THE European Union Cultural Fund set up in furtherance of the objectivesof the Cultural Initiatives Support Programme, has come in handy, albeit belatedly. Belated because many talents that could have benefited from this very important fund, have gone waste over the years and decades.

We are talking about people who, by virtue of their origins and circumstances, understood the very basis and essence of traditional cultural forms, the native conventions, mores, folklore and everything basic to Ghana’s cultural past and existence, but could not, for lack of financial and moral support, express them or better still, document them.

There are many folk-tales originating from all corners of this country that are no longer told. Native stories of great moral and societal value have gone lost in the recesses of the minds of those who know them but have no way of documenting them for posterity.

For the hundreds of those well-endowed in the skills of bead-making, ceramics, basket-weaving, leather-making, sculpturing and local textiles, it is the same sad story.

Ghanaians also know all too well the story about the near-death of traditional forms of music, cultural drumming and dancing. The wealth of knowledge in the artistic and culture sector is going down into the waste baskets of time.

The Tom-and-Jerry cartoon episodes and many other cartoon series developed in Europe and America through the use of animation, became possible only because such forms of art were recognised and supported through funding and promoted.

If Ghana can develop her Ananse stories into animated visuals, then this cultural fund is a sure step in this direction and others yearning for support.

While lauding the European Union for this wonderful offer, we pause for a moment to ask about our own Cultural Fund that can still not be accessed because of very insignificant difficulties?

For those of our readers who do not know, we are referring to the most bizarre situation in President Kufuor’s Ghana where a Cultural Trust Fund with which the NPP has sunk GH¢2million, cannot be accessed because Cabinet has for four years, not approved the modalities submitted by the National Commission on Culture. What is more bizarre is that a memo from the NCC intending to prevail on the Minister of Culture to put pressure on the Cabinet cannot be found for over a year.

People need funding to develop the vast potential of the cultural sector and that fund locked up in the bureaucratic vaults of the ministries needs to be unlocked and made available for access.

That fund is for a purpose and there is no need for it to exist on paper. It must be disbursed, of course judiciously and applied to the very purpose for which it was set up.

We can only hope that someone is listening this time.