A decision to cancel Odwira festival causes uneasiness among Okuapeman
A decision by the Akuapem Traditional Council to cancel the Odwira after it was purportedly launched in Accra has brought uneasy calm among residents of the Akuapem land.
A decision by the Akuapem Traditional Council to declare the launch of the 2022 Odwira festival by some chiefs and queen mothers as null and void has caused uneasy calm in Okuapeman.
The decision led to the subsequent cancellation of the Odwira Festival by the Akuapem Traditional Council this year citing litigation on the legitimacy of Okuapehene Oseadeeyo Kwasi Akuffo III pending before the national house of Chiefs.
On Friday, July 24, the 2022 edition of the Akuapem Odwira Festival was launched in Accra by some traditional leaders who claimed to represent the traditional council in partnership with Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Beyond the Return Secretariat and other corporate entities under the theme “Unity in our Heritage to Foster Sustainable Development,”.
They announced that the festival will come off on September 12 and climax on the 18th.
However, at a traditional council meeting held on Friday, July 29, 2022, the Acting President of Akuapem Traditional Council who is also the Chief of Aburi, Otoobuor Gyan Kwasi II berated the organizers of the launch.
“We heard that last week Friday some chiefs went to Accra to launch the 2022 Odwira festival in Accra. That was wrong. It is not customary. It is the traditional council and Okuapehene that decide not one person. So the traditional council met today and nullified that launch and cancelled the Odwira festival. Under normal circumstances, on the 3rd of August, Okuapeman, we will celebrate Adae festival and then on the 14th of September perform the necessary customary rites for Okuapehene, Queen-mother or Okoman to pave way for the Odwira festival.
“However, due to the chieftaincy dispute, we can’t celebrate it in flamboyance”.
He, however, said traditional and customary rites will be performed in quiet.
“We have also asked Royal families and divisional chiefs to perform their customary rites in their homes to celebrate the festival. There will not be durbar and neither the carrying of any chief in palanquine. Because as customs demand, it is the Okuapehene who is to perform a traditional rite to open the Odwira festival for all other divisional chiefs to celebrate accordingly in their traditional areas before big durbar is held, but because of the pending case against the Okuapehene by the Queen-mother at the national house of chiefs we can’t celebrate the festival”
Odwira festival, which commemorates the victory of the Akuapem people at the great Akantamansu war in 1824, also seeks spiritual purification, unity, cultural revival, community development, political stability and promotion of tourism in the area.
