Festivals
Homowo season brings the drums back to Accra, and the whole city eats kpokpoi
Greater Accra
Homowo Festival
Photo: Fquasie / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Ga harvest festival that "hoots at hunger", marked across Accra with a ban on drumming, then a month of processions.
Homowo remembers a famine survived generations ago and translates roughly as "hooting at hunger". The season opens in May with the planting of crops and a thirty-day ban on drumming and noise-making across Ga traditional areas.
The ban lifts in August and the festival proper begins. Priests sprinkle kpokpoi, a steamed corn dish served with palm nut soup, along the streets for the ancestors. Families gather, twins are honoured in the Ga twins ceremony, and processions move through Ga Mashie, Osu, Teshie and Nungua on successive weekends.
Visitors are welcome at the public processions. Ask a local host or your operator which quarter celebrates on which weekend, as the dates differ between Ga towns.
When it happens
When it happens
Dates vary by Ga town — Ga Mashie, Osu, Teshie and Nungua each hold their own weekend
What to see
- The kpokpoi sprinkling ritual by Ga priests
- Processions through Ga Mashie, Osu, Teshie and Nungua
- The Ga twins ceremony
- Street drumming and dancing after the ban lifts
Quick facts
- Region
- Greater Accra
- When
- August and September, varying by Ga town
- Duration
- Several weekends across the season
- Access
- Public processions, free to watch
- Pairs with
- Chale Wote in James Town, also August
Getting there
- All the celebrating quarters are within Accra and reachable by taxi.
- Expect road closures in Ga Mashie and Jamestown on procession days.
Get directions
Visitor tips
- Confirm the exact weekend locally, dates shift each year.
- Ask before photographing priests or ritual moments.
- Damba Festival
Northern Region
- Independence Square, Accra
Greater Accra
- Labadi Beach
Greater Accra
