Tinmaale Festival in Hain

This year's 16th edition of the annual grand durbar of chiefs and people of Hain Traditional Area in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region to climax the Tinmaale festival celebration was held at Hain over the week-end.

The week -long festival was full of colourful display and showmanship during which social activities included football matches, drumming, singing, firing of musketry and other traditional drums showcased the rich culture of the area which is also the commercial centre in the district.

The Tinmaale, which means, "Development" is held to promote sustainable development programmes in the area.

The season marks the beginning of picking of shea-nuts usually by women to supplement the men's efforts during the lean season which is characterized by severe hunger and preparation of farm lands by the men in the area. It is also used to take stock of the previous year.

It was held on the theme "Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development of Hain Traditional Area".

It was a memorable afternoon as people from all walks of life including politicians, tourists, traditional rulers, and opinion leaders were attracted to the festival.

Shea-nut, which is very abundant in the area and regarded as the most important among the many economic trees such a Dawadawa, red berries, black berries among others picked by the women towards the generation of income.

To that affect, the Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Bede Zeideng urged the youth to regard the shea-nut as their cocoa and use it to alleviate poverty in the area. Mr Zeideng expressed his dissatisfaction about the situation where able-bodied youth left the picking of the shea-nut to old women and rushed to the urban towns for non-existing jobs.

The Regional Minister said shea-nut was in high demand even outside the country so they should rather stay and make use of the resources which had been freely provided for them.

The Hain Naa, Naa Alhaji Salifu Dakurah IV, Chief of Hain Traditional Area regretted that the absence of teachers in the district was becoming more and more pronounced. He cited the Hain Basic District Assembly Schools with an enrolment of 946 pupils which had only two teachers.

The Jirapa District Chief Executive, Ms Nelly-Vivien Kunko gave the assurance that the assembly had put up programmes to fight the fallen standards of education in the area. Under the programme, she said any school which obtained a single digit pass at the BECE will win an award of GHC500.00 while the pupil or pupils involved will take home an amount of GHC 200.00 each. While she urged parents and guardians to invest more of their resources in the education of their children, the DCE also advised the students to take their studies seriously.

On agriculture, she announced that the government had provided the Assembly with five irrigation pumps which are available on hire purchase for dry-season farming along the Black Volta River in the following communities. They are Tuolong, Yagah,Gbetuori, Tie and Orifani.