Umbrellas & Parasols In Ghanaian Festivals & In Social Aid & Pleasure Club (New Orleans Louisiana) Processions

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about the New Orleans Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SAPC) custom of holding and twirling umbrellas (parasols) during their parades.

Part II presents information about umbrellas in traditional Ghanaian festivals. This post also showcases videos of umbrella in Ghanaian festivals and videos of members of New Orleans' Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs holding umbrellas/parasols or feathered fans during jazz funeral parades and second line parades.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/why-umbrellas-parasols-are-carried-by.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents information about the Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs (SAPC) and provides information about the history of umbrellas (parasols).

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and folkloric purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT UMBRELLAS AT GHANAIAN FESTIVALS
Excerpt #1 
From https://favoriten-festival.de/en/programm/looking-for-beginnings "LOOKING FOR BEGINNINGS" , by Rita Mawuena Benissan & Princela Biyaa [no date given, retrieved on Sept. 18, 2023
"In Ghana, the royal umbrellas are used in the chieftaincy. The royals – king, queen mother and chief – stand and dance under the umbrella surrounded by their entourage. The umbrellas are to provide shade and protect the person from the weather and sun, but they also serve as an indicator of that person. The fabrication of the umbrella represents the person and the community walking under the umbrella. The use of color and size establishes a power dynamic with the different types of umbrellas.

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Excerpt #2
From
"https://captimes.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/q-a-artist-rita-mawuena-benissan-captures-her-ghanaian-heritage-under-one-big-umbrella/article_587beec4-effa-5d1b-b668-af4edf75e283.html "Q&A: Artist Rita Mawuena Benissan captures her Ghanaian heritage under one big umbrella"; By Lindsay Christians, Jun 13, 2021
"Rita Mawuena Benissan takes a “big tent” view of family and culture. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say “big umbrella.”

Benissan, 26, is a photographer, a cultural curator at the Noldor Artist Residency in Accra, Ghana, and a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s Master of Fine Arts program.

She was born in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, to Ghanaian parents, came to Michigan as a baby and was raised in a Ghanaian American household by her aunt and uncle, whom she also calls Mom and Dad. When she moved to Madison in 2018, Benissan found another Ghanaian community of honorary aunts, uncles and cousins.

When a member of that community came to Benissan’s Master of Fine Arts show at Arts + Literature Laboratory this past spring, she was struck by the massive umbrellas Benissan had designed. Made of what Benissan called “faux velvet” and bamboo, the umbrellas were inspired by those used by chiefs and queens in Ghanaian festivals.

“My friends who grew up in Ghana or visited Ghana ... they were like, ‘Oh, my God, we finally see these here. We’re so used to seeing them from far away!’” Benissan recalled. The umbrellas, used at funerals and celebrations, are “always high up in the sky, and it’s very crowded.

“Being able to actually see the umbrellas face to face, see the surface and how they’re made, the texture, even the size — it’s just a whole different experience.”

These are essential tenets of Benissan’s art practice: connecting to a royal African history, personally and culturally, and making that history immediate and accessible. Benissan spoke with The Cap Times about discovering her own Black aesthetic and her dreams for Si Hene, a growing Instagram archive that could one day be a physical museum.

The royal umbrella came to me because throughout my life, my parents would say, ‘You have royalty in your family.’ I would know the history about it, but I didn’t have any real photos. My grandfather was a traditional chief, but there’s not much information about him.

One thing that I noticed in Madison was the Ghanaian Association, they always have an African Festival, and they have the royal umbrellas. I was like, this is a very interesting object. It was a bridge for me to connect my textiles and printmaking, but also being able to use photographs to capture the essence of the umbrella and the person that was under it.

That was what brought me to actually go to Ghana, in 2019.”…
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Click https://www.instagram.com/si.hene/ for Rita Mawuena Benissan's Instagram account on Ghanaian culture.

