Queens (Queen mothers) in the Ketu South Municipality today participated in a cooking competition organised by the Member of Parliament, Abla Dzifa Gomashie and sponsored by GINO in Aflao.

The queens were selected from the three traditional areas in the municipal area; Aflao, Klikor and Agbozume.

Dishes prepared were Dzemkple also known in other parts of the country as Apraprensa, Abobitadi (anchovies in tomato sauce), Detsipipi (akin to thickened lightsoup), Amanyanyè (amadetsi made from water leaves), Lamumudetsi (fresh fish soup), Okro Stew, Morlutadi (stew for rice).

According to the member of parliament, Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, who is also a traditional leader known among her people as Maama Dzramedo 1, this meeting of over 40 queens from the municipality, was to give her and the Queens, an opportunity to talk about women issues like menstruation, puberty, widowhood from both a traditional and modern perspective.

She indicated that the meeting was also to showcase the authentic traditional cooking in the wake of the influx of cooking shows on Social Media and on the Internet which tend to misrepresent our traditional way of cooking.

In the speech by the MP, she said , “I see my role as the Member of Parliament as complimenting the traditional and cultural leadership in my beloved Ketu South. It is important to work with the custodians of our culture and tradition in the total development of the human resources of the municipality.”

Contributing to the discussion as the cooking was going on, Mama Cornelia, a development queen, said it was important for tradition to be preserved to ensure the unique ways of Ghanaians become the product to promote tourism.

The queens expressed their sincere appreciation to their member of Parliament for coming up with this event to bring female leaders in the Municipal together to share ideas and learn from each other.

Participants were given products (Gino Tomato mix and Gino Peppe and onion) from the sponsors.