2024 Aboakyer ends in beauty as the Dentsefo Asafo Group wins with a catch – (Watch Video)

The Simpa (Winneba) Aboakyer festival which commenced on Saturday, April 27, with activities including clean-up exercises, health walk and parading of the gods through the principal streets of Winneba came to a successful end after the Dentsefo Asafo Group caught the deer for the festival.

Leading the procession were the Tuafo Number One and Dentsefo Number Two Asafo companies.

Also present were the sub-chiefs, Queen mothers, family heads, groups, youth groups and hundreds of celebrants.
Leading the procession was Neenyi Ghartey VII, the Effutu Omanhen Traditional Area who was carried in a beautiful palanquin as he showed his dancing skills in appreciation to God, the ancestors, and his people.

Whilst many residents danced to wonderful renditions of fontomfrom drumming and contemporary Afropop music, others who were Spiritually inclined chanted traditional war songs to the admiration of all.

This year’s Aboakyer festival of the people of the Efutu Traditional Area in the Central Region, the highlight of which is the deer hunt and catch, was held last Saturday on the 5th of Mau, 2024.

It was a successful hunt as a bushbuck was caught and presented to President Akufo-Addo, who was a guest of honor at the festival held in Winneba.

The animal must be caught and presented alive, is a demand of the tradition by the Dentsefo Asafo Group.
The festival is known for its colorfulness, theme for this year’s activity being “Promoting Tradition and Development through Aboakyer Celebration.”

The annual program was launched in February but the hunt and catch of the game was done on Friday May 3, when the traditional soldiers marched through the principal streets of Winneba after which the Asafo groups proceeded to the ancestral forests on the dawn of Saturday for the hunt and catch. There have been instances when no catch was made.

In the morning of Aboakyer day, the paramount Chiefs, sub-chiefs, dignitaries and the public assembled at the durbar grounds to wait for the catch amidst drumming and dancing.

There was jubilation through the streets cheering up the Dentsefo Asafo Group until the deer was deposited at the shrine to await slaughter and its rituals till the next day.

Source: Samuel Opoku || Mymctvonline.com