Neenyi Ghartey VII
The chiefs and people of Effutu Traditional Council have launched their 2019 Aboakyer Festival with a call on the youth to get involved in all the activities to enable them to learn the significance of the festival.
This year’s festival will kick off with the Aboakyer marathon race on Saturday, April 27, followed by a church service on Sunday, April 28 and a health walk and clean-up exercise on Monday 29.
Other activities for the festival include youth football matches on Thursday May 2, a grand durbar of chiefs and people on Saturday 4, among others.
The theme for this year’s festival is ‘sustaining our rich cultural heritage: our future’.
Neenyi Ghartey VII, paramount chief of Effutuman and president of Effutu Traditional Council, who launched the festival, said the launch was to announce to all stakeholders of the upcoming festival to hold themselves in readiness for the occasion.
“The Aboakyer Festival is the king’s festival with a unique tradition, bequeathed to them through successful celebrations, keeping the religious and cultural aspects just as it used to be,” Neenyi Ghartey VII added.
He indicated that without the festival, there is no Effutuman and added that “as we celebrate this unique festival, I am calling on all sons and daughters of Effutuman to come home and contribute your quota to enable the traditional council and the assembly to achieve its aspirations and initiatives towards the total development of the area.”
The launch was interspersed with the singing of traditional war songs by the Twafo Number One and Dentsifo Asafo companies, who were among the groups and personalities at the event.
Mr. John Ninson, Effutu Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), expressed concern about the current pressure from other cultures threatening to adulterate the Ghanaian cultural heritage, adding that it was time to revive and improve on it to make it more unique than before.