Odwira comes to Akropong at the end of the rainy season. A week of silence, mourning, feasting and a grand durbar
For a few days before Odwira, Akropong goes quiet. Drumming stops, noisy celebrations are banned and the town prepares to cleanse itself for the new year.
Odwira is the main annual festival of the Akuapem people of the Eastern Region, whose paramount seat is at Akropong on the ridge north of Accra. The word refers to purification, and the festival marks a cleansing of the state, the stools and the people, as well as thanksgiving for the new harvest. It is usually held around September or October.
The week
The festival stretches over several days, each with its own purpose. Paths to the royal mausoleum are cleared, and the ban on drumming and noise that precedes the festival is lifted. Chiefs and elders perform rites, the new yam is eaten, and the ancestral stools are purified.
One day is set aside for mourning those who died during the year. People wear dark red and black cloth, and the town fills with the sound of mourning songs. Another is for feasting, when families share meals and ancestors are offered food.
The durbar
The climax is the grand durbar, when the Okuapehene, the paramount chief, sits in state and receives the homage of his chiefs and people. Chiefs arrive in palanquins under large umbrellas, accompanied by drummers, horn blowers and attendants. Visitors, politicians and the diaspora attend.
Origins
Odwira was one of the great festivals of the Asante kingdom, which held its own Odwira in Kumasi. Akuapem tradition links the adoption of the festival to the state’s history in the nineteenth century, including its role in the 1826 Battle of Katamanso against Asante. Other Akan towns hold their own versions.
What to know if you go
Visitors are welcome at the durbar and most public events. Dress respectfully, ask before taking photographs of chiefs and rites, and follow local guidance during the days of silence. Akropong is about an hour’s drive from Accra, and many people combine the trip with a visit to Aburi.
A living tradition
Akropong is also known for the Presbyterian Church, which the Basel Mission established there in the nineteenth century, and for Presbyterian Training College, one of the oldest teacher training colleges in West Africa. The festival sits comfortably alongside the town’s Christian identity.
For people from Akuapem living in Accra or abroad, Odwira is the reason to go home. The mourning day brings them back to the dead; the durbar reminds them of the living state they belong to.
