“WHAT IS THE HOMOWO-AFI FESTIVAL ?”

The Gas brought the tradition of the yearly festival as a carryover to Ile Ife in Nigeria where they sojourned for a long period of time and brought the same to modern Greater Accra in modern Ghana and named it Homowo.

During the month of August, the Ga ethnic group celebrates the most important festival of their tradition: The Homowo-Afi Festival. This festival, which literally means "to hoot at, (mock) or ridicule hunger" is recalling from Ancient Egypt the good harvest that the Ga people obtained following a period of famine caused by the absence of rain necessary to grow the crops in the Greater Accra Region, the region of Ghana where the Ga people are mainly located. Around 1600, in fact, the Ga people found themselves facing a very harsh famine, which affected the harvest, breeding and fishing by which they overcame by praying and asking for help from Ataa-Naa Nyonmo, that is the Creator God who is both Male and Female (Male, Ataa and Female, Naa) and the various deities and ancestors. These responded to their cry for help by sending heavy rains that increased the harvest and reassuring the facilitation of fishing, thus ending famine and hunger.

From that moment every year the Ga people celebrate this festival to remember the day when the ancestors won against hunger, ridiculing it with songs and dances.

Excerpt by Jenny Siaw