E. A. Ammah, “Annual Festival Of The Ga People,” The Ghanaian (August 1961)

[In the August and September 1961 issues of The Ghanaian, E. A. Ammah, “an authority on the Ga language, history, and customs” discussed parallels in the Ga Homowo and the Jewish Passover celebrations. These “parallels” included similarities in calendars, prayers, protective rituals, and festive harvest meals. In the October 1962 Ghanaian, Mr. Ammah laid out four possible explanations for these ritual parallels without committing himself to any of them. M. Kilson]

I. E. A. Ammah, “Annual Festival of the Ga People,” The Ghanaian (August 1961): 9,11.

W. C. Willoughby in his book “The Soul of the Bantu” shows the value and significance of festivals in the life of the African people as a whole. Wherever these festivals are celebrated, the background is identical. The most remarkable and striking point is that the origins are associated with the Israelites.

Writing about the feast of the first fruits, Willoughby quotes Kidd as “this feast is divided into two portions, a little festival which is attended only by the great festival men of the nation and the great which all warriors are obliged to attend.” The former, we are told, is agricultural and the latter is pastoral. Willoughby concludes: “the tribes amalgamated an agricultural and a pastoral spring festival, somewhat as the Hebrew nomads did after they settled down to agricultural life in Canaan.”

Further, writing about the joyful features of feast, Willoughby has this to say: “The feast of the Lord in Shiloh, and the vantage feast in Shechem, are so much after the pattern that one cannot possibly mistake of thinking it peculiar to the Bantu.” The Hebrew feasts, he continues, “were occasions of joyful merry-making, when the festive throng expressed itself in a type of jubilant exultation….It is a far cry from the Bantu idea of worship to the noble conception set forth in the Gospel According to St. John; but the path that man has travelled is being travelled by man.”

This sketchy introduction indicates that the African Personality is immanent in our culture; therefore, we are potentially united in spirit and in truth. The interesting point to repeat is that, the cultural identity or background of the festivals pervasive in other areas of States in Africa, are also pervasive in Ghana. The Ga Homowo Festival, which is identical to the Hebrew Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, is a typical example.

It would scarcely be appropriate to write on the Homowo Festival without making a brief reference to the origin of the Ga People. The general opinion is that “Ga civilization is as original as the Hebrews'.” It is distinctly also true in all that stands for Hebrew worship.

The basis of Ga religion is enshrined in their three great annual festivals, namely, Homowo, Nmaayeli and Nmaatoo which have a very close and intimate parallel connection with those of the Jews or as one aptly put it “are reminiscent of the three annual festivals of the Jews,” namely the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering. One very essential characteristic of them is that all are harvest festivals in which their religious feeling finds practical and inward expression in rituals and ceremonies. No one who has made a critical study and impartial comparison of the Ga forms with those of the Jews will fail to be struck by the very close similarities between them. One is indeed tempted to draw the conclusion that the ancestors of the Ga people interlard with the Jews or were probably an offshoot of them. The collective name of the Ga people is Ga or Gaga, or Loiabii or Olai abii.

Having established the origin of the Ga people, we shall now show the parallel connection [with the Jewish people].

We begin with the calendar. The Ga people, like the Jews, have two years, the sacred and the civil. The sacred begins March to April (according to the moon) and the civil, August to September, the beginning of seed-time. The year is lunar, the computation in each case starts with the visibility of the moon.

The Ga year contains 13 months (moons)—this is constant, but the number of days in the year varies, at time 364 or 357 days sometimes 365 or 370 days. Some of the months have even or 14 days, others contain 36 days but majority carry 28 days.

Some old Ga names of the months are Adani, Abisani, Eluni, Bulani. Jewish names are Adar, Obib, Edul and Bul, all are parallel. In English they are March, April, September and November.

The [Ga] sacred year opens with the rite of wheat-sowing. The first function is a purificatory ceremony. The sowing to the transplanting period covers three weeks in some areas, but four weeks and one day in Accra. It is the belief of the people that the presence of the gods on the sowing field makes this period holy, hence the ban on drumming or merry-making and funeral rites. What is most significant is that it marks the beginning of public or corporate worship. The parallel prayer is: “We turn our faces towards the rising sun, and may we eat the crops [of] Gbo, the later rain, may we enjoy the fruit of Gbienaa, [the] earlier rain.

An identical prayer was said by the Jews at the feast of Tabernacles, led by Priests: “Our fathers who were in this place, they turned their backs upon the Sanctuary of Jehovah, and their faces towards the east, and they worshipped towards the rising sun; but as for us, our eyes are towards the Lord.”

Another striking parallel is the Feast of Wood Offering; laitso kee in Ga. This takes place in August in the Homowo harvest weeks, and culminates towards the end of Nmaayeli, the Feast of Weeks; in all together four times—the third one, by all the people, particularly Asere military company.

The Jews had a similar feast.
Another very close similarity is the period covered by the festive year. The Ga [festive year extends] from the purificatory rite to the Feast of Tabernacles observed at Faanaa, [the]Sakumo River mouth. The Jewish [year runs] from the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread to the Feast of Tabernacles at Shiloh. The Gas' [festive year is] spread over a period of six months two weeks and four days; the Jews' covered a period of five months three weeks and four days.

