1. Presenting gifts before the chief- schnapps, food, rams, and money. The girls would dance in the procession as part of the celebration for the ancestors.
2. On Thursday, we witnessed a procession to feed the ancestors. People from each of the major houses in Akropong were chosen by a spiritual leaders to carry food and drink to the sacred tree. These people are said to be taken over by the spirits so it is necessary to have people there to withhold them if they start going the wrong direction or stop moving. These people will be very fickle if there are problems in the family. When these people stop moving altogether, other family members will pour libation on their feet with schnapps to appease the spirit that is said to reside in them. White is the color of purification- the goal of the festival.
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| Drummers announce the procession. |
3. Drum crews line the side of the streets. Their accompanying dancers would catch passersby and dance with them. If you are chosen by the dancer, you would also offer up small cash to them.
4. Durbar grounds. All processions on Friday led to these grounds where there were speeches given by community leaders and even the President of the Republic of Ghana himself!
5. Local chiefs and queen mothers processed into the Durbar grounds under umbrellas and carried on chairs and in palanquins. Each chief and queen mother was elaborately dressed and had many supporters surrounding them.
6. Among the diplomats at the Durbar, we saw Former President Jerry John Rawlings. For more information go to: http://www.presidentrawlings.com/pgs/hmp.php
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| Rawlings and his wife at the Durbar |
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