Kente Festival Day Two

Our second day at the Kente Festival began with breakfast at the Chances Hotel and then off to the Heroes and Heroines Day celebration. This is a time to remember ancestors who died or survived war. Even though we arrived quite early, people were already arriving at the celebration site.

Going to the Festival

Our first glimpse of the people dressed for the Heroes Day celebration.

Our trusty Ford Everest

We parked under the trees of a school yard next to the grassy open area where the celebration was held.

Brother Sadahem and Sister Stoker buying nuts.

Brother Sadahem insisted on buying us some "groundnuts" in a water bottle--one for each couple. Groundnuts are peanuts. It was a mixture of corn nuts and peanuts, quite tasty.

More groups arriving

We arrived early enough to see people arrive. Some with quite a bit of fanfare, others just walking in to take their place.

Carrying the Chief's Stool

This group was small but quite regal, coming in with their drummer beating a rhythm and a woman carrying the Chief's stool on her head.

Setting up the drums

African celebrations have lots of drum music.  Here they are setting up the drums.  Groups also brought their own drums.

I could have sat like these women for maybe two minutes.

Posing with the Chiefs

We had time to get some closeup photos before the ceremonies began. Everyone was very nice about letting us take their pictures.

Wives?

My only complaint was that I wanted to know who people were and what everything meant. These women sat in front of the Chief the entire program.

They looked quite dignified and regal.

Agotime has over 37 towns and villages between Ghana and Togo, each one with a Chief and a Queen known as Nene and Manye respectively.

Queen Mother

I love the gentle smiles on the faces of these women. The Queen Mothers sat separately from the men, the women from their clan sat behind them.

Waiting for the celebration to begin.

Three of the seven wives of the Paramount Chief, Nene Nuer Keteku III.  I wondered how old the youngest wife was. Age is difficult to guess here.

The Chiefs and the Queens carried staffs with decorative symbols on the tops and red fabric ties on them.








The celebration consists of people displaying their heroism as they return from war. They depict the ranks of the military and it is quite a spectacle to behold. The men with their muskets parade around the grounds.  Queens would walk from opposite sides of the field into the center briefly. Homemade cannons were fired, the muskets were fired. War was re-enacted. Occasionally the women would run out on the field waving red handkerchiefs like they were chasing away the enemy.  Dancers danced, drums beat, people sang and yelled.

This young girl sat right next to us. She has her little brother tied on to her back just like the mothers do. At times she would hold him in her lap. She tended her brother during the entire festival. 

We experienced lots of pageantry and vivid colors and sounds.  The people of Agotime and Kpetoe are hoping that this Kente Festival will attract tourists and help with the economy in this area. It keeps alive their traditional dress, customs, dances and music. It is an opportunity to educate their children about their heritage.


We left the festival and went to visit Holey, the Kente weaver in Ho. Many wanted to buy some Kente cloth and I bought a strip to wear with my African dress on saturday.

Kente cloth is woven in strips about 4 1/2 inches wide on a simple wooden loom. These strips are sewn together to make a large piece of fabric or you can wear the strip around your neck or make a table runner out of several.

the lengthwise threads are tied to a rock that keeps them stretched smooth but allows the weaver to roll up the finished cloth as it is finished. Some patterns are quite intricate and take a long time to make.

They work in the open air under the shade of some trees. Holey's home is  on the other side of the brick wall.

Kente cloth comes in all colors and patterns. The yellow, blue and green ones are more traditional.

Children flock to the missionaries and they are fun to interact with. Robert has the full attention of these children as he shows them something on his iPad.

Sister Stoker is showing them the pictures she has taken of them. They are usually very happy and love to ham it up for the camera.

Elder Bullock can keep a group enthralled with his whistles, juggling and by making the "lollipop" popping sound--how else do you describe that?

Elder Dever was the "model" so we could learn how to wear the Kente cloth in the traditional way. It is just draped, not tied or tucked anywhere.







We finished our day by going to Elder and Sister Cosgrave's home for pizza.  They are the MLS couple in Ho and Elder Cosgrave is in the district presidency.  They look after missionaries and keep the district youth program going. Many of the youth in this area do not have parents and the Cosgraves play an important roll in their lives.