The Kundum festival is celebrated by the
Ahanta
The Ahanta/Ayinda are Akan People who live to the north and east of the Nzema. The Ahanta land has been historically known as one of the richest areas on the coast of what is now Ghana.
The Ahanta land spans from Beposo to Ankobra in what is no ...
and
Nzema people of the
Western 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 ...
.
It is celebrated to thank God for the abundance of food at the time of the harvest period of the area.
History
One of the earliest written records of the festival was made by Bosman, a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
explorer who traveled to the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
in the
17th century
The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 ( MDCI), to December 31, 1700 ( MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural moveme ...
and observed the festival.
Origin
According to oral history and folklore, the festival began when a hunter, ''Akpoley'', during an expedition, chanced upon some dwarves dancing in a circle. After observing the dance, he returned to his town and introduced it to his people.
The ritual dancing is associated with expelling the devil and evil spirits from towns and villages. During the festival, the dance is performed by most inhabitants of Axim and surrounding towns. It comes from the Nzema people and subsequently graduated to the Ahantas in the Western region of Ghana.
Festival type
Kundum is both a harvest and religious festival.
[ The start of the festival is based on the day the fruit of a certain ]palm tree
The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...
became ripe.
The celebration
The festival lasts for four weeks, but for the first three weeks most activity, particularly drumming and dancing only takes place at night and on the outskirts of the towns at a place known as Siedu or Sienu. The festivals occur separately in each town that make up the Ahanta and Nzema paramountcy
Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is calle ...
. The towns each schedule independently on which Sunday their local festival will start.
The celebration consists of three main components:[
*dancing
*drumming
*feast
]
Festival attire
The people who participate in the celebration wear distinctive dress, footwear, and sometimes masks. The festival begins by musicians taking the drums to the five different shrines
A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...
on outskirts of town. At the shrines, requests for the good of the town made , and rum is poured on the ground as libation
A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid, or grains such as rice, as an offering to a deity or spirit, or in memory of the dead. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in cultures today.
Various substa ...
.[
]
Programme of activities
In the traditional four-week celebration, the drummer
A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...
s will spend the next three weeks in the outskirts practicing and preparing for the fourth week. No drumming or dancing
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire ...
is done on the Monday of the fourth and final week. The ritual Kundum fire is lit at the chief’s palace
A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...
and is kept burning throughout the festivities. The fire serves as a center of activity and heat source for preparing the main festival meal.
On Tuesday, sacrifices of fowl or sheep are offered in the stool room. The stool room is a sacred palace where the stools of departed chiefs and elders are kept. All of the sacrifices in the stool room are performed privately by a small designated group. Finally a public sacrifice of a fowl is performed in the courtyard.
Singing begins on Tuesday and on Wednesday, the chief joins festivities. He enters on a palanquin
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the el ...
accompanied by a parade of people singing and drumming.
Each night the people eat a large meal together, culminating in a great feast of the final Sunday. All the food is collectively prepared by the women using the Kundum fire, and they are directed by the elder women. The remainder of the week is spent performing the ritualized Kundum dancing. Some dances are performed by men and others by women; others are not distinguished by gender requirements.[ The dancing concludes in front of the ]castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
in Axim. The traditional purpose of the dancing is to drive the evil spirits and devils from the town and preserve another successful year.[
]
References
{{reflist
Festivals in Ghana