Neenyi Ghartey VII
The 2025 Aboakyer Festival of the chiefs and people of Effutu Traditional Area in the Central Region has been launched in Winneba with a call on all service providers to ensure excellent delivery to boost the local economy.
The uniqueness of the festival, celebrated every year, is seen in its attraction of people from all walks of life to boost tourism.
Neenyi Ghartey VII, the Paramount Chief of Effutu Traditional Area, who launched the festival, on the theme: “Championing our ancestral legacy,” mentioned that the celebration of the festival was a moral and spiritual obligation to their ancestors, deities and the land.
He indicated that the festival will start on Saturday, April 26 and climax on Saturday, May 4, 2025 with a grand durbar where he will sit in state to receive homage.
According to him, the festival will kick off with a gospel musical show and clean-up exercise at various communities and homes.
Other activities are a health walk, regatta, tug-of-war, marathon race and bicycle racing, football tournament, cooking competition and parading of gods by the two Asafo Companies.
On Friday, May 2, the traditional military would march through the principal streets of the Winneba Township to provide security and ensure peace as the Asafo Companies enter the ancestral forests on the dawn of Saturday, May 3, to catch a live bushbuck.
The group with the first catch will then present it to Neenyi Ghartey to step on it three times, to signify acceptance by their god, Penkye Otu.
Neenyi Ghartey underscored the need for his people to be united, and entreated them to do away with their differences.
Neenyi Ghartey, who is also the Chancellor of the University of Education, said “through our efforts to sustain our ancestral heritage, we are championing a course to ensure that Effutu tradition and culture are preserved for current and future generations.”
Later, members of the 2025 Aboakyer planning committee chaired by Nana Owusu Ofori, were introduced to the gathering.
GNA