The Ga Dangme people celebrated their annual Homowo festival on Saturday, albeit with a subdued mood due to the recent death of the Queenmother of the Ga State, Naa Dedei Omaedru III.
The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, led a procession to the stool house near the Ussher Fort to sprinkle the traditional corn meal, kpokpoi, as a symbol of a bumper harvest. He was accompanied by sub-chiefs and elders.
After the sprinkling, King Teiko Tsuru emphasized the need for Ga Dangmes to unite and forge ahead in peace. He said that their divisiveness had denied them entitlements over the years.
The Gbese Mantse and Adonten of the Ga State, Nii Ayi-Bonte II, also led a procession to perform libation and sprinkle kpokpoi to climax the festival. He was accompanied by his elders, queen mothers, and sub-chiefs.
The procession began at the Ussher Fort and continued to various traditional and customary hotspots, family houses, and principal streets within the chief’s jurisdiction.
Homowo is a harvest festival commemorating the Ga people’s battle with hunger during their migration to their new settlement. According to native folklore, the Ga people experienced severe famine due to a lack of rainfall during their migration to the present-day Greater Accra Region, resulting in the death of many.
After a series of prayers and meditation with their gods, they sowed maize which yielded a bumper harvest. They termed the end of their hunger “Homowo,” meaning “hooting at hunger,” which they commemorate annually.
The festival begins in May with the sowing of the maize specifically for the preparation of Kpokpoi. It is followed by a thirty-day ban on noise-making with particular emphasis on drumming, singing, loud music, and the like.
This is because they believe noise hampers the maturity of crops during that period.
The festival culminates on a Saturday in August with the sprinkling of Kpokpoi at specific locations such as cemeteries to symbolically nourish the gods and the dead.
