Festivals & Events
The Sacred Tree That Holds a Kingdom Together: Odunkwaa Festival in Abura Dunkwa
The drums don’t just announce the festival. They wake the ancestors. It’s Easter Monday in Abura Dunkwa, Central Region, and the air has already thickened with promise—dust rising from dancing feet, the jangle of royal regalia, and the low hum of libation prayers poured onto sunbaked earth.
Children chase goats through the crowd. Elders sit on wooden stools under shade trees, their faces calm but watchful. Somewhere near the centre of town stands the Odum tree—towering, ancient, and about to be wrapped in a fence of swords and ritual purpose.
The Odunkwaa Festival stretches across a full week, but its soul lies in two moments. The first is the durbar of chiefs: a magnificent procession of gold ornaments, velvet palanquins, and umbrella symbols that tell stories of war and peace. Paramount chiefs and sub-chiefs arrive on horseback or in a slow, deliberate walk, each step weighted with history.
The ground vibrates with fontomfrom drums, and the gyama horn cries out in a language only the initiated fully understand. For the people of Abura Dunkwa, this is not performance. It is governance, memory, and belonging all at once.
Then comes the act that gives the festival its name. The sacred Odum tree—believed to house protective spirits of the Abura state—must be ritually fenced.
Not with wire or wood, but with a circle of traditional swords and spears planted point-down into the earth around its trunk. Only the highest-ranking chiefs and fetish priests may approach. As the weapons form their ring, the crowd falls silent.
Prayers are whispered. An egg is broken at the roots. The tree is now “closed” for the year—guarded against harm, blessed for another cycle of rain and harvest.
Why fence a tree? Because in the Abura tradition, the Odum is no ordinary plant. It is a covenant. A witness to oaths. Some say it once hid warriors from invading armies. Others believe it carries the breath of the founding ancestors.
The fencing is both a protection rite and a renewal of allegiance—the people promising to defend the land, and the land promising to yield.
Today, Odunkwaa draws Ghanaians from Accra, Cape Coast, and beyond, alongside travellers who’ve heard rumours of a festival where Christianity’s Easter meets indigenous spirituality.
But there’s no clash here. The week includes church services, clean-up campaigns, and a vibrant food fair. The fencing simply reminds everyone that some commitments outlive any single religion or government.
You leave Abura Dunkwa smelling woodsmoke and palm wine, ears still ringing with drums. And you realise: this festival isn’t just watched. It’s felt. For anyone traveling Ghana’s Central Region, time your visit for Easter week. The Odum tree will be waiting.
Festivals & Events
Don’t Just See Art, Become Part of It: Renaissance Afrique in Accra
The morning light over First Norla Street will look different on April 30. Not because the sun changes, but because the street will.
By 10 AM, that ordinary Accra thoroughfare transforms into a living gallery—walls draped in colour, doorways spilling with rhythm, and every corner holding a conversation between Ghana’s past and its future.
This is Renaissance Afrique, and it’s not merely an exhibition. It’s a gathering of creative souls, cultural custodians, and curious strangers, all moving to the same heartbeat: collaboration.
Renaissance Afrique was born from a simple but radical idea—that artists, designers, musicians, and cultural institutions too often work in isolation. Why not bring them under one roof for a single, powerful day?
The result is a fluid, 10-hour celebration where a painter from Jamestown might share a wall with a heritage foundation from Cape Coast, and a leatherworker from Bolgatanga sets up beside a digital archivist preserving Ga folktales. No booths. No rigid schedules. Just creative energy flowing from 10 AM until dusk.
What will you find? Live canvas painting that evolves as the crowd watches. Drum circles that form spontaneously and dissolve into spoken word. A corner where grandmothers demonstrate traditional batik next to teenagers projecting Afrofuturist animations.
Food vendors serve jollof and fresh coconut while a historian leads an impromptu walking talk about the symbols hidden in kente cloth. The atmosphere is unhurried but electric—the kind of day where you arrive for an hour and stay until the lights come on.
