The Aboakyer festival, which involves deer hunting, was recently observed by the people of Winneba in the Central Region.
There were many activities and preparations made prior to the hunt day, including purification rites in which two groups, Tuafo and Dentsifo, carried their gods along predetermined routes through the town.
The town’s youth joyfully prepared themselves on the day of the hunt while joking around and dancing and drumming. However, some criminals had set up shop to target people’s bags and purses. Surprisingly, one of their victims was a fetish priestess.
The priestess, who was covered in white markings, described her experience to Atinka TV.
She claimed that her phone, cash, and purse had been taken. Reminding them that the festival was a time for celebration, not theft, she pleaded with the thief to give back her possessions.
Watch the video below;
Them don steal chief priestess phone for Aboakyer festival🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/IBbeHa1zcy
— SIKAOFFICIAL🦍 (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) May 8, 2023
Every year during the first week of May, the Effutus celebrate the Aboakyer festival at Winneba. The festival honors the migration of Simpafo, the people of Winneba, and the word “Aboakyer” means hunting for game or animal in Fante.
In a related news, the Krobo people, who perform the Dipo rites for their young ladies to usher them into adulthood, are one ethnic group that has been affected by this.
First and foremost, a woman must be a virgin and have never engaged in sexual activity with a man in order to be eligible for the dipo.
The ladies of Kroboland used to be extremely proud of this ritual, but according to some of the country’s elders, it is now difficult to recruit virgins to participate.
They claim that the number of virgins from Kroboland is decreasing every day and time, to the point where they were once unable to procure even a single woman from the Shai Osudoku District who were virgins.
The elders of Kroboland are now pleading with their people to speak and advise their daughters about participating in the rite because, in their opinion, if things go on as they are, there won’t be any more dipo.