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VIDEO EXAMPLES OF UMBRELLAS/PARASOLS IN GHANAIAN FESTIVALS

Video #1: Adae Festival - Kumasi - Ghana



jaderoo2, Mar 28, 2016

Within a six-week cycle, Adae has two celebration days, once on a Sunday (Akwasidae) and again on a Wednesday (Awukudae). The Adae cycle is repeated nine times in a year. In observance of the Akan calendar, the ninth Adae Festival, called the Adae Kese Festival ("big Adae"), coincides with celebration of the New Year. It is therefore celebrated to thank the gods and the ancestors for the new harvest. The festivals within Adae are not interchangeable, having been fixed from ancient times.

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Video #2: Highlights of Asafotufiami Festival at Ada



GhanaWeb TV, Aug 6, 2017

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Video #3: Yam Festival, Volta Region, Ghana



James Dalrymple, Jan 6, 2019

The Yam Festival, known in the local Ewe dialect as Te Za, is a harvest festival in the Asogli State, Volta Region of Ghana. The festival takes place in September of each year and is presided over by the paramount chief and president of the National House of Chiefs, King Togbe Afede XIV. With music, dancing, feasting and local crafts, the festival celebrates family, farmers, culture and unity.

This film was shot with the Sony FS5 and Sony A7R3 cameras in Ghana by James Dalrymple.

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Video #4: Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Asantehene Visit Okyehene First Time In History Pt1



ANANSE TV GH, Premiered Aug 7, 2019

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VIDEO EXAMPLES OF MEMBERS OF NEW ORLEANS' SOCIAL AID & PLEASURE CLUBS CARRYING PARASOLS
Video #1: You better second line! Jazz funeral in New Orleans for Juanita Brooks



 kookydave, Oct 20, 2009

Come pay your respects like we do down here in Nawlin's. Experience a real New Orleans second line jazz funeral for the lovely and talented Juanita Brooks.

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Video #2: 2010 Lady Buck Jumpers Second Line



Come See About Me, Dec 18, 2010

The Lady Buck Jumpers strut their stuff through Uptown, New Orleans to the sounds of the Rebirth Brass Band.

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Video #3: Uncle Lionel Baptiste Jazz Funeral



onenawlins, Jul 24, 2012

....One City, One Love, OneNawlins!!!!!.......Uncle Lionel Batiste Jazz Funeral. Batiste was the assistant band leader, vocalist and bass drummer of the Treme Brass Band for decades. Uncle Batiste died July 8, 2012 from a short battle with cancer.

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Video #4: Fats Domino Memorial - Second Line - 11/1/17 - 9th Ward New Orleans



Louisiana Live, Nov 7, 2017

Fats Domino Second Line
- 11/1/17
- 9th Ward New Orleans
- shot & edited by Keith Wilkes
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Here's some information about Fats Domino from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fats_Domino
"Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records.[2] Between 1955 and 1960, he had eleven Top 10 hits.[3] His humility and shyness may be one reason his contribution to the genre has been overlooked.[4]

During his career, Domino had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.[5] His musical style was based on traditional rhythm and blues, accompanied by saxophones, bass, piano, electric guitar, and drums.[5]

His 1949 release "The Fat Man" is widely regarded as the first million-selling rock and roll record. His two most famous songs are "Ain't That A Shame" and "Blueberry Hill"."...

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This concludes Part II of this two part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

African Harvest Festivals: New Yam Festival (Igbo People From West Africa)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of an ongoing pancocojams series on traditional African harvest festivals.

This post post presents information about the traditional cultural celebration that is known as the New Yam Festival of the Igbo people (Orureshi in the idoma area, Iwa ji, Iri ji or Ike ji, depending on dialect).

