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Apoo Festival
The Apoo Festival is a festival celebrated annually in western Ghana (specifically the towns of Techiman and Wenchi), lasting a week in March and April. The festival is meant to ritually purify the people of social evils, as well as uniting people and families, and includes a variety of other traditional cultural activities. The word 'apoo' comes from the root word 'po', meaning 'to reject.' The festival is heavily associated with the Bono people. Not only is it held in Techiman, one of the most important cities to the Bono people and kingdom, insults, proverbs, maxims, songs, and historical recountings of the Bono Kingdom are exchanged during the titular Apoo procession; many of these insults, proverbs, and songs are directed towards the Ashanti, who conquered the Bono Empire. History Oral tradition holds that the festival began under the reign of Nana Kwakye Ameyaw; he was an authoritarian leader, and the people of Techniman subsequently could not freely express their views. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Techiman
Techiman is a city and is the capital of Techiman Municipal and Bono East Region of Ghana. Techiman is a leading market town in South Ghana. Techiman is one of the two major cities and settlements of Bono East region. Techiman is home to West Africa's largest traditional market. Techiman has a settlement population of 104,212 people in 2013. Techiman is located at a historical crossroads of trade routes and the Tano River, and serves as capital of the Techiman Municipal District. History According to oral tradition, the Akans which constitute the largest ethnic group in Ghana, moved from ancient Bono State; a historical location known as Bono Manso, a suburb in Techiman Municipality. The Fantes (''an Akan people''), according to their oral tradition, migrated from Techiman to found the coastal Mankessim Kingdom that covers present Central region and Western regions in 1252. Others from the Akan people would later follow and formed their own states and city states, such as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wenchi
Wenchi is a town and is the capital of Wenchi Municipal of the Bono Region in middle-belt of Ghana. Wenchi is located at 7.73333 atitude in decimal degrees -2.1 ongitude in decimal degreesat an average elevation/altitude of 304 meters. Wenchi is approximately 30 km north of Techiman and about 50 km east of the Ivory Coast border. Wenchi has a population of 39,187 people in 2013. Transport Wenchi is connected by road to Techiman and Sunyani and its airport, Sunyani Airport. Wenchi is not serviced by a railway station on the Ghana Railway Corporation, but it has been proposed that a line be extended to Wenchi. It has less vehicular traffic as few people own cars and motors. Culture Wenchi celebrates the annual Apoo, a yam festival in April/May. The climax of the Apoo is the durbar of the king (Omanhene) through Wenchi. In August, the annual yam festival takes place in Wenchi and it marks the end of the first rainy season and harvesting of the yam in the towns of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bono People
The Bono, also called the Brong and the Abron, are an Akan people of West Africa. Bonos are normally tagged Akan piesie or Akandifo of which Akan is a derivative name. Bono is the genesis and cradle of Akans. Bono is one of the largest ethnic group of Akan and are matrilineal people. Bono people speak the Bono Twi of Akan language. Twi language, thus the dialect of Bono is a derivative of a Bono King Nana Twi. In the late fifteenth century, the Bono people founded the Gyaaman kingdom as extension of Bono state in what is now Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.Effah-Gyamfi, E. "Aspects of the Archaeology and Oral Traditions of the Bono State. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana"(1974) 15(2):217-227. In the 12th century when Bonos discovered gold at the Twi river and Prabom across the Tain river, Bonos became very powerful owing to its wealth in gold at Bonoman. Bonos used the gold dust as a measure of currency in Bonoman and at the various market centres of Djenne, Timbuktu a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashanti People
The Asante, also known as Ashanti () are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Asantes are the last group to emerge out of the various Akan civilisations. Twi is spoken by over nine million Asante people as a first or second language. The wealthy, gold-rich Asante people developed the large and influential Ashanti Empire, along the Lake Volta and Gulf of Guinea. The empire was founded in 1670, and the capital Kumase was founded in 1680 by Asantehene (emperor) Osei Kofi Tutu I on the advice of Okomfo Anokye, his premier. Sited at the crossroads of the Trans-Saharan trade, the Kumase megacity's strategic location contributed significantly to its growing wealth. Over the duration of the Kumase metropolis' existence, a number of peculiar factors have combined to transform the Kumase metropolis into a financial centre and political capital. The main causal factors included the unquestioning loyalty to the Asante rulers and the Kum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tradition
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes (like lawyers' wigs or military officers' spurs), but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings. Traditions can persist and evolve for thousands of years—the word ''tradition'' itself derives from the Latin ''tradere'' literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. While it is commonly assumed that traditions have an ancient history, many traditions have been invented on purpose, whether that be political or cultural, over short periods of time. Various academic disciplines also use the word in a variety of ways. The phrase "according to tradition", or "by tradition", usually means that whatever information follows is known only by oral tradition, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramount Chief
A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others. Paramount chiefs were identified by English-speakers as existing in Native American confederacies and regional chiefdoms, such as the Powhatan Confederacy and Piscataway Native Americans encountered by European colonists in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America. During the Victoria era, paramount chief was a formal title created by British colonial administrators in the British Empire and applied in Britain's colonies in Asia and Africa. They used it as a substitute for the word "king" to ensure that only the British monarch held that title.Government Documents. Great Britain. Foreign Offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festivals In Ghana
Festivals in Ghana are celebrated for many reasons pertaining to a particular tribe or culture, usually having backgrounds relating to an occurrence in the history of that culture. Examples of such occurrences have been hunger, migration, purification of either gods or stools, etc. Reasons for celebrating festivals The importance of each festival's celebration includes: * Planning developmental project. The festival is used as an occasions to meet and plan developmental projects in the area since most citizens are likely to attend. * Purification of gods. The period is used to clean ancestral stools and perform important rites. * Thanksgiving. The festival is used to thank the supreme God and the lesser gods for the guidance and protection * National and political significance. Prominent people in the government are invited to explain government policies and programmes. * Dispute resolution. The occasion is used to settle family and individual disputes for peaceful co-existence. * T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
