By Elizabeth Larkwor Baah
Ada, Aug. 5, GNA-Thousands of Ghanaians and foreigners are trooping to Ada in the Greater Accra Region for the 2023 Asafotufiami, an annual festival celebrated by the people of Ada.
The festival is celebrated in remembrance of the invaluable achievements of the founding fathers and ancestors who shed their blood for the people of Ada.
This year’s event began on July 31, with some activities including a clean-up exercise and kenkey party, a candle-light procession on August 3, and a homecoming float in the Ada East and West districts on August 4.
The fourth day of the festival, which is the Friday of the event, was witnessed with a visit to “Aplɛnɛahye” the sacred forest in the region, where all the divisional clans in an orderly procession were on the principal street amidst musketry firing, drumming, singing of war songs, and dancing.
Each clan sings and dances to cheer the leaders of their respective war captains, Asafoatseme.”
Here, young men displayed musketry firing in serious war amid continuous drumming, yelling, and dancing until early afternoon, when the priests poured libation and the crowd returned to greet the Paramount Chief, who welcomed his people from the battlefield ritual at Kpomkpompanya,” a riverside.
At Kpomkpompanya, where the ancient warriors departed to war by boat and landed on their return from war, a libation is poured, musketry is fired over the water of the Volta, and a ritual of foot and hand washing is done to wash away all the evil of war.
Many more activities, such as fetching water with the basket, take place at the riverside.
GNA