Top 8 festivals in Ghana – Mirroring indigeneity of land of gold and cocoa
- Country:
- Ghana
Located along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean in the subregion of West Africa, Ghana is a beautiful country to visit round the year. The tourism sector is a key economic driver in Ghana that generates foreign exchange earnings, generates jobs and wealth including a big click for other sectors. The tourism sector in Ghana not only inflates due to its several visiting places across the country, attending or participating at the diverse festivals are also a vital reason for the rise of tourism in Ghana. The country is very much safe for foreigners and they can visit anytime whenever they prefer. As far as attending the country’s varied festivals are concerned, this piece will enrich you with plenty of information so that you can fix the itinerary accordingly.
Homowo Festival
Homowo is a highly popular festival in Ghana and it is mainly celebrated by an ethnic group called Ga people. Homowo festival commences in May every year with the planting of crops before the starting of rainy season. The word ‘Homowo’ is derived from two Ga words – ‘Homo’ means hunger and ‘Wo’ means to hoot at. The festival begins with the sowing of millet by the traditional priests in May. The entire Homowo season lasts a few months beginning with the opening of the fishing season and the planting of the millet crop in May and ending with the harvest in late September. Noise creation is banned during this period as it is believed that it will obstruct the natural process of crop’s maturity. Some of the towns that celebrate Homowo are La, Teshie, Nungua, Osu, Ga-Mashie, Tema among others. It is also observed by the Americans of African descent in other places like New York, Oregon, Portland, Houston to name a few.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Fetu Afahye Festival
Fetu Afahye festival is celebrated by the Oguaa people of Cape Coast on the first Saturday in the month of September every year. According to tradition, there was an outbreak of disease that killed many people who belong to the Oguaa community. During Fetu Afahye festival, people prayed to the 77 Gods of the Oguaa traditional area to help them in getting rid of the disease. The festival celebrated to keep the town clean and to prevent another epidemic befalling the people. The paramount chief of the Oguaa (Omanhen) spends a week in confinement to converse with the Gods. The people during that time are not allowed to create noise and fishing in the Fosu Lagoon is also banned. Slaughtering of cow for the Gods is also observed. People from various parts of Ghana visit Cape Coast to observe this festival. Afahye state dance, local cuisine, football games, clothing and traditional wear, among many other forms of cultural artefacts are also the important parts of Fetu Afahye festival.
Image Credit: Facebook / Oguaa Fetu Afahye, Festival Celebration Development, Fun
Aboakyer Festival
Aboakyer Festival is mainly celebrated by the people of Simpa or Winneba in Ghana’s central region. This celebration is also known as Aboakyer Deer Hunting Festival. The institution of the festival was to commemorate the migration of Simpafo (traditional name given to the people of Winneba). The people migrated from the north-eastern African town of Timbuktu in the ancient Western Sudan Empire to their present land in the central coast of Ghana. The people believed that a God called Out had protected them from all dangers during their migration and to show their appreciation, the people consulted the custodian of the God, a traditional priest who acted as an intermediary between the people and the God, to ask the God for its preferred sacrifice. The God is said to have asked for a human sacrifice someone from the royal family and this (human sacrifice) went on for some years but was later stopped as no one was interested to be sacrificed. The legend says that again God interfered upon contacting and asked for type of wild cat’s sacrifice. Today, this festival is a major event in Ghana and celebrated every year in May. Many visitors from various parts of Ghana including foreigners come to witness or participate in the festival.
