Gbidukor Festival In London

The Totoeme Cultural Troupe performing at the durbar

The maiden celebration of the Gbidikor festival of Peki and Hohoe citizens in the United Kingdom was rounded off with an indoor durbar at the Selby Centre at Tottenham in London at the weekend, amid pomp and pageantry.

It was under the theme: Unity and Advancement.
The festival was initiated in Ghana 17 years ago to signify the reunification of the people of Gbi Nyigbe (Peki) and Gbi Dzigbe (Hohoe) after three centuries of separation by geographical, colonial and other historical circumstances.

The celebration in London was also used to raise funds to refurnish the Community Centre at Peki-Avetile and also to woo investors for the health, tourism, energy and real estate industries in Peki and Hohoe.

In a joint message read on their behalf, the Deiga of Peki Traditional Area, Togbe Kwadzo Dei XI, and Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area, Togbega Gabusu VI, said that the development challenges of the Gbis and other people in Ghana were growing and changing with the dynamics of society.

They said identifying and addressing those challenges, required unity among the Gbis both at home and in the diaspora at all times.

Togbe Kwadzo Dei and Togbega Gabusu commended the Gbis in the UK for their preparedness to respond to the calls of their kinsmen back home and urged them to maintain a firm stance to uphold their ancestral history and also to promote the culture of their homeland with zeal, even as they lived away from home.

Mr F. Nuku Kamasa-Quashie, Minister/ Head of Chancery at the Ghana High Commission said it was high time the unions of citizens of the various Ghanaian communities abroad committed greater resources towards “redevelopment” of structures back home and not just refurbishment.

He said government’s source of revenue from taxes was severely limited because a lot of viable businesses go on in Ghana unnoticed, adding that the development needs of the country now placed an added duty on the unions to constantly liaise with the traditional authorities back home to identify such businesses and compel them to pay their taxes.

Earlier, Mr Samuel Asima, chairman of the Gbidukor festival planning committee and the Peki Union, said that the bond of unity among the Gbis in the UK will continue to grow from strength to strength and manifest in the forms of monumental development in Peki and Hohoe, to benefit generations yet unborn.