From 16th to the 18th of December 2016, the James Town suburb of Accra, in Ghana, will play host to the third edition of Tuumatu Festival, an event created in 2014 by the Sydney-based Lucky - an award winning dancer, choreographer dance-teacher and entertainer, originally hailing from Ghana.
According to him, the purpose of this festival is to bring people together across generations in Jamestown, Ghana, to reinvigorate learning and playing childhood games while at the same time reconnecting people to their history and culture.
The idea of the festival came about when Lucky was reflecting on games that he used to play as a child and that had all vanished or on the verge of extinction.
"Tuumatu means hopscotch," Lartey tells SBS African.
"That's where the idea for this festival came about. It's about going back to see how the young ones are going - to see if they actually still know the games that I grew up with."
With nostalgic games such as hospscotch dying out, Lartey said he wanted to experiment and see if he could renew interest in them again.
"I wanted to see if we could bring back those games and see how kids from a young age to my age would react to it," he says.
He was amazed by the reception that the festival received.
"It started as research and then turned into a festival - 5,000 people turned up!" he says.
'Games' have tremendous benefits for the body and the mind
Looking back on the bygone era through a creative lens, Lucky realised that the games of his childhood had tremendous benefits to the individual and the child, in particular, than most of today's computer and screen based games.
"We make a lot of things out of recycled materials," Lucky explains.
He argues that it's this kind of ingenuity - and physicality, that modern screen-based games are lacking.
"To connect more with your peers and your friends, it's a lot more challenging," he says.
Games like hopscotch, kite flying, rope skipping and many more had the benefit of developing psychomotor abilities, maintaining ones physical fitness while at the same time allowing social interaction and development of arithmetic skills.
Skills on display at a past Tuumatu festival Source: Lucky Lartey
Past Tuumatu festivals have provided the perfect platform for activities such as: toy-making workshops using traditional techniques with found and recyclable objects thus were encouraging the idea of sustainability; playing games such as hopscotch as well as making and flying kites.
Tuumatu festival also offers the perfect platform for local and international artists to showcase innovative performances, dances acrobatics and many more.
Tumatu has been growing in popularity, attracting larger and larger crowds.
"When we started the first time, it was just about the games," he explains.
"When I went back a second time, we decided to make it a three-day, international platform where people come to present contemporary work. So either dancing, choreographing, great acrobatics or bo-jangling."
"We bring people together and ask them to do some interesting collaborations that they would not normally do," says Lucky. "So they can be a little bit more challenged and present something interesting."
"Then we ask some of the choreographers to talk about the environment, recycling and issues that are political - issues in Ghana that they want to talk about through their art."
"So it's not just entertainment but it's also an opportunity for artists to talk about issues that are affecting their environment, or things where they would like to see change."
Describing some of the works that are coming up in this year's festival, Lucky says "this year, we're going to be collaborating with the School of the Deaf, so there are going to be deaf people and we're going to be collaborating to make a work relating to sign language and sound."
As well as encouraging creativity amid the Ghanaian locals, Lartey says that he also hopes to help the community explore influences and inspiration from abroad that they might never otherwise have access to.
"We have three international artists coming [this year]" says Lartey. "One from Singapore, coming with a friend from France."
"A lady called Jenny from the Ivory Coast is coming to talk about how artists can actually use their art to change their environment."
Financially, Tummatu festival has relied essentially on the organiser's personal backing, but now it has grown to such a level that it now requires external support, with the founder now turning to crowd-funding website Pozible to help raise funds for the event.
"I'm not a millionaire - for me it's more about giving back to the community," he says.
"It's a thing that community needs - the second time they were really calling for us to come back."
"The third time around, it's gotten too big!"