Videos of the New Yam festival in Nigeria and a sound file of some music that is associated with this festival are included in this post.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/11/ghanaian-harvest-festival-homowo.html for Part I of this series. That 2015 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: Ghanaian Harvest Festival "Homowo" (information & videos)".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/african-harvest-festivals-botswanas.html for Part II of this series. That 2017 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: Botswana's Letlhafula Festival (information & videos)"

The content of this post is presented for cultural and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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Click the traditional African harvest festival tag below for other pancocojams posts in this series.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE NEW YAM FESTIVAL (IGBO)
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yam_Festival_of_the_Igbo
"The New Yam Festival of the Igbo people (Orureshi in the idoma area, Iwa ji, Iri ji or Ike ji, depending on dialect) is an annual cultural festival by the Igbo people held at the end of the rainy season in early August.[1][2] [3]

The Iri ji festival (literally "new-yam eating")[4] is practiced throughout West Africa (especially in Nigeria and Ghana)[1] and other African countries and beyond,[5] symbolizing the conclusion of a harvest and the beginning of the next work cycle. The celebration is a very culturally based occasion, tying individual Igbo communities together as essentially agrarian and dependent on yam.[2]

Igbo tradition
Yams are the first crop to be harvested, and are the most important crop of the region.[1] The New Yam Festival is therefore a celebration depicting the prominence of yam in the social-cultural life of Igbo people. The evening prior to the day of the festival, all old yams (from the previous year's crop) are consumed or discarded. This is because it is believed that the New Year must begin with tasty, fresh yams instead of the old dried-up crops of the previous year. [2] The next day, only dishes of yam are served at the feast, as the festival is symbolic of the abundance of the produce.[2]

Though the style and methods may differ from one community to the next, the essential components that make up the festival remain the same. In some communities the celebration lasts a whole day, while in many places it may last a week or more. These festivities normally include a variety of entertainments and ceremony, including the performance of rites by the Igwe (King), or the eldest man, and cultural dances by Igbo men, women, and their children. The festival features Igbo cultural activities in the form of contemporary shows, masquerade dances, and fashion parades. [6]

Ịwa-ji ceremony
Usually at the beginning of the festival, the yams are offered to the gods and ancestors first before distributing them to the villagers. The ritual is performed either by the oldest man in the community or by the king or eminent title holder.[4][5] This man also offers the yams to God, deities and ancestors by showing gratitude to God for his protection and kindness in leading them from lean periods to the time of bountiful harvest without deaths resulting from hunger.[2] After the prayer of thanksgiving to God, they eat the first yam because It is believed that their position bestows the privilege of being intermediaries between their communities and the gods of the land. The rituals are meant to express the gratitude of the community to the gods for making the harvest possible, and they are widely followed despite more modern changes due to the influence of Christianity in the area.[4] This therefore explains the three aspect of Igbo worldview, that they are pragmatic, religious and appreciative.[3]

The day is symbolic of enjoyment after the cultivation season, and the plenty is shared with friends and well-wishers.[4] A variety of festivities mark the eating of new yam. Folk dances, masquerades, parades, and parties create an experience that some participants characterize as "art"; the colorful festival is a spectacle of exhibited joy, thanks, and community display.[2]

Palm oil (mmanụ nri) is used to eat the yam. Iwa ji also shares some similarities with the Asian Mid-Autumn Festival, as both are based on the cycles of the moon and are essentially community harvest festivals.

This event is important event in the calendar of Igbo people all over the world.

The harvest of yam and the celebration of the God of the land through the New Yam festival is an epitome of the people’s religious belief in the supreme deity. The coming of the new moon in the month of August marks the preparation for the great “Iri Ji Ohu” festival, but the time and mode of preparation differs from community to community.[6]

The New Yam festival is a highly captivating art event. The colourful festival is a visual spectacle of coherence, of dance, of joy and feasting, an annual display for community members, to mark the end of the cultivation season, a festival where the people express their gratitude to those that helped them reap a bountiful harvest."
-snip-
Italics are added to highlight when the New Yam festival occurs.

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS

[November 27, 2025- This section originally had five videos.

Regrettably, a number of the YouTube videos that were showcases in this post are no longer available. These videos are re-numbered to reflect that fact.] 

Video #1: 2016 New Yam Festival in Mbaise, Imo state



Royal TV Nigeria, Aug 31, 2016

The New yam festival is a popular celebration amongst people from the South Eastern part of Nigeria, the date of the celebration varies based on the community where it is being celebrated. Its always falls between month of August to October. Royal TV crew visited Mbaise in Imo state to witness the 2016 edition of the festival.
-snip-
Italics are added to highlight when the New Yam festival occurs.