Many people have been inquiring, 'what mean ye by this service?' The historical reply or evidence can be found in the parallel connection between the Jewish Passover and Unleavened Bread and the Ga Homowo.

It is to be noted that Nungua people used to celebrate it in its amalgamated form (Ex. 12.17) and the Lante Dzanwe people of Ga Mashie, Accra, celebrate the two feasts in their original pattern though in a reversed form;–the feast of the Unleavened Bread is celebrated on Saturday and the Passover is celebrated on Sunday (see Lev. 23. 4-6).

With the historical background given in the foregoing paragraphs, the origin of the Homowo Festival becomes obvious. If it can be held to have a background in the Hebrew festivals, then it is safe to suggest that it is a harvest festival. The origin then may be traced to the first celebration of the Passover in Egypt, backed by its Palestinian the Unleavened Bread, Num. 23.10, for the ritual helps to translate the conjecture into an established fact.

The word Homowo is made up of two Ga words, homo, hunger, and wo, hoot at; so it means, hooting at hunger. In the final analysis, it means harvest. Homowo is therefore a harvest festival.

Some authorities are of the opinion that the very word Homowo suggests hunger or scarcity of food in a certain period of the history of the people. There is no evidence, traditional or historical, to prove this. Rev. Carl Reindorf's account of the origin of it as recorded in his history is so recent that it has no reference to the original one.

If the literal meaning is accepted, one is then forced to ask, in what period of the history of the people did scarcity of food occur, and for how many years? This is a question which the critical student should like to have an answer. It is agreed that not in every year does produce grow well. In a certain year, the main staple food of a particular locality or country grows abundantly, and in another period the people experience a lean season. All agricultural people know this very well.

It appears that no people will ever mark the abundant growth of crop as the beginning of a feast. If the duration of the lean season might be spread over some years, then the growth of the main food of the country might be looked upon as a turning point in their agricultural year.

But as I stated, there seem no such periods in the history of the Ga people. The student of folklore may remind us of the following significant sayings: “One carp is used in eating the Unleavened Bread.” Another one is, “Because of millet or food Atoko damaged his eyes.” A third one is “Noise, noise, it is because of millet or food (Noi, noi, le, nmaa hewo).

These are significant words which infer a lot. They are evidence which help to form some conclusive view that the origin of the Homowo was really occasioned either by scarcity or fish or millet. These are facts which cannot be lightly dismissed as all of them have some background in the lore of the people.

It is true, but the occasions on which they were uttered discredit their evidential implications. The carp saying was on the eve of the feast; the Atoko reference was on the day when millet was planted; it is a recessional hymn. The noisy outburst forms part of the Kpa (La) thanksgiving prayer after the celebration of the feast. So, in the end, the Egyptian Palestinian origin is historical.

One remarkable element which gives meaning and value supporting the Egyptian Palestinian origin of the Homowo is the Akpade rite, the blood smearing ceremony.

Certain ceremonies precede the Homowo celebration about one or two days. One of them is gbedzee; clearance of road for the passage of Okaikoi (Ex. 12.23). This takes place on Friday afternoon. Here Okaikoi is substituted for the Lord or the destroying angel.

In the afternoon, the lintel and the two side posts of the door in every house are besmeared with Akpade (red earth); and, in the evening, a gun is fired and announcement is made that “no one should go outside the door of his house until the morning.” This is expressed in Ga as Ole, adze kpo ee.

The belief is that there are good and bad spirits who guard the destiny of different aspects of creation. The opinion is held that there may be some of the evil spirits among the pilgrims that come to the city (Ga Mashi, Thursday; Osu to Nungua, Monday) to take part in the celebration of the feast.

It is therefore held that the Akpade rite is intended to expel or repel all that is bad and evil from every house. This is the purpose of the Akpade ritual: protection.

The Hebrews held a similar view. “What the ancient Hebrews endeavoured to repel from their houses were bad spirits, demon[s] of plagues or sickness and the like.” (See Osterly and Robinson, Hebrew Religion 1930, pp. 99-100.)

Late in the night of the Homowo eve the Ga Mantse kills a sheep (the Paschal lamb) and the flesh is shared to responsible elders to be cooked on the festive day—Saturday. This may represent the Passover.

The Homowo week is a busy period. Preparation for the feast takes place and the lamb to be slain is bought; the pilgrims come to the main towns; parents give their children gifts; daughters-in-law present mothers-in-law with logs as a mark of respect, not only between wife and husband, but more particularly between the two “extended” families.

Early Saturday, the women in every home begin to cook the festive meal known as kpekpei (kpokpoi or ko, the Unleavened Bread) eaten with palm soup. Be it noted that okro (bitter herb) is spread over Ko which is reddened by mixture with the red palm-oil.

Here, it is important to note that in the time of Christ, “the bitter herbs and unleavened (bread) cakes were dipped into a kind of sweet-sauce” called haroseth.

When the meal (the Kpokpoi and the soup) is done, it is placed at a particular place in the house of an ancestor. The head of the family then sits at a prominent place with all the members of the family around him.

I shall continue the discussion in next month's issue, giving a table of the Jewish and Ga festivals as they seem to be very similar.

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