The Aboakyer festival is a

bushbuck The Cape bushbuck (''Tragelaphus sylvaticus'') is a common and a widespread species of antelope in sub-Saharan Africa.Wronski T, Moodley Y. (2009)Bushbuck, harnessed antelope or both? ''Gnusletter'', 28(1):18-19. Bushbuck are found in a wide ra ...

hunting festival celebrated by the people of

Winneba Winneba is a town and the capital of Effutu Municipal District in Central Region of South Ghana. Winneba has a population of 55,331. Winneba, traditionally known as ''Simpa'', is a historic fishing port in south Ghana, lying on the south coa ...

in the Central Region of

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Overview

The name ''Aboakyer'' translates as "hunting for game or animal" in the

Fante dialect Fante (), also known as Fanti, Fantse, or Mfantse, is one of the three principal members of the Akan dialect continuum, along with Asante and Akuapem, the latter two collectively known as Twi, with which it is mutually intelligible. It is princ ...

as spoken by the people of the Central Region. The institution of the festival was to commemorate the migration of ''Simpafo'' (traditional name given to the people of Winneba). The people migrated from the north-eastern African town of

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

in the ancient Western

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

Empire to their present land in the central coast of Ghana. The journey from the north-east to the western part of Africa was led by two brothers. The people believed that a god, whom they called Otu, had protected them from all dangers during their migration and to show their appreciation, the people consulted the custodian of the god, a traditional priest who acted as an intermediary between the people and the god, to ask the god for its preferred sacrifice. To their astonishment, the god asked for a human sacrifice, someone from the royal family. This sacrifice went on for some years but was later stopped as the people were no longer interested in human sacrifices. A request was made to the god to change the sacrifice type, as they believed that sacrificing royalty could eventually wipe out the royal family. The god in return asked for type of

wild cat Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the do ...

to be caught alive and presented to it at its shrine. After the presentation, it was to be beheaded as a sacrifice. This was to be done annually in a festival. Before the festival began the people settled the god at a town called Penkye. After the resettlement, the god became known as Penkyi Otu, to signify the final home for the god. To mark the festival, the people sought out the wild cat, as had been prescribed. Many people died in the process as the animal was to be captured live and transported to Penkye. The people made a second appeal to Penkyi Otu to provide an alternative to the wild cat. That appeal resulted in the decision to accept a mature

. Two hunting groups, the Tuafo (Number one) and Dentsifo (Number two), have since bore the task of capturing the live bushbuck and presenting it to the people at the durbar. This festival is celebrated in May and it is a major event in Ghana. The warriors catch a bushbuck or deer with a weapon but with bare hands

Oral tradition

The people of Simpa passed on this tradition to their descendants in the form of songs, and sang it in their war chants and also told it during moonlit nights in story form. This oral tradition went on until the colonial Europeans arrived on the coast of the Gold Coast and with them the English language. Scholars then translated the oral story from the language 'Fante' to English.

The festival

The festival is celebrated on the first Saturday in May. On the first day of the festival, the two

Asafo Asafo are traditional warrior groups in Akan culture, based on lineal descent. The word derives from , meaning war, and , meaning people. The traditional role of the Asafo companies was defence of the state. As the result of contact with European ...

companies (

warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have been p ...

groups) in Winneba take part in a hunting expedition. The first troop to catch a live bushbuck from a

game reserve A game reserve (also known as a wildlife preserve or a game park) is a large area of land where wild animals live safely or are hunted in a controlled way for sport. If hunting is prohibited, a game reserve may be considered a nature reserve; ...

used for this purpose and present it to the chiefs and people at a colorful durbar is declared winner and is highly regarded for bravery. The bushbuck is sacrificed and this signifies the start of the Aboakyer festival. The festival is used also to receive a productive harvest and spiritual guidance from their gods for the coming year.

Gallery

File:Aboakyer festival in Ghana 2.jpg, A group catches deer for the Aboakyer festival in Ghana File:Aboakyer festival 8.jpg, A group of men dancing and chanting during the Aboakyer festival in Ghana File:Aboakyer festival in Ghana.jpg, A group catches deer for the Aboakyer festival in Ghana File:Aboakyer festival 6.jpg, A man carrying schnapps to perform ritual during Aboakyer festival in Ghana File:Aboakyer festival 10.jpg, A large crowd of people celebrating the Aboakyer festival in Ghana

References

{{reflist Central Region (Ghana) Folk festivals in Ghana Religious festivals in Ghana