Queen mother in a palanquin with people around her celebrating the Fetu festival in grand style
Time of Year: September
Area: Central Region
The Oguaa Traditional Area in Ghana’s central area is home to the Cape Coast (Oguaa) people, who annually celebrate the Oguaa Fetu Afahye celebration.
Regarding whether the festival observed by the Oguaa people is an agricultural or ancestral celebration, there are two schools of opinion.
According to the first school of thinking, it is a religious, ancestral, or thanksgiving feast. Records from oral tradition indicate that there had been a pandemic in Cape Coast before the feast of thanksgiving. The residents of Cape Coast prayed to the gods for help because this was so tragic and necessary. However, it is thought that the locals of Cape Coast and its surroundings overcame this ailment with the aid of the gods. The Oman and the chiefs dress in red and black on the first Friday of September to sacrifice a bull to the underground god “Nana Paprata” as a show of gratitude to the deities in the local tradition.
According to the second school of thinking, Oguaa Fetu Afahye is a celebration of agriculture. Additionally, this school of thinking offers proof from oral tradition and the current importance of the festival. As the month of September is traditionally and culturally the agricultural or seasonal period for the inhabitants of Oguaa, it is observed to honor a pumper harvest. From the final Tuesday in July through the first week of September, the event takes place. The Omanhene’s Yam Festival (Ahobaa) is celebrated on the final Tuesday in July, and once the ban on drumming and creating noise is lifted, the gods of the land are fed with marshed yam with red oil and boiled eggs.