Fetu Afahye Festival in Cape Coast, Ghana

One of the major festivals in Ghana is coming up. Seems like this year the festivals are coming back as people have resigned themselves that life will go on even in this COVID era. This festival takes place the first Sunday in September each year in the town of Cape Coast.

Cape Coast is about 3 hours from Accra down the coast to the west. It has an important place in history but is not a major town or city in Ghana currently even though it is a place that still attracts the most tourists. This is due to the Cape Coast Castle which was the seat for the British colony of the gold coast and a slave castle with hundreds of thousands of slaves going through its dungeons leaving the shores of Ghana.

The festival dates back to a time uncertain when the area was being tormented by a plague. The people came together and prayed and made offerings to the 77 gods of the area to save them. Not only where they saved but they got a bumper harvest from the sea that year. The festival has then been celebrated as a symbol of cleaning up the area and ridding them of the disease.

I have been to the festival twice once in 2004 and once in 2016. The pictures I will share with you are from the 2016 festival.

A major part of the festival is the Dubar which is esentially a parade through the main street of the town. Different groups from the community put on different displays.

There are acrobats and performers

All the chiefs from the sub chiefs of smaller communities to the larger paramount chiefs adorn their gold and ride in their seats carried by their people with big umbrellas overhead.

The streets are alive with drumming and dancing.

Elegant traditional costumes and face painting.

Procession after procession of royals, royal courts, items of power, and thrown carried through the streets.

A kid out enjoying the day and his homemade skateboard

The tricksters and commedians even come out. One making fraud calls with a wireless phone, another looks like he is ready to go skiing.

At the end of the parade everyone funnels into the parade grounds a large square where other dignitaries, and even the president sits to watch them make a few more rounds around the square.

At night there is lots of drinking and partying. I don't think I will make it this year but it is good to enjoy the past years through pictures. Thanks for viewing.

Taken with a Canon Powershot Camera

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