Festivals are popular in Ghana, attracting visitors from all around the country as well as from other regions of Africa and the world. Some of these events have survived the years and are still going strong today. Every year, millions of Ghanaians look forward to these renowned occasions, and when the moment arrives, thousands stream into the streets to celebrate.
The fact that Ghana has so many festivals is not surprising, given that Ghanaians are known to be very cultured people that cherish tradition and recognize the importance of tradition.
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Festivals Celebrated in Greater Accra Region
Below are the list of festivals that are celebrated in the Greater Accra Region
Chale Wote Festival
The Chale Wote Street Art Festival, which takes place every August in Jamestown, attracts an international crowd of artists and educators, as well as a procession of people from various professions. Concepts are chosen for the creatives to create out-of-the-box breakthroughs during this thriving festival celebrated in Accra. There will be live musical performances and presentations of Ghanaian culture, as with every event. Visitors to Accra should make time to see Ghana’s most gifted performers and designers perform amongst the world’s top brilliant minds at this unique, mind-blowing festival.
Homowo Festival
The Homowo festival is also one of Ghana’s most famous festivals. The occasion is a yearly harvest celebration that is widely observed by the Ga people, an ethnic group who largely inhabits Ghana’s Greater Accra region. The Ga people hold the Homowo festival every year to celebrate a big famine that occurred in their history and how they overcame it.
The festival is a big thing, and although being largely a Ga event, it attracts visitors from all around the country.
The Homowo Festival’s Origins and Celebrations
The Homowo festival is a long-standing Ghanaian ritual that stretches back to pre-colonial times. Homowo, means “to hoot (or jeer) at hunger”. The practice arose during a time of tremendous starvation and famine in the Greater Accra Region, where the Ga people live, caused by the failure of high rainfall needed to cultivate crops. The crops failed to develop due to the lack of rain, and hunger reigned supreme. The Ga people were afflicted by this famine for an entire season, and many people died as a result of it.
The hunger did not last long, however, as the rains poured and the crops bloomed once more. The Ga people were so overjoyed that they wanted to commemorate it by establishing a festival, which they did.
Every year in August, the festival takes place.
The pre-festival season normally begins with the planting of maize, a crop that will be utilized to prepare the cuisine for the Kpokpoi or Kpekple festival. It’s important to keep in mind that noise-making is forbidden or outlawed during the maize planting season because the Ga people believe that noise will prevent the crop from maturing. The festival food is made and spread over the town during the celebration after the maize germinates. Traditional family heads and leaders are usually the ones who sprinkle Kpokpoi. In addition, the Ga people’s family chiefs sprinkle “kpokpoi” in their homes.
Asafotufiam Festival
Every year, the inhabitants of Ada in the Dangbe East district of Ghana’s Greater Accra region celebrate the Asafotufiam Festival, which is a very prominent festival. Asafotufiam is a war celebration that honors the Ada people’s battle bravery in the past. It has become one of the Ada people’s most important events, and it is held every year in the first week of August.
The Asafotufiam Festival’s Origins and Celebrations
The Asafotufiam Festival has a long history dating back centuries. Legend has it that the Ada people fought many wars in order to build a homeland for their people. These battles were brutal, but the Ada folks were resilient.
When there were no more wars to fight in the 1900s, the traditions of receiving soldiers were fading out because they were no longer required. Years later, however, the people felt that they still needed to recognize their valiant troops, forefathers, and prior leaders, all of whom fought and contributed substantially to the founding of Ada Kingdom. The Asafotufiam Festival was born as a result of this. Since then, the event has been conducted to honor the bravery of the Ada people’s outstanding heroes and warriors.
Panafest
Pan-African Festival of Art and Culture exudes historical and cultural endowment and legacy. PANAFEST was founded in the mid-1980s by the late Efua Sutherland as a project to encourage Africans all over the world to return home. On May 23rd, Roy ‘Gramps’ Morgan, a founding member of the Morgan Heritage family reggae band from the United States, was named an Ambassador of the 2017 Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival.
Sabolai Festival
Every December, Accra presents the year’s most anticipated musical event, which showcases Ghana’s musical talents in front of an international audience on a vast stage. This incredible African indie music festival, which includes some of the most outstanding performers from both the mainstream and underground communities. Fans will get the opportunity to hear new music as part of the show. This event brings together established musicians from all genres to perform.