Recent Discoveries in the Aboakyer Festival of the Effutus-Ghana

Abstract

The Effutus hold in high esteem their festival; the Aboakyer festival also known as the deer hunt festival. It is a festival celebrated annually by the Asafo Companies to pacify their war god Apa Sekum. The Aboakyer festival has gone through several phases since the inception of the celebration. There has been an introduction of deities for the youth of both the Tuafo No. 1 Asafo company and Dentsefo No. 2 Asafo company during the celebration. This has gone unnoticed by writers although it plays a significant role in the celebration of the festival.

Data gathered for the study was made possible by employing the qualitative research methodology and the instruments used were interview and participant observation.

Purposive sampling method was adopted to select the respondents for the study due to the nature of the study. This paper argues out that although the festival has gone through several phases right from its beginning till date, the introduction of the youth deities have not been tackled by writers. The study therefore aims at describing the Aboakyer festival, the origin and composition of the deities with regards to the role they play in the celebration.

Keywords: Aboakyer, Festivals in Ghana, Effutus, Culture, Deities, Winneba