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Video #2: IGBO CULTURAL DAY AND IRI JI FESTIVAL 2017



SOROM CHIA TV, Sep 7, 2018

This is what we the Igbos do every year to promote our culture and tradition. This is why Igbo culture is unique from other cultures in whole wide world. Are proud to be Igbo? Igbo amaka...

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Visitor comments are welcome.

African Harvest Festivals: Botswana's Letlhafula Festival (information & videos)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Update: December 27, 2019

This is Part II of an ongoing pancocojams series on traditional African harvest festivals.

This posts presents information about Letlhafula, a traditional annual Batswana festival.

Five YouTube videos of this festival are also included in this post. Those videos showcase traditional dancing and singing performances and audience participation dancing during various Letlhafula festivals. In addition this post also showcases a video of an original Batswana song and a video of a Batswana Hip Hop song about this festival.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/11/ghanaian-harvest-festival-homowo.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That 2015 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: Ghanaian Harvest Festival "Homowo" (information & videos)".

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/12/african-harvest-festivals-new-yam.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That 2019 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: New Yam Festival (Igbo People From West Africa)".

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the performers who are featured in these videos. In addition. thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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This post is part of pancocojams' ongoing series on traditional African Harvest Festivals. Click that tag below to find other posts in this series.

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INFORMATION ABOUT LETLHAFULA
From https://tjdema.blogspot.com/2013/06/letlhafula-movable-feast-from-gaborone.html
TJ DEMA ...this too, is Africa(n). Friday, June 7, 2013
"LETLHAFULA: A movable feast from Gaborone to Germany

Further, German settlers to the Eastern Cape in 1858 often elected to wear the blue print that was widely available as a trade cloth and echoed the Blaudruk that they were familiar with in Germany," History of Shweshwe, Da Gama textiles.

And this ladies and gentlemen is one plausible explanation of why the Botswana national dress for women is made out of a fabric often colloquially referred to as German print. I’m writing about this because I’m in Berlin and it took twenty-four hours from my door in Gaborone to the hotel door in Potsdamer. So of course my first thought was how and why in the world we chose this particular fabric to don for our cultural ceremonies all the way in Southern Africa. Of course I know from my primary school social studies class that the Germans have a history with Namibia, which borders Botswana to the west, but I wondered what the connection might be between my temporary digs and back home.

Just last weekend I attended a food and culture festival in Botswana, known as Letlhafula. Letlhafula is a Setswana word meaning ‘harvest’ and can be taken to mean a/the time of harvest

[...]

The festival is held every May probably because our winter begins around then and ends in July - give or take a couple of weeks on either end. This is arguably the best time to reap what we have sown before winter well and truly kicks in. I am what could be called an unreliable narrator because I’ve spent my entire life in the city and the seasons pass differently in urban spaces, more as a reference to fashion than food. The only quality time in a village setting that I got for eighteen years was 3 weeks every Christmas holiday, not enough time to properly pick up what a number of my village-raised peers know backwards. What I do know is this, that the way we traditionally marked the harvest time was by feasting on all of nature’s bounty (sounds like an ad for frozen veggies) and so this festival is a kind of urbanized celebration of that agrarian practice.

[...]

Setswana traditional cuisine is healthy, I suppose our idea of dessert would be fruit. The food is filling, often protein heavy but prepared in a way that hasn’t for whatever reason given the entire population gout given how much of it we eat. As one of our top 3 Miss Botswana beauty contestants recently said, - Botswana has more cows than people. In fact over 50% of the country's households own cattle.

Back at the festival, there is a sizable stage where a number of artists including traditional instrumentalists, dancers, poets reciting in Setswana and comedians regale the masses with words and sound and such stuff. All of this served in the great outdoors, well in a courtyard with tables over-layed with the leteise which my elderly aunts still call *Jeremane (a kind of lehnwort, although probably more of an adaptation rather than a direct loan of the word Germany). It is basically indigo fabric but these days it is available in a myriad of colors not just the original blue that our mothers always wear to weddings and cultural ceremonies such as the sending off of a bride to her in-laws the day after she is wed.

