Angami students ponder on identity on cultural day

Kohima, Jan. 28 (EMN): The Southern Angami Students’ Union (Sasu) held its 68th biennial literary event on Jan. 27 at Khuzama in Kohima. The programme was conducted with the theme “cognizing culture identity.” The chief engineer of the department of Power Khose Sale was the guest speaker for the event.

Speaking at length about the theme, Khose said that ‘identity’ has its manifestation in human values while ‘culture’ forms progressive attributes of the customs practiced, beliefs, way of life, and social organization of a particular ethnic group. Knowing and preserving the good and bad is what “cognizing” envisages. The power of choice is the essence of “cognizance.”

Attempting to explaining the wider meaning of the theme, he said that the lack of ‘actual documentation’ and historical ‘recording’ were required besides a thorough research by academicians. “It has reached a point of urgency to document our rich culture past mostly orally scattered,” he said.

The talk on culture and tradition has to be challenging to synthesize attitude, action, and mindset, he said. “Our Naga identity is rooted to land and culture, we are the people of the mountain and forests, trees and rivers, its loss is seen as a loss of identity, its protection is inherently linked to protecting our tribal culture”, he added.

In the context of Naga history and tradition, he said wisdom was the mechanism that balanced ecology and sustainability. ‘Therefore our Naga identity is intertwined with nature beginning with our habitat, our cultural activities, institutional practices as clan system, taboos, storytelling and folktale.’

Stating that the means of food-gathering such as fishing and hunting in the past were traditional which in fact assured sustainability. ‘A lot of our modern practices have disrupted the peaceful chain of our existence with nature,’ he said. ‘Furthering our culture and traditions not only add values but also adds to our economy…our land has huge potential for eco-tourism, education and Information Technology in hand should be taken advantage of leading the preservation while progressing with the world around us.’

“We are bound to be selective of the good and bad taking in right proportion of the physical attributes of our culture,” he said.

In the presidential address, the president of the Sasu Ketholeto Anthony Zashiimo said that the theme “cognizing culture identity” was adopted to make essential again the people’s rich culture. ‘With the community facing a deluge of modernizing forces and the younger generation becoming oblivious to traditions and cultures, the program was initiated toward reassuring revival of our culture and traditions,’ it was informed.

More than 700 student delegates from 13 villages of the southern Angami region, besides guests and elders from other Angami regions attended the program.

The program featured a cultural exhibition and competition with members representing 10 villages participating in the events.

In the afternoon session of the programme, Kesosul Christopher Ltu, the president of the Naga Students’ Federation(NSF) exhorted the gathering. Saying that unemployment among the educated youth in Nagaland was alarmingly high, ‘a need for reawakening was the need of the hour while at the same time identifying one’s individual capabilities and potential.’

A quiz competition about the cultural history of the Angami Naga people was conducted also. Other competitions of the day were Mepfii Kero (war cry), folk dance; original story-writing (folktales) and painting, among others.

The reigning mister and miss SASU titles for 2018 were conferred on (Mr.) Siivito Mekro of Kezoma village and (Miss) Vikhotsono Khora of Kigwema village.