Festivals
Kobine: Lawra’s harvest reunion, danced to the gourd drum
Upper West Region
Kobine
Photo: Kopareh / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Deep in the Upper West, Lawra’s Dagara community spends four days reuniting scattered families, parading as hunters and elephants, and competing in the region’s signature Kobine dance.
Kobine is a harvest and family-reunion festival of the Dagara people. The first day is set aside purely for family visits and reconciliation, before the public events begin.
The days that follow bring a durbar of chiefs with processions of young men dressed as hunters or elephants, building to the festival’s centrepiece: a dance competition performed to gourd drums, known as kuor, and clay-pot-neck instruments, known as dalar. This Kobine dance is found in this form nowhere else in Ghana.
Lawra sits in Ghana’s far north, near the Burkina Faso border, genuinely remote from Accra and Kumasi. It is worth planning as a dedicated trip rather than a side stop, and worth it for a festival that stays distinctly local.
When it happens
When it happens
Exact four-day dates are set annually by the Lawra traditional council
What to see
- The Kobine dance competition, performed to gourd and clay-pot drums found nowhere else in Ghana
- Processions of young men costumed as hunters and elephants
- A durbar of Dagara chiefs from across the Lawra traditional area
- A first day set aside purely for family reunions before the public events begin
Quick facts
- Region
- Upper West Region
- Host town
- Lawra, near the Burkina Faso border
- When
- Late September into October, over four days
- Who celebrates
- The Dagara people of the Lawra traditional area
- Format
- A family day, then a chiefs’ durbar and dance competition
Getting there
- Lawra is in Ghana’s far north, roughly twelve hours by road from Accra or four to five hours from Tamale.
- The most practical route is a domestic flight to Tamale, then road to Lawra via Wa.
- This is a genuinely remote trip — plan for it as its own itinerary rather than an add-on.
Get directions
Visitor tips
- Arrange accommodation in Wa if Lawra itself is fully booked over festival weekend.
- The festival stays local and family-centred — visitors are welcome at the public durbar and dance competition, less so on the family reunion day.
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