Homowo

Homowo is a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga-Adangbe people of Ghana. The festival starts in the month of May with the planting of crops (mainly maize and yam) before the rainy season starts. During the festival, they perform a dance called Kpanlogo. The Ga people celebrate Homowo in the remembrance of the famine that once happened in their history in precolonial Ghana.[1]

A street in Accra. Many people from nearby neighborhoods and the surrounding area flock to the city center in order to attend the celebration of the Homowo Festival, the annual main festival of the Ga, around 1900
Teshie Homowo Festival Ban on Singing & Drumming Ritual Ceremony
The Teshie Homowo.
Bicycle race in Teshie during the Homowo Festival in 2009

Etymology

The word Homowo (Homo - hunger, wo - hoot) can mean "to hoot (or jeer) at hunger" in the Ga language.[2] The tradition of Homowo started with a period of hunger leading to famine due to failure of the seasonal rains needed by crops in the Greater Accra Region, where the Ga people predominantly dwell. When the rains returned to normal, the Ga people celebrated by creating the Homowo festival, hence its name and meaning. Homowo is greatly celebrated in all the towns in the Ga state with celebrations climaxing in Gamashie. The celebration begins with the planting of maize, which will be used in preparing the food for the festival named Kpokpoi or Kpekple. During this period, noise making is prohibited or banned since it is believed that it will hinder the maturity of the crop. The meal is eaten with Palm Nut Soup and it is also sprinkled within the town. This is normally done by traditional leaders and family heads. All family heads sprinkle the "kpokpoi" in their family house. Celebration includes marching down roads and streets beating drums, chanting, face painting, singing and traditional dances. On this day there is usually a lot of traffic and roads are usually blocked off to accommodate the festival. Even though it is a Ga tradition, many other ethnic groups are welcomed to also join in the celebration.

Some of the towns that celebrate Homowo are La, Teshie, Teshie Nungua, Osu, Ga-Mashie, Tema, Prampram, and Ningo.

See also

References
  1. "Homowo Festival". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  2. The Library of Congress's article on Homowo. Retrieved 08 September 07


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