*Je – as in jerry
re – as in renegade
mane – as in, well as in mah- nay"

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1: Orange Letlhafula.mp4



Gazette Lapologa, Published on May 30, 2011

Letlhafula is an annual Food & Dance Festival hosted by Botswanacraft on the last Saturday in May. Based on Traditions of Botswana the festival offers a wide variety of local foods cooked in large traditional pots, entertainment is provided with traditional dancing and music.
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The "Orange" in this title and in several other banners at Letlhafula festivals is the name of "Orange Botswana", an international telecommunications company that is the corporate sponsor for these festivals.
From https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=27423545
"Orange Botswana (PTY) Ltd. provides mobile communications services in Europe. It offers converged voice, roaming, coverage, mobile downloads, mobile plan, broadband, fixed line, Internet, data, and mobile services. The company sells its products and services through retailers and distributors in France, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, the Caribbean, and Africa. Orange Botswana (PTY) Ltd. was formerly known as Vista Cellular (PTY) Ltd. and changed its name in March 2003. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Gaberones, Botswana. Orange Botswana (PTY) Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Orange."
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Hat tip to the editor of https://tjdema.blogspot.com/2013/06/letlhafula-movable-feast-from-gaborone.html for this information that was included below one of the photos that was featured in that article.

I mistakenly thought that "Orange Letlhafula" was the name of the festival because I wasn't familiar with the corporate name "Orange", and because I saw all of those video titles and stage banners with those words.

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Example #2: Orange Letlhafula.mp4



Gazette Lapologa Published on May 30, 2011

Letlhafula is an annual Food & Dance Festival hosted by Botswanacraft on the last Saturday in May. Based on Traditions of Botswana the festival offers a wide variety of local foods cooked in large traditional pots, entertainment is provided with traditional dancing and music.
-snip-
Here's the only comment to date that is posted in this video's discussion thread:
avidave, 2011
"Eish , if u could only post longer videos , Ke dule pelo gore ke utlwe ke gopola Botswana,havent seen the wonderful performance live in a very long time
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Google translate gave this Sesotho to English translation for the words "Ke dule pelo gore ke utlwe ke gopola" = "I'm sorry that I can remember it".

Perhaps a better English translation would have been something like "Remembering this makes me sad.”
-snip-
From https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=eish
"eish
Used in South African English and Afrikaans to express exasperation or disbelief. The word was first transliterated from the Xhosa language to Afrikaans, and then into South African English.

"So, there's been ANOTHER power outage, hey, bru? Eish."
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I wonder if the word "eish" had its source in the four letter English curse word "sh&t".

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Example #3: Botswana Music Guitar - Obed - "Letlhafula".



Bokete7 Published on Nov 17, 2012

Born 1952, Obed Batlang from Tlokweng just outside Gaborone playing his song.

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Example #4: Krash Letlhafula



krash Wa'keli Published on Jul 5, 2012

New Music Video.'Letlhafula'.you always been waiting for it, after i performed this song at BTV,now you can enjoy and download it.
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This is an example of Hip-Hop music in Botswana. Notice the gestures that were adopted from African American originated & performed Hip Hop music.

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Example #5: ORANGE LETLHAFULA 2017




TheVoiceBW, Published on Jun 1, 2017

The 2017 edition of the Orange Lethafula.

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Visitor comments are welcome.

African Harvest Festivals: Ghanaian Harvest Festival "Homowo" (information & videos)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Update: December 27, 2019: This is Part I of a pancocojams series on traditional harvest festivals. Click the traditional African harvest festivals tag below for more pancocojams posts in this series.

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This post showcases a 1999 article about how the Ghanaian, West African harvest festival called "Homowo" is celebrated in Teshie, Ghana. That article written by Samuel Wiafe is given in its entirety except for photographs and an editor's statement.


In the Ga language of Ghana, "homowo" means "hoot at hunger". Read my comment below for an explanation of the English meaning of that term.

