Odwira Festival

Another trip up to the Akrofi-Christaller Center in Akropong, where the food is good (although not always as plentiful as we like), the weather is cooler, and the atmosphere more calm and quiet. Well, at least it’s usually calm and quiet. The Odwira Festival, a weeklong celebration changes all that. This was a time of dancing, drumming, eating, and all out celebration. It is the start of their new year, and is a time for the people of this area to remember their ancestors. It is also the time where they harvest their yam. We arrived on Wednesday which was the day of mourning. The citizens mourn for anyone who has passed in the previous year and the chief makes his rounds around town visiting every family who has lost someone. For the previous 40 days, or month (their year consists of 9 months of 40 days), there was a ban on noisemaking, funerals, and eating new yam. Starting on Wednesday, a funeral could be held for anyone who died in the preceding 40 days, and since the ban on noisemaking has been lifted there was lots of music. There was a town curfew on Wednesday and Thursday though, so everyone was supposed to be inside by 9pm and lights were supposed to be off by 10pm. Wednesday was also Stephanie’s birthday, and I think she may be the first person to ever have had a 9pm curfew on her 21^st Birthday. That is why we celebrated the night before in Accra. Thursday was the day of feasting. Early in the day we went to the chief’s palace where many people brought gifts to the chief and the queen mother. They were mainly in the form of food and drinks…and a few goats. Later on, there was a procession from the chief’s palace to the Mpeni tree, a tree that’s over 300 years old and is where the town began. Women carried bowls of food, mostly yams, on their heads and were surrounded by four guys. They carried these along the procession route, but along the way they would become possessed by their ancestors. This would cause them to be frozen in place and then suddenly take off running. It was the job of the surrounding guys to keep the woman from falling over and to keep the food from falling off her head. If either of these happen than it’s a bad omen. Once the women reached the tree, the food was taken from them and the food was brought into the walled in area surrounding the tree where it was sprinkled on the ground as a way of feeding the ancestors. The procession then made its way back to the chief’s palace. We were divided into groups to stand at different places along the procession to observe what happened in each spot. Deborah, Tessa and I were stationed at the very end of the procession, at the Mpeni tree. There was quite a large crowd in that area so I don’t feel like I observed as much as I could have otherwise. On Friday was the Durbar, a gathering of the town, chiefs, queen mother and everyone else who’s important. It began with a parade in which all of the important people were carried through town. Mixed in were brass bands and people drumming. There were also people shooting guns into the air in celebration. The skies then parted and it started to downpour. We all ran for cover underneath the tents and the parade continued up and down the street until the rain stopped. The chiefs were all protected by extravagant umbrellas. I felt bad for the guys who were carrying them though. There were usually about four guys carrying each platform that the chief sat on, but the platform was balanced on the heads of the four guys. Once the rain stopped, each of the chiefs was carried into the Durbar area and was brought to his stool where he sat during the ceremony. This was also quite a lengthy process. Once everyone was seated, there were speeches including one by the head chief. The first lady of Ghana was also there as the guest of honor, and she gave a speech. Most of the talking was done in Twi so I didn’t understand most of it, but it was still great to soak up everything that was happening around me. The drumming was excellent and the traditional clothing worn by almost everyone was really awesome. Six or so hours after arriving for the Durbar we had to take off for dinner even though it hadn’t ended yet. Friday night we went out and danced, which we had also done the previous two nights, but this night we were able to stay out later and the crowd was much bigger. Being the only white people in the area we gathered a lot of attention and a crowd would often form to watch us attempt to dance. A lot of the people would then join us. It was such a good atmosphere with all the people and the music. It was a lot of fun, and I meet quite a few really cool people.

You can also check out Melissa's descriptive post about the Odwira Festival on the group blog which I linked on the right side of the page.

Here's some pictures from the festival:

Drummers at the Chief's Palace

An Elderly Woman dancing at the Palace

Chelsea, Joel, ChiChi, Kathy, Jamie and Alison at the Chief's Palace

Me and Cassie at the Palace

A procession of people bringing gifts to the chief and queenmother

Cassie and Chelsea walking through Akropong

Tessa, Deborah, and I in Akropong

A lesser chief (or someone of importance) being carried through the streets

Drummers walking down the street with the rest of the procession

The Queenmother (I think) ...they were celebrating her 40th anniversary of being Queenmother