Tribe people celebrate Yam festival for prosperity in Ghana

The chiefs and residents of the Asogli area in Ghana celebrated their annual traditional Yam Festival praying for good harvest and prosperity in Ho city of the Volta region, about 165 km southeast of Ghana's capital Accra on Saturday.

The celebration of the festival was brought down from Notsie town in neighboring Togo from where the people of the area migrated several hundreds of years ago. It is usually held in September at the end of the rainy season to mark the end of hunger, usher in the celebration of new yam harvest as well as serve as thanksgiving to gods and ancestors for a bumper harvest and offer prayers for good health and prosperity for all in the coming years through the libration.

The festival is named after one of the most common foods in many African countries -- Yam, a large root vegetable that looks like a tube. The oral history has it that a hunter discovered the crop in the forest. It was during the famine period that instead of taking his newly discovered tuber home, he decided to hide it in the soil for use some other time. When he later went back for it, the tuber had germinated and grown bigger which helped the tribe go through the famine.

According to local people, the yams harvested are boiled and mashed as the event goes on and is then offered to the gods and ancestors first before distributing them to the villagers, that they carry out as their way of thanksgiving to the spirits for good health and plentiful harvest.

Several programs are lined up for the celebration of the event but the most notable and colorful among them is the gathering of chiefs and their subjects at the grounds where a number of cultural activities take place to climax the activities for the celebration.

When Xinhua correspondents arrived at the town at about 11:30 a. m., thousands of people from the local communities had gather at the Ho stadium to celebrate the day with rich traditional culture. Excited tribe people wearing the colorful traditional clothes, delivered a grand show with drumming, singing and dancing.

The smartly dressed chiefs, led by Togbe Afede the 14th, the paramount chief of the Asogli Traditional Area, wearing the traditional clothes, were ushered into the meeting place in a multicolored majestic procession.

This day is also the 10th anniversary of the enstoolment of Togbe Afede as the paramount chief of the area. During the speech, he touched on the challenges facing the areas and asked people to preserve the peace, work hard to reduce poverty and promote development of the country.

"Without pace, love, and unity, we will not move forward," he said, "today's celebration has to bring accountability to ourselves and also to think of how to bring development to the nation and joy to our people."

The celebration was also joined at the durbar by President John Dramani Mahama, government officials and dignitaries and tourists at home and abroad including some ambassadors.

President Mahama sent his wishes to local people and congratulation for the paramount chief in his speech, calling all Ghanaian to stand together to build the country."

"It is my hope that, the peace will be permanent peace," he president noted, "the government is going to work with you and stand by your side to ensure the traditional areas live in peace and appropriate development."

The festival, besides being a symbolic commencement of harvest time, is also a huge homecoming event lasting from mid-August to the late September. Awards are presented to farmers who harvest the heaviest yam after they have been weighed by the traditional authorities.