Teshie is in the news once again for the wrong reasons.
This time the controversy is about a standoff between and the irate Youth of Teshie and the Security Agencies over the ban Homowo 2020. As the saying goes, there is no smoke without a fire therefore it is very important to highlight the key issues underlying the standoff.
Teshie is the last Six Ga Coastal town to be established around 1710. The town is constituted by five main Clans or Quarters and twenty-six Villages. The Teshie Township is sandwiched between La and Nungua and stretches from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean to the foot of the Akwapim Mountains. For well over three hundred years Teshie ranked best among its contemporaries by virtue of its resilient fishing industry, military exploits and a galaxy of internationally acclaimed scholars, businessmen and master craftsmen. Teshie also played a very pivotal role in the establishment of the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs and was rewarded with a permanent seat in the august House.
The Chiefs and People of Teshie celebrate their Annual Homowo Festival in August – September every year in a very grand style. The Festival is driven by deep-rooted religious and circular activities involving an extended period of stock-taking, reconciliation and sober reflections. The Festival is heralded by a series of esoteric activities followed by a ceremony to ban drumming and noisemaking throughout Teshie and it Villages. On the first Tuesday of the Annual Homowo Festival the natives of Teshie come together to feast on Kpokpoi, make merry and hoot at hunger. Kpokpoi is a special Homowo delicacy of steamed-unfermented corn flour eaten with palm-nut soup prepared exclusively with smoked fish.
The Teshie Homowo festival also serves as a social control mechanism whereby virtue is rewarded and vice is sanctioned through songs by minstrel or “Kashimo” groups namely Korle Woko, Gbee-Ni-Matele, Tafo Ye Feo, Akro Greece, Mind You, Ghana, Jah Labour, Port, Kane, Golongolo etc. In the olden days, a Kapashimo group would compose a song to ridicule or censure a wrong doer. The group would then carry the wrong-doer shoulder high on a dzama procession with the song throughout the Teshie Township. As a result of this public naming and shaming, the affected wrong-doer would die before the next Homowo Festival. It is very important to state at this juncture that originally the Cult of Tsesebumo did not form part of the Teshie Homowo Festival which was introduced much later in the late 1940’s.
The Festival itself is segmented into three parts as follows:
PRE-HOMOWO ACTIVITIES: The Pre-Homowo Homowo activities include the rites of Bloiahedzuu (Cleansing and Sanctification of the mediums and the sacred brooms), Ablekuu, (Harvesting of Fresh Maize from the sacred grooves), Yelegbamo ke seimliwoo (Fresh Yam rites for the Stools). These sacred and esoteric rites are performed by only the initiates and not open to the public.
PUBLIC HOMOWO EVENTS: The Public Homowo Activities could be segmented into moderate crowd-puller and mammoth crowd-puller events.
The moderate crowd-puller events include the following: Nshonaa wodziadzamo (Worshiping of the Sea Deities), Nshorbulemo (Ban on Deep Sea Fishing), Gbemlilaa (Ban on Drumming and Noise-Making), Ngoowala (Cencus and Reconciliation Day).
The mammoth crowd-puller events involve: Kpokpoishwamo (Sprinkling of Kpokpoi), Football Harvest, Kpafaa (Start of Street carnival), Bicycle racing, Tsesebumo (End of Street Carnival), Street Jam, Weight Lifting Contest, Annual Thanksgiving Service, Miss Teshie & Akro Excellence Awards. It is note-worthy that the cult of Tsese was originally not part of the Teshie Homowo Festival and that this introduced in the late 1940’s.
At the approach of Teshie Homowo 2020 the Teshie Mantse Palace undertook a series of consultative meetings with the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs, the Director-General of Southern Command Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Honourable LEKMA Chief Executive, The Hon. MP for Ledzokuku Constituency, the Bureau of National Investigations, the Kpashimo Groups and some opinion leaders in Teshie to strategize on how best to go round the COVID-19 Protocols in order to celebrate Homowo in an atmosphere of peace and security.
