Homowo
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Homowo is a harvest festival celebrated by the Ga people of Ghana in the Greater Accra Region. The festival starts in the month of August with the planting of crops (mainly maize and yam) before the rainy season starts. During the festival, they perform a dance called Kpanlogo. The Ga people celebrate Homowo in the remembrance of the famine that once happened in their history in precolonial Ghana.[1]
Etymology
The word Homowo (Homo - hunger, wo - hoot) can mean "to hoot (or jeer) at hunger" in the Ga language.[2] The tradition of Homowo started with a period of hunger leading to famine due to failure of the seasonal rains needed by crops in the Greater Accra Region, where the Ga people dwell. When the rains returned to normal, the Ga people celebrated it by creating the Homowo festival, hence its name and meaning.
Celebration/Observance
Homowo is greatly celebrated in all the towns in the Ga state with celebrations climaxing in Gamashie. Prior to the actual celebration of the festival, Nmaadumo, a sowing rite of wheat takes place to mark the beginning of the Ga Calendar and the celebrations that occur within it. Nmaa or Millet is sown by the seven priests of the Gamashie people who perform Shibaa, the right of digging.[3]The priests sow the wheat in a specific order with Dantu on Monday, Sakumo on Tuesday, Naa Korle and Naa Afieye on Friday, Gua on Saturday, Naa Dede on Sunday, and Nai on the following Tuesday. During wheat-sowing, a strict ban on noise called "Koninfemo" is set in place. This is to ensure that the crops grow without distractions. This lasts for four weeks and two days, and at the end of this period, Specific drum beatings called "Odadaa" are played to announce the end of the noise-making ban. [3]
Timeline
A week and five days after Odadaa is played, the Yam festival begins, and five weeks and four days later, the celebrations of Homowo begin. Different cities/towns celebrate their Homowo with Lante Dzanwe beginning, followed by Tema six days later. Nungua, however, begins celebrating Homowo soon after Odadaa is played on the first Sunday in July. [4] The general Homowo celebration of the Entire Gamashie (from Osu to Teshie) begins eight days after Tema, and ten days after, Nungo and Gboogbla begin their part of the festival. The last place to celebrate the festival is Awutu four days later. [4]
Cuisine
The meal is eaten with Palm Nut Soup and it is also sprinkled within the town. This is normally done by traditional leaders and family heads. All family heads sprinkle the "kpokpoi" in their family house. Celebration includes marching down roads and streets beating drums, chanting, merrymaking face painting, singing and traditional dances. On this day there is usually a lot of traffic and roads are usually blocked off to accommodate the festival. Even though it is a Ga tradition, many other ethnic groups are welcomed to also join in the celebration.[5][citation needed]
Some of the towns that celebrate Homowo are La, Teshie, Teshie Nungua,[6] Osu, Ga-Mashie, Tema, Prampram, and Ningo.
Gallery
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The Ga people celebrate Homowo Festival in the remembrance of the famine that once happened in their history in precolonial Ghana -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival -
Homowo Festival Palm nut Soup
See also
References
- ^ "Homowo Festival". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
- ^ The Library of Congress's article on Homowo. Retrieved 08 September 07
- ^ a b Ammah, Charles (1968). Ga Homowo. Accra, Ghana: Advance Accra. pp. 11–13.
- ^ a b Ammah, Charles (1968). Ga Homowo. Accra, Ghana: Advance Accra. pp. 13–14.
- ^ "Homowo Festival". www.ghanaweb.com. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ^ "Homowo: Significance of holy corn, feeding gods of Ga state". Graphic Online. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
External links
Media related to Homowo at Wikimedia Commons- Promoting and celebrating Homowo with Obo Addy
