Ohum Festival

Recently my community, Asafo celebrated the Ohum Festival. It is a festival during which people take time to thank the gods for giving the chief of the village the power to supply enough food for the community. It is essentially a fertility festival during which a few ancient ceremonies take place. The ceremony I attended was two-fold due to the fact that we had not yet been introduced to the village chief, his linguist, or any of the village elders.
The introduction to the chief was impossible due to the fact that he is currently working as a contractor in America and was not scheduled to return anytime soon. That didn’t put a damper on any of the festivities though. We were asked to meet at the chief’s palace at 10am and to bring a large piece of firewood, taller than ourselves. I had my brother Nkwobinwa chop a log down in the morning and I trucked it on my head across town, mostly to amuse the people who would see me on my way to the center of town. The people of my community really love watching us Americans try to take part in everyday Ghanaian life. For example, my host sister nearly died laughing the first time she watched me trying to eat smoldering hot plantains and kontumeri/palm oil sauce with my hands. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself later that night as I was nursing my poor little burnt fingers. Cultural adaptation isn’t always a walk in the park. I am still new to Ghana so constantly being laughed at has not yet gotten under my skin. I just picture myself as a one woman, nonstop, improve comedy troop. This approach seems to be working so far; at the very least it is keep my host mother, brother, and sister infinitely amused.

So the wood is carried to the chief’s palace and plopped in a giant pile. It is a symbolic offering to the chief so the gods will know that the chief has enough wood to start a big enough fire to cook for his whole village.

After the wood is piled, me and my colleagues (and our host families) are paraded around to the elders where we shake hands numerous times and bough graciously for letting them stay in our village for the present time. It was quite an honor to meet such a well coifed group of elderly Ghanaians. I also really appreciated the feeling I got, that I was part of a tradition that had gone on for hundreds and hundreds of years.