Image Credit: Facebook / Ghana Tourism Authority
Dipo Festival
Dipo is one of the traditional Ghanaian festivals celebrated by the people of of Manya and Yilo Krobo, in Krobo Odumase and Somanya in the country’s eastern region. This festival is mainly celebrated in the month of April every year and people from various parts of Ghana and also other countries participate in this traditional festival. The festival is also popularly called puberty rites and is performed on adolescent girls to initiates them to womanhood. The festival is used to usher into puberty, girls who are virgins and it signifies that a lady, who partakes in it, is of age to be married. Parents upon hearing announcement of the rites send their qualified girls to the chief priest. However, these girls would have to go through rituals and tests to prove their chastity before they qualify to partake in the festival. The girls have their heads shaved and dressed with cloth around their waist to just their knee level. The upper part of the body is exposed and decorated with colorful and assorted beads. Exposing breasts in public signifies they are transforming into adulthood. The ritual continues for two days and every parent brings castrated goat which is slaughtered and its blood is used to wash the feet of the girls. The chief priest conducts these exercises with a belief the Gods will wash away any bad omen that may obstruct from giving birth to babies in future. The Klama dance is also popular that attracts many visitors from various parts.
Image Credit: Facebook / Accra By Night
Kundum Festival
Kundum festival is celebrated by the coastal tribes of the Western Region of Ghana. The Ahanta or Nzema people celebrate Kundum festival to pay gratitude to God for the abundance of food at the time of the harvest period of the area. The four-month long festival is celebrated at weekly intervals from town to town between August and November every year. The history has the record of this festival even celebrated in the 16th century. The first record of the festival was made by Bossman, a Dutch explorer who traveled to the Gold Coast in the 17th century and observed the festival. The process of celebrating this festival varies from town to town and there is always an effort from all the localities to add some uniqueness to the celebration in order to make it grand. It is one of those few festivals in Ghana that has evolved with modern trend of life, thus visitors from various places in Ghana and other countries participate in it. Singing, drumming and dancing are common all over the town but it is banned on Monday. The final Sunday is the grand durbar when the final feast is prepared.
Image Credit: YouTube / Calciuimicon
Chale Wote Festival
Chale Wote Street Art Festival aka Chale Wote brings art, music, dance and performance out into the streets. The festival brings thousands of people to the capital city of Ghana, Accra for around a week. It also includes movie premieres, gallery shows, skate shows (displaying over 200 artists’ exhibitions), music and dance. Since 2011, Chale Wote has included street painting, theater, graffiti murals, live street performances, photography, spoken word, interactive art installations, extreme sports, film shows, a fashion parade, a music block party, recyclable design workshops and much more. This is one of those festivals in Ghana that has highly evolved and attained popularity with the modern trend of life. The period of celebration is not fixed, thus you need to check the dates before making a plan to attend it.
Image Credit: Facebook / Chale Wote Street Art Festival
Panafest Festival
Panafest is a very popular festival or cultural event in Ghana. First held in 1992, The Pan African Historical Theatre Project is intended to promote and enhance unity – Pan-Africanism – and the development of the African continent itself. This biennial festival is observed every two years and the activities that occur at this festival are performances and work in the areas of theatre, drama, music, and poetry, among other things. The event keeps the visitors engaged and serve the academic purpose of educating the world about the African bequests. It is now an international event that, as has happened since Independence in the mid-20th century, makes Ghana a motivational force for African peoples.
Image Credit: Facebook / Celmar Travel and Tours
Apoo Festival
The Apoo Festival is celebrated every year in Ghanaian towns like Nkoranza, Wenchi and Techiman in April or May. The festival is said to have started during the reign of Nana Kwakye Ameyaw who was an authoritarian and the people of Techiman were unable to express their views on what was happening at that time. The people were peeved during that period but could express their views. So, they consulted the Gods of the area who asked them to set aside some days for them to come out and say what was on their chest more especially about the traditional authorities at that time. The people would say ‘Mereko po me haw’ which literally meant ‘I am going to say what was on my chest’ and this was how the Apoo festival came into existence.
Image Credit: Facebook / Oh Afrika
Apart from the above festivals, Ghana celebrates lots of other events, festivals and cultural programmes such as Kakube festival, Asafotufiam festival, Hogbetsotso festival, Bakatue festival, Odwira festival to name a few.
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