Asafoatse Cultural Whispers Perform at the Homowo Festival in Accra
Last Saturday In the heart of Accra, as the golden sun dipped behind ancient palms, the Asafoatse Cultural Whispers stepped onto the sacred streets during the Homowo Festival. This traditional music and dance group, all women dancers and singers accompanied by men behind the instruments, became a tapestry of heritage and movement under the city’s festive skies.
Clad in richly patterned, colorful traditional cloth—kente wraps, bright batiks, and embroidered skirts—the women moved with grace and energy, their voices rising in song. Behind them, the men coaxed deep rhythms from an array of Ghanaian traditional instruments: the hollow, resonant gome, the beating heart of the djembe, the rattling pulse of maracas, the commanding tones of atumpan, the storytelling pulses of talking drums, the steady grooves of congas, the harp‑like melodies of the kora, and the warm vibraton of bongos.
Because Homowo is a festival of the Ga people, Asafoatse Cultural Whispers made the Kpanlogo drumming and dance its centerpiece which is unique to Ga cultural identity, born from Accra’s streets in the 1960s and now an emblem of national pride.
Homowo, meaning “hooting at hunger” in the Ga language, commemorates a period of famine endured by the Ga ancestors during migration. When the rains returned and the harvest returned in abundance, the people celebrated by “hooting” at the memory of hunger. The festival begins with the planting of maize and millet before the rainy season, followed by a sacred ban on drumming and noise-making—a time of spiritual reflection and respect for the gods. As the season progresses and the crops ripen, the climax arrives with the preparation of kpokpoi (also known as kpekple)—a steamed cornmeal pudding mixed with palm nut soup, often sprinkled through towns by chiefs for blessings and remembrance.
Communities across Ga towns—such as Gamashie (Ga‑Mashie), Osu, Teshie, Nungua, La, Tema (and even Dangme towns like Prampram and Kpone)—celebrate on differing dates, reflective of each town’s lunar calendar.
This year, Asafoatse Cultural Whispers carried their rich traditions beyond Ghana’s borders. After electrifying Dubai with their performances, their eyes now shine toward future stages in the United States and other parts of the world. Their ambition? To share Ghanaian cultural heritage, its rhythms and stories, with audiences far beyond Accra.
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