A scene from the previous event
The Oguaa Traditional Council has launched the 2023 Oguaa Fetu Afahye, the annual traditional festival of the chiefs and people of Cape Coast.
This year’s festival is on the theme: “Celebrating our Educational Institutions for the Enhancement of Ghana.”
The seven Asafo companies and other cultural groups gave performances during the event.
On the first Saturday in September, the citizens of Oguaa celebrate the Oguaa Fetu Afahye.
Osabarimba Kwesi Atta II, Omanhene of Oguaa Traditional Area, opened the event by urging parents and guardians to invest in their children’s and wards’ education in order to provide security and a brighter future for their families.
He believed that a high-quality education depended not just on teachers’ performance but also on parents’ encouragement of teaching and learning.
Osabarimba Kwesi Atta II bemoaned the fact that many junior high school students in the region do not succeed academically enough to gain admission to the wide range of top universities.
He called on corporate bodies and philanthropists to support the festival, and urged his people to obey the customs and practices and keep their surroundings clean.
The activities would include a vigil at Bakado, the beach, which would also host a regatta for the Asafo companies, a youth colloquium, and children and gender activism day.
The festival, according to Mr. Perry Mensah, Chairman of the Afahye Planning Committee, has become a vehicle for revitalising and redeveloping socioeconomic life and culture.
He was confident that the celebration would live up to his hopes because he had planned a number of events to make sure Cape Coast was accorded the proper place in Ghanaian society.
He reminded all residents to religiously obey the ban on drumming and noise making, particularly religious organisations, to ensure peace. The ban affects noise making, including the use of loudspeakers, drums, tambourines, clapping of hands and the use of any form of musical instruments during the period.
During the period, the Oguaa Traditional Council would pray for the country and the citizens to continue to keep the flame of peace, love, tranquility, and good brotherliness.
“We also entreat all persons in Oguaa to comply with the ban on drumming and noise making and refrain from making derogatory remarks about the rites, customs, practices, and beliefs of the people,” he cautioned.
Mr. Mensah urged citizens to work together towards keeping the metropolis clean and healthy by participating in the monthly clean-up exercise.
He said the citizens could, on their own, get together to clean their immediate environs without necessarily waiting on the community leaders to organise a clean-up exercise, and urged the media to project the festival and all its related activities.