Eight videos of Homowo celebrations are also included in this post along with some comments.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/08/african-harvest-festivals-botswanas.html for Part II of this series. That 2017 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: Botswana's Letlhafula Festival (information & videos)"

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/12/african-harvest-festivals-new-yam.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That 2019 post is entitled "African Harvest Festivals: New Yam Festival (Igbo People From West Africa)".

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.

All copy rights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in this post and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Special thanks to Samuel Wiafe, the author of the article about Homowo which is replicated below. Thanks also to the publishers of these examples on YouTube.

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ARTICLE ABOUT HOMOWO
Note: This is the most thorough online article about Homowo festival than I have found. I've chosen to reproduce this entire article (without photographs and that site editor's beginning comment) to help ensure its dissemination. Please contact me if this article should not be reproduced in its entirety.
From http://newint.org/columns/essays/1999/04/01/endpiece/ Issue 311
Hooting at hunger
"Homowo is an annual festival celebrated among the Ga-speaking people. It originated during a period of great famine which was eventually followed by a bumper harvest of grain and fish. The word homowo literally means ‘hooting at hunger’. The one I am going to describe is specific to the people of Teshie, near Accra.

The celebrations begin with the light rains in May. During this month the seven principal priests perform the initial rites – the ritual and symbolic sowing of corn. The main festival, however, starts in August with the Nsho Bulemo ceremony, which involves the pacification of the sea god. A bull is slaughtered by the chief priest and the carcass is cast into the sea. A few fisherfolk representing the seven principal clans embark on fishing expeditions. If they return with a good catch, that signifies a good Homowo will be possible, but returning empty-handed means the Homowo will have to be suspended or postponed.

This is followed by a ban on drumming, dancing or the burying of corpses. Night clubs and dance halls are closed down and all noisy activities are forbidden for another ceremony known as Gbemlilaa (‘Closing of the Road’). The idea of the ban is to enable the gods to perform their activities quietly.

After this ceremony the seven clans parade in groups for fortnightly street processions known as Kpashimo. These processions enable members of the groups to learn Homowo songs, as well as providing an opportunity for bachelors and spinsters to get a spouse of their choice.

Two weeks later the celebrations start in earnest with the arrival of Ga people who have travelled out of their traditional area and now return in joyous groups to be reunited with their families. They arrive with farm produce like pepper, onions, corn and okra, all of which form the main ingredients of the traditional Homowo food, Kpokpoi. This adds a lot of spice to an already exciting town.

At dawn on Tuesday feverish food preparations begin. Soon after midday the head of each household sprinkles the food around all the doorsteps of the Teshie people. The chief and elders also sprinkle at well-noted places where the gods settle – a ritual said to feed the spirits of the departed. Lunch is not served until all these rites and rituals have been observed.

Everyone eats as much as they want, irrespective of their class or social status. On festive occasions like this all households are open to everyone and all visitors are welcome. Family members who are not able to come home for the meal are sent theirs, wherever they may be, so they can taste and feel the love and unity of their children and parents.

Wednesday is set aside as a remembrance day. On this day people openly weep and others drink their heads out, remembering their lost departed ones. Also, minor and major quarrels and misunderstandings are settled amicably. Sunday marks the climax of the Homowo street procession. The seven groups wearing their colourful costumes go through the principal streets singing songs that praise well-behaved members of the community and rebuke the bad ones.

During the period of the festival, parties and sporting activities are held so that talent can be unearthed. In the sporting sphere there are competitions such as boxing, football, table tennis, a regatta and cycling. Other tribes as well as foreigners – especially our brothers and sisters from the diaspora – also take part, reflecting the national and international dimensions of the Homowo.

The following Saturday marks the official end of the festival. On the eve, a vigil is kept for the Gbé gblemo ritual which lifts the bans on drumming, dancing and all noisy activities. At noon the chief priest, dressed in an immaculate white loincloth and patterns made from white clay and red tree-bark, carries the se se (a large wooden bowl filled with spiritually purifying water) on the street procession amidst singing, dancing and drumming. The se se is presumed to be very healing and powerful, driving off evil spirits. All one needs to do is to put money into the se se for the potent water to be sprinkled over you. The procession continues until it reaches the community shrine, where the priest empties the se se. People from all walks of life scramble frantically for the money.

