to observe the ban to uphold peace, harmony and security within the Ga State.
It, therefore, appeals to religious and other traditional authorities within the Ga State to show respect by restraining their followers from making derogatory and inflammatory remarks about the ban.
The truth is that not all customs and traditions of a people are bad.
This is where there is the need to seek understanding of such practices but not as in the case of the 12-year-old girl being married to an old man, which is a clear case of violation of the innocent girl’s rights.
Seeking understanding of harmless but sometimes unclear cultural practices like the annual ban on noise-making prevents some people from trying to violate them because they do not see the essence of them.
The ban on noise-making, for instance, is observed because in ancient times Gas were involved in farming and planted their seeds during the period and found that noise-making interfered with seed germination and so the one-month ban could help stem the interference.
It should marvel present generation how the ancient Gas came to that conclusion as primitive as they were thought to be.
Interestingly, research in modern times has proven that sound or noise have some impact on plant growth.
For instance, ResearchGate, a European commercial social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, states that depending on the frequency and intensity of SV (structural variation) and US, sounds [or noise] can positively or negatively affect different biological functions of plants such as germination, the cell cycle, shoot, root and callus growth and development.
Today, a greater percentage of Ga lands are built-up, meaning farming is less practised in the State, yet the ban on noise-making has some significance.
If nothing at all, it reminds everyone of the intellect of the Gas of old, which can be applied in farming communities today with the assistance of agricultural scientists.
Ghana is an agrarian country and any knowledge or technology that can enhance its agricultural production must be encouraged.
The rite may appear obsolete but not harmful and can be observed for as long as the Ga people want to deem it worthy.
Besides, it forms part of who they are.
The Ghanaian Times will continue to support all cultural practices in the country that help it to develop or even if they have just some productive lessons for the people.
In that same vein, the paper will join the condemnation of obnoxious, restrictive, outdated and harmful ones like minors being married to paedophilic