The outcome of the various consultations was that Homowo 2020 should be celebrated on a very modest scale so that the essential social and spiritual tenets of the festivals are not compromised. It was also agreed to commute the performance of moderate crowd-puller events to the pouring of libations only. It was finally agreed to postpone all the mammoth crowd puller activities and events to 2021 when a cure would have certainly been found to the covid-19 pandemic. This has been the crises management practice of Teshie by the ancestors since time immemorial. That is how Homowo was celebrated during the Kabu & Laaloku war of Teshie. This was what was done for the Tsesebumo during the standoff with the military and their tanks during the PNDC era.
The appropriate NOTICE was given to the Police in line with the Public Order Act. The Police wrote to decline the notice with the explanation that: “The Organization of Homowo 2020 remains criminalized under the essential provisions in Executive Instruments 64, 65 and Imposition of Restrictions Act of 1012 of 2020 therefore the festival should be banned altogether”. At a follow-up meeting with the MUNICIPAL SECURITY, the Homowo Plan as originally agreed with the Kpashimo Groups were approved.
This decision was communicated to all the Traditional Office holders and Heads of Family in Teshie with copies the all the Kpashimo Groups in Teshie. In addition to the written notice, the Teshie Mantse Palace caused gongong to be beaten throughout the Town with follow-up radio and social media announcements.
It is pertinent to mention at this juncture that as at now, the all the esoteric rites, the Nshobulemo and Gbemlilaa ceremonies have been done without any problems.
The Teshie Mantse Palace has also arranged to provide a platform for the presentation and recording of all the newly composed 2020 Kpa Songs and for airing on Obonu TV. The winning composition will attract a very handsome prize. Another arrangement has been for the Tsese to be stationed at Nyomnotsaanaa for consultation by those in quest for spiritual favours. However, like the Kpashimo Flags and their totems, the Tsese will not appear on the Streets this year.
The current Impasse between the Teshie Youth and the Police were triggered of by the intransigence of the Youth of Teshie in going ahead with the banned Kpashimo or Street Carnival, COVID-19 or no COVID-19. According to the irate Youth, the corona virus was in full flight before the NPP Delegates Conference, the Ghana Card/Voters ID Cards registration exercises and the Installation of the Akuapimhene. Therefore, stopping them from celebrating Homowo was very discriminatory and unjust. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander they claimed. Much as I will like to agree with the sentiments expressed by the Teshie youth, I wish to caution that two wrongs do not make a right. I also wish to caution that the perceived violation of the COVID-19 Protocols by others do not give anybody the license to take the law into their own hands.
As readers may be no doubt aware, the Statistical Service of Ghana currently rated Teshie as the most densely populated town in Ghana. Therefore the attempt to rationalize the misbehaviour of the Teshie Youth on the basis of a delegates conference and registration exercise is like trying to kill a fly with a sledge hammer. It is an indisputable fact that the Teshie Kpashimo events attract daily patronages in excess of a million individuals standing back to back throughout the indigenous parts of Teshie. The town is choked to the brim with no breathing space. According to the health professionals, this is an ideal scenario for the rapid spread of the corolla virus. This is the angle that all the enlightened citizens of Teshie must consider in order to protect and safeguard the precious lives of all Teshiemei. We must not hastily put the cart before the horse.
In the meantime, there is a widely held but inarticulate opinion that there are powerful political and traditional forces behind what is happening at Teshie. The game plan of these diabolical schemers is to manipulate the Youth to cause mayhem in Teshie so that the authorities will have no other option than to bring in a joint police and military task force to restore law and order or even the imposition of CURFEW in the Teshie Township. When this happens there is a possibility of people being injured or even killed. This eventuality will provide the much needed gun powder for mudslinging and political manipulations in the run off to the impending general elections.
God forbid such a sordid and diabolic event in Teshie. A stitch in time saves nine.
Long live Teshie.
By Nii Ashikwei Kwaobotswe II – Teshie Dzasetse