Wor-Lumor Konor Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru (left) and Oboade Notse King Prof. Odaifio Welentsi III at the festival launch
This year’s edition of the Kplejoo Festival of the chiefs and people of Nungua in the Greater Accra Region has been launched with a call for unity amongst the people to ensure peace and continued progress in the town.
Kplejoo is an annual celebration that brings the people of Nungua together to observe some time-honoured obligations. It is also a moment for family reunions and reconciliations as well as fun and projections for the future.
This year’s launch on April 21 at Ablorkor Jaanor was a harmonious affair devoid of the sort of rancour that characterised last year’s observance.
Oboade Notse King Prof. Odaifio Welentsi III, Paramount Chief of Nungua and Oshwe Wulomo, urged his people to always remember that Nungua belongs to them, and there is no need to destroy it through unnecessary conflict.
He urged all divisional chiefs and other elders at the launch to take the message of peace and unity to people in their various areas.
“We Nungua people often say we are the leaders of the Gadangme people. So we must always comport ourselves in ways that suggest so,” the Nungua Paramount Chief stated.
Prominent personalities at the launch included Wor-Lumor Konor Nuumo Borketey Laweh Tsuru, Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse and Overlord of the Gadangme State. Also present were Asafoatsemei, chief priests and priestesses.
A 22-member Festival Committee was also inaugurated under the chairmanship of Nii Okplen Dzalesane II, Nungua Oblantai Mantse.
Some of the key programmes lined up for the festival include purification of the town and sprinkling of sacred corn by Shitse, the Gborbu Wulomo on May 21. There will be a ban on drumming and noise making within the Nungua traditional area for a week on June 26.
The Obene dance to mark the historic migration of the Gadangme people from ‘Bene’, now Benin City in Nigeria, is scheduled for July 1. The following day would be for the annual traditional feast of kpokpoi to mark the historic ‘hooting at hunger.’
July 3 is Noowala Gbi or the exchange of greetings, reconciliations, merry making and a short drumming ceremony to mark the lifting of the ban on drumming at Ablorkor Djaanor from 6.00pm.
There will be other activities till July 9 when the Kplejoo Festival is officially rounded off.
By George Clifford Owusu