Accra, May 4, GNA - Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, a renowned novelist, has appealed to the government and the society as a whole to support the arts, describing the industry as the oil that keeps society running. She advised people to stop looking at the arts as a luxury which one could afford to ignore and said the industry was a unifying force in society.

Prof. Aidoo said this at a launch of a novel "Harmattan Rain" written by Ms Ayesha Harruna Attah on Saturday. She said writers required support from their environment to keep them going on with their creative or imaginative writing but in Ghana creative writing is so uneven because of lack of support. Calling the writer "the new Ghanaian woman novelist," she said the writer had a lot of courage and that the novel is a very brilliant one.

The "Harmattan Rain" is a story centred on the lives of a grandmother, mother and daughter. The story of love and life is set a few years before Ghana's independence and touches on issues such as single parenting, marriage, ambition and disappointments.

Mr Nat Amartefio, a former the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, auctioned the first copy of the book for 900 Ghana cedis, expressed concern about the lack of creative writers in Ghana and commended Ayesha Harruna Attah for her courage.

He said: "Ayesha's story talks about the psychic history of Ghana ..the psychic history of this country have not yet been written," and urged women to take up the challenge. Ms Harruna Attah, who read a piece of the story to the audience, expressed her gratitude for the support she had received. The book, published by Per Ankh publishers, has already been launched in several parts of the United States. The cover price is 18 cedis.