Home Mamaga Ngoyi Nyonufiaga Akosua I Speeches Opening of the SASADU FESTIVAL at Sovie, Volta Region Ghana, November 2009
Opening of the SASADU FESTIVAL at Sovie, Volta Region Ghana, November 2009

Honourable Ministers of State, Honourable MPs and DCEs, The Clergy, Togbewo, Mamawo, The Media, Distinguished invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The SASADU festival for 2009 is something very special for me. This is because it is the first once since I settled in Ghana some months ago and it is my tenth year of being in Ghana in developmental work.
These ten years have been a big challenge to me, a European who at first didn’t know very much about Ghana and her people’s culture. Nevertheless I have been very lucky to have found good teachers and very kind people who have helped me in building the necessary cultural bridges. Ghana and especially SASA areas have been a gift to me. A gift we are certainly not able to pay for. I call it destiny. I had the big advantage of being coronated in areas where I found like -minded people, interested in development and ready to work hard for it.
The SASA Development Union has been founded in 1947, can you imagine how progressive the founders have already been at that time? Uniting the people, to enable them to benefit from their collective responsibilities – this is still very modern and has outlived many decades already.  I am proud and feel very honored to be part of a development union which has had modern leaders over a long time. Since I came into this union, I have realized, that it is still the same, ideas and visions have not changed until now, something which is a phenomenon for most African countries where ideas are very often picked up quickly but not continued over the years. In SASADU this means commitment, hard work, creativity, modern leadership, visions and of course the logical consequence of it; patience, open mindedness and diplomacy.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all my Chiefs and Queenmothers for their continuous support in realizing my projects in the SASA areas, which of course have to be expanded. In 2010, we will have a project in SAVIEFE and one in Akrofu would follow as soon as we have decided on how we can deal with circumstances in that area. SASADU stands for unity and tribal conflicts are slowing down the development as well as the Nkonya-Alavanyo war did in the past.
Unity is more than just an idea and it is a vision, a lifetime goal for me to see a united SASADU. I grew up in a divided country and lost contact with parts of my family in Eastern Germany for over 25 years. I know what division really means. Julian, a young proactive Ghanaian, who is here with me today, is the founder of the Ghana Youth Unite Project, a project that seeks to unite society via literary arts and would be launched soon. When I came unto this project, I had the idea to connect different areas, to organize a cultural exchange of different tribes. So we are starting with the EWE-Ashanti Project as a pilot project already this year. After that we will continue all over Ghana to unite the Youth and to learn more about each other’s cultural backgrounds.
Next year I will celebrate my tenth anniversary, I hope many of you will come to be part of it. I am looking ford to it.
I want to close my speech with a Ghanaian proverb, which says:
Unity is strength, division is weakness.
We are from Sasa Areas – but we are Ghanaians too.
SASA!!!

Mamaga Akosua I