The excitement continues to the nearby beach where people joyously swim in the sea. It is believed they have washed their misfortunes, sorrows and calamities of the previous year into the water and can now look to the future with a lot of hope, confidence and aspiration.

Some people may think Homowo is a fetish. But I think it is good that we know and appreciate our culture.

Samuel Wiafe is a student of marketing and an aspiring writer who lives in Teshie.

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
These examples are given in chronological order according to their publishing dates on YouTube with the oldest dated example given first.

Example #1: Gbemlilaa: the beggining of the Teshie Homowo festival



BRC Designs, Uploaded on Aug 14, 2011

The Gbemlilaa, which bans drumming and singing and marks the start of the month long Homowo festival in Teshie.
-snip-
This video documents participants walking through the streets chanting if not singing, but there is no drumming.

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Example #2: Sempe Homowo Festival 2012 (part 1)



Sowah Mensah, Published on Aug 19, 2012

Asenta-Oba is a Ga TV magazine programme, presented by a seasoned radio and Television presenter known as Naa Shormeh Nortey on GTV, every Tuesday at 9:30pm...

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Example #3: OSU HOMOWO FESTIVAL LAUNCHED



seidu adamu Published on Jul 26, 2013

This year's Osu Homowo festival has been launched with a number of activities to commemorate the event. The theme for the celebration, celebrating Peace, Education, and development for a better community, is to help improve the lives of the people of Osu. A number of activities lined up for the celebration of the Homowo festival by the chiefs and people of Osu includes, a cleanup exercise, inter- community football gala, health screening, cooking contest, sprinkling of Kpokpoi and a durbar to round up the festival.

Launching the festival, the chief of Osu, and the president of the Osu Traditional Council, Nii Okwei Kinka Dowouna said, even though Osu is notable for housing Governmental Monuments, including the historic Osu Castle, the area has not seen the kind of development befitting its status.

He said, the People of Osu have not seen peace over the past 60 years, hence this is the time for the people to embrace the relatively peaceful atmosphere.

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Example #4: LET'S TALK FOOD: Kpokpoi (Homowo)



Infoboxdaily, Published on Sep 1, 2014

Every year, the Ga people in Ghana celebrate the Homowo Festival. During this celebration, they prepare a special dish called Kpokpoi. Watch a little bit of history.
www.infoboxdaily.com/tv

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Example #5: LA HOMOWO HOMECOMING GOT



Gabriel Obodai Torgbor-Ashong, Published on Sep 10, 2014
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The GOT in the title is probably the publisher's initials.

In the video the narrator said that during the Homowo festival it is traditional for people living outside their home village to return home. This video shows a homecoming parade of cars in which people returning home show off the food and expensive liquor which they bring to share with their family and others. They also perform aashaka, which the narrator defined as “hugging someone close to you, especially someone of the opposite sex”.

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Example #6: 2014 Teshie Homowo festival



Exigency Ghana, Published on Nov 19, 2014

A Exigency Ghana coverage of the 2014 Homowo festival celebrated by the people of Teshie.

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Example #7: Homowo: Ghana's biggest traditional harvest festival

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CCTV Africa, Published on Aug 31, 2015

In Ghana, there's just one week left of the country's traditional month long harvest festival Called "homowo". The celebration has been marked for generations by Ghana's traditional Ga tribe. Our correspondent Katerina Vittozzi went to one town on the outskirts of the capital, where the party was in full swing.
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The narrator said that this annual celebration is held throughout the month of August. In addition to commemorating the end of hunger, Homowo provides opportunities for celebrants to publicly vent their anger and frustrations with songs and chants about current political subjects and events and social topics including political losses of Ghana’s national football (soccer) team. An example of such venting is the video given below as Example #8.

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Example #8: Teshie youth lambast Pres. Mahama at Homowo Festival



Pulse Ghana, Published on Sep 7, 2015
Teshie youth lambast Pres. Mahama at Homowo Festival

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