Celebrating Festivals In Ghana

Africa as a continent is endowed with so much culture and tradition which makes the people to come together during festivals and other social events such as child naming ceremonies, puberty rites, enstoolment and enskinment of chiefs, funerals etc etc. All these have so much of our cultural identities embedded in them.

Ghana is no exception when it comes to the display of rich culture and tradition during the aforementioned ceremonies especially festivals. We all know that during festivals the chiefs and people in that particular community come together to plan for the coming year and also take stock of all the activities they undertook the previous year.

Thus development projects are planned and conscious efforts are then made to execute them so as to improve the lives of the people in the community. In Ghana the Akuapem people celebrate the Odwira festival, the Ga Homowo, Anlo Hogbetsotso, Nzema and Ahanta Kundum, Asante Akwasidae, Winneba Aboakyere. These are just a few of the many festivals celebrated in Ghana.

But the question i would ask is, do they really plan projects and implement them? I would very much use the Ogua Fetu Afahye of the people of Cape Coast in the Central Region as a reference point. For the past ten years that i have been residing in Cape Coast, I have observed with keen interest the celebration of their festival. It seems no development activities are undertaken by the chiefs and people of Cape Coast during and after the celebration of their festival. Is the festival celebration all about eating and drinking, promiscuous lifestyles undertaken by most of the youth in this ancient capital which later metamorphose into teenage pregnancies and a high STD infection rate.

A lot of alcoholic beverages are consumed during the festival and i have also observed the problem of men and women developing pot bellies. I hope development projects would be planned and executed in the subsequent celebrations of the Ogua Fetu Afahye. These also goes out to all the festivals in Ghana. Our chiefs should be development oriented and not wait for the central government to undertake projects in their communities. Lets not make our festivals an eating and drinking celebration. These are just my observations, your comments are welcome.