The Shai Traditional Council has launched the 2024 Se Ngmayem Festival at Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District of Greater Accra.  Historically, during the seven-year drought and starvation that left the forefathers of the Shai people with little to eat, millet became their principal source of food until the rains returned, culminating in a great harvest in 1892, which prompted a celebration. The Se or Shai Ngmayem Festival, named after the millet grain (ngma), has great cultural significance for the Shai people. The festival's first celebration took place in the Shai Hills, after which the inhabitants were thrown out of the hills by the colonial masters, but they observed it again in 1959 and had since been celebrated for several years now.  Nene Okukurubuor Tei Kwasi Agyemang V, the Chairman of the festival planning committee, at the launch of the event, reaffirmed the Council's commitment to protect the forest. He said, 'There is a saying that when the last tree dies, the last man dies; the ecosystem i s mostly dependent on trees and the nature beneath them; therefore, we encourage everyone to maintain the environment, particularly tree planting.' 'We aim to encourage everyone to safeguard the environment, and we want to do this through our cultural heritage,' he said. He stated that the traditional council would spearhead a huge tree-planting campaign to replenish the forest's vegetation. He also hinted that they would use a master site plan to eliminate all encroachments, offer closure to families claiming areas of the forest, to restore the reserve's integrity. Mankralo Tetteh Wayo III explained that the year's them for the celebration was due to the degradation of the Dodowa Forest, which had been seriously threatened by encroachers in recent years.  He said the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs had expressed concerns, which led the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) to declare the forest a security zone.  The Dodowa Forest is a well-known tourist attraction with large game reserves, includin g baboons, monkeys, a waterfall, and others, he said.  The Chief, warned that funerals and loud music had been prohibited ahead of the festival from September 10th and the ban would be enforced by a task group commanded by traditional priests and priestesses, adding that offenders will not be speared if they violate the restrictions. Source: Ghana News Agency