By Patrick Ofoe Nudzi
Accra, Aug. 13, GNA – There is joy everywhere — the street corners, markets, and beaches.
Some principal streets and Clan houses have been painted and decorated.
It looks like the beginning of a new year.
James Town, an old city in the national capital, is busy with heavy human and vehicular activities.
Screams and shouts of excitement are heard allover with the young, medieval and the old seen at some road intersections dancing to popular Ga traditional songs to usher in this year’s Homowo festival.
It is like a big homecoming as family and friends poured onto the old city and aligning communities with foods and drinks for the celebration.
Vehicles kept offloading bags of maize with many houses having ‘kenkey’- the traditional meal-on fire, as fishes were being fried.
Madam Hannah Adjei Ankamah, a resident of Abola community in an interview with the Agency, said this year’s Homowo had brought “some sense of joy and togetherness” after the ravages of COVID-19.
She said her household had prepared adequately to share food and drinks with friends and the vulnerable, saying, “this is what the festival is about and it makes us happy.”
The atmosphere at the King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, the Paramount Stool’s House at Abola, was exciting as scores of people kept trooping in and receiving maize and palm nut oil in buckets and bowls for the celebration.
The GNA gathered that the gesture by the King was, among other things, to cushion his subjects amidst the economic hardships facing the country.
As the crowd got thick in the King’s Palace, a lady reported that someone had picked her GHC5,000 and she was told to look for the money spiritually.
Madam Lillian Adei-Kotey, a royal of the Asere Dzorshie Mantse We, with a wide smile, said family members from Pokuase, Amasaman and other parts of Ghana had arrived for their usual ‘soobii’ (Thursday Borns) event and the main celebration on Friday and Saturday.
A mini festival called ‘Haadzii ayele yeli’ or ‘Yee yee-yee’ (twins festival) was observed with twins across the seven clans decorated on Friday.
The main Homowo celebration will take place today, Saturday 13, 2022, with the sprinkling of kpokpoi – a traditional food.
There will also be a grand durbar of the King, chiefs and people of Ga Mashie.
The Ga Mashie Traditional Area comprises of seven clans — Simper, Otublonhum, Abola, Asere, Akugmage, Gbese and Ngleshi Alata.
GNA