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.

Kente Festival Day One

Ho is the administrative capital of the Volta Region. This region is East of Lake Volta and shares a border with Togo. Ho was actually the capital of British Togoland at one time.  We have gone to Ho twice and took two different routes.  On this most recent trip, the road we drove on went right on the border for a while.  On the East the people speak French and are citizens of Togo and on the West they speak English and are citizens of Ghana. They share the common local language of Ewe.

The red portion is the Volta Region

We drove our car and Elder and Sister Stoker went with us.  It is quite a coincidence that on our first trip in early April, we also went with the Stokers.  In April it was Sister Stoker's birthday and they had just had their "hump" day (half-way mark of their mission).  On our trip in mid-September, it was Joan's birthday and we had just had our hump day.  The Stokers are fun to travel with and they put in much effort, along with Bishop Sadahem, to plan this trip. The reason for this trip was to see the Kente Festival.  The festival lasted a full week but we missed the first four days, arriving on Thursday, September 11. Sister Sadahem and their daughter Emanuela rode with us. It took us four hours to drive there. The Wildes also drove their van and brought the Seaders and the Kirkhams with them.  Other missionary couples arrived later.  Bishop Sadahem lives in Accra but is from Kpetoe, a village in the Volta Region. He went to a great deal of effort to make it a wonderful experience for all of the missionary couples.

Brother and Sister Sadahem

When we arrived in Kpetoe (pronounced Petoway), we went directly to Brother Sadahem's home. We were invited into his home and allowed to use the "washroom".  We don't visit many Africans in their homes so we appreciated their hospitality.  Emanuela took their suitcase into the house. It took two people to help lift it up onto her head.

Sister Sadahem and Emanuela

Emanuela was a good sport and let everyone take a picture of her as she carried the suitcase into the house on her head.

Sister Wilde with the Sadahem family

Brother Sadahem and their seven year-old daughter, Ruth, were very excited to see Sister Sadahem and Emanuela.  This picture was taken in the inner courtyard of their home.

The gate to the Sadahem home

This is the gate that you enter from the street. This young man is a good friend of the family. I wasn't quite clear whether he lived with them or not. It is not unusual for a family to take in children of friends or extended family members and raise them.



Ghana is a democratic nation with a president who serves four-year terms. All ethnic groups within Ghana have kings with long established "kingdoms" of thousands of years. Ghanaians belong to different kingdoms but are all citizens of the nation of Ghana. They submit to the authority of the government but the government respects the positions of the kings.

Nene Nuer Keteku III

Brother Sadahem took us to meet the Chief of Kpeote, Nene Togbe Agbovi IV. He was very gracious and welcomed us into his home, offered us cold sodas and visited with us while we drank them.

The courtyard of his home

The courtyard of the Chief's home. Nene is a title that means king and he does have authority locally.






'Asia le torme' is an indigenous cultural event where women go to the riverside to fetch water for visitors to the festival. It is a tradition of old being kept alive by today's people as a demonstration of the good hospitability of the people of Agortime Kpetoe. According to history, this used to be an activity for old ladies and pure maidens. The beauty of it is when they are all walk back from the riverside in a single file cladded in different Kente attires carrying water in bottles to pour in a pot for use by visitors

Going down to the river

After visiting the Chief, we went down to the river to watch the "Asiale Torme". This is a procession of women carrying water to the king.

Drawing water from the river

The women all wore colorful wraps of hand woven Kente cloth. They took turns filling their bottles with water.

Waiting their turn

The women all had African head wraps.  They had made leaf circlets to put around the bottle of water that they carried on their heads. Many had stenciled designs on their arms and shoulders in white.  Most wore beads.

Carrying their bottles on their heads

Forming a line as they come up from the banks of the river.  They sang as they walked.

Going up to the main road

Some of the women used more traditional clay pots instead of the glass bottles.

Forming a line

Heading to the village

The women sang and did their traditional dance step as they walked along the side of the main road. The crowd followed along with them. Philippe Kradolfer the Director of Temporal Affairs for the Africa West Area until August, came back from Salt Lake for this festival. He took pictures at the festival last year and gave many to the Paramount chief, who was thrilled.  Brother Kradolfer also helped by providing poster photographs advertising the festival. Philippe brought his daughter Michelle with him to help photograph the festival this year.

Michelle taking photographs

As Brother Kradolfer drove the car slowly along the road, his daughter stood up out of the sun roof to have a good vantage point.

Arriving in the center of the village

It began to get very crowded in the center of the village.  But people were kind and helpful when we wanted to get close to get pictures.

Pouring in the water

The seven wives of the Paramount Chief, Nene Nuer Keteku III, sat ready to receive the water. Three older women, in white, sat in the front.

Wives of the Chief

Behind the women in white sat the four other wives.  They were dressed in beautiful dresses and head cloths. They seemed to take this quite seriously. People crowded all around them. 

Brother Kradolfer getting a good shot

Brother Kradolfer, getting a good
view of the pouring of the water.
This was much more precarious than it looks in this picture.  He was on top of an unstable pile of stuff and was even a little shaky. The crowed oohed and awed as he tried to keep his balance.

Selling their wares

Many people took advantage of the crowds to sell their products.  here two young girls pause for a brief visit.  I will never tire of seeing the Africans gracefully walk as they carry all kinds of things on their heads.

Posing for the camera

Generally speaking, Ghanaians like to have their picture taken.  Sister Wilde poses with one of the water carriers.

We all want to be in on the fun!

Sister Seader, Sister Wilde, Sister Smith, our lovely Ghanaian and sister Kirkham. Sister Kirkham was in Robert's class at Highland High.

A cute little girl

We love to see the sweet and beautiful children here in Africa. They love to have their picture taken and then they love to see it! 

Beautiful setting sun

As we drove from Kpetoe to our hotel in Ho, a beautiful red sun was setting in the West. The thought of dinner and bed were appealing. We were tired but felt like our first day of the Kente Festival was a huge success.  We had enjoyed it all.