For international visitors, Renaissance Afrique offers something rare: a chance to see Ghanaian culture not as a museum piece, but as a living, breathing, remixing force.
You won’t just observe traditions; you’ll watch them being reimagined in real time. For Ghanaians, it’s a homecoming to possibility—a reminder that creativity isn’t a side hustle but a inheritance.
Mark April 30. Come to First Norla Street. Bring your curiosity, leave your schedule behind, and let Accra show you what renaissance really means.
Festivals & Events
From Records to Roots: Discover Your Family Story in This Global Webinar
There’s something quietly powerful about hearing a name from the past and realising it belongs to you. Next week, an online event hosted by The National Archives invites participants to step into that moment—offering a guided journey into the lives of their 20th-century ancestors.
Titled Researching Your 20th Century Ancestors, the webinar forms part of a broader genealogy series designed to help people trace their family roots with clarity and confidence.
Led by family history specialist Jessamy Carlson, the session explores key historical records including the 1911 and 1921 censuses and the 1939 register—documents that capture everyday lives in remarkable detail.
Though rooted in British archives, the event resonates far beyond the UK, especially for audiences in places like Ghana, where questions of lineage, migration, and identity remain deeply meaningful.
For many Ghanaians—whether at home or in the diaspora—family history is not just about names on paper. It lives in oral traditions, clan systems, and the stories passed down at gatherings.
This webinar offers a complementary perspective: a structured, archival approach that can enrich those inherited narratives with dates, occupations, addresses, and personal histories that might otherwise be lost to time.
Participants can expect more than a lecture. The session begins with a pre-recorded presentation that breaks down how to navigate these historical sources effectively, followed by a live Q&A where attendees can pose their own questions. It’s an interactive experience, designed for beginners and seasoned researchers alike. The digital format—accessible via a simple browser—means that whether you’re in Accra, Kumasi, London, or New York, the journey into your past is only a click away.
What makes this event particularly compelling is its ability to bridge worlds. For international visitors curious about African heritage, it highlights the universal human desire to understand where we come from.
For locals, it offers tools to document and preserve family stories in ways that future generations can revisit and trust.
In a time when identities are constantly evolving, reconnecting with one’s roots can feel grounding, even transformative.
This webinar doesn’t just teach research techniques—it opens a door to rediscovery.
As the date approaches, those with even the faintest curiosity about their ancestry may find this an opportunity worth taking. After all, the past has a way of waiting patiently—until someone decides to look.
Festivals & Events
A Sunday to Remember: Immersing in the Soulful Power of ‘Before His Throne’
As the golden hour settles over the skyline on Sunday, April 19, a different kind of energy will begin to pulse through the air.
For those seeking more than just a typical weekend outing, the “Before His Throne” live recording offers a profound immersion into the heart of Ghana’s contemporary spiritual landscape.
This isn’t merely a concert; it is a high-voltage encounter where music, faith, and communal identity collide in a five-hour journey of transcendence.
In Ghana, the “Live Recording” has evolved into a significant cultural phenomenon. It is the modern-day intersection of ancient oral traditions and cutting-edge production.
Historically, Ghanaian worship has always been a communal affair—a “call and response” that dates back centuries. Today, events like “Before His Throne” carry that torch, professionalizing sacred music while maintaining the raw, improvisational heat that defines the local sound.
Culturally, these gatherings serve as a pulse check for the nation’s creative spirit, showcasing the world-class caliber of Ghanaian instrumentalists and vocalists.
Attendees can expect an atmosphere that is both intimate and electric. From 4 PM to 9 PM, the venue transforms into a sanctuary of sound. The “vibe” mentioned by organizers is a unique blend of polished Gospel artistry and spontaneous worship.
Visitors will witness the seamless fusion of traditional African rhythms with contemporary soulful arrangements, creating a wall of sound that is as technically impressive as it is emotionally stirring. There are no spectators here—only participants.
For the international traveler, this event provides an authentic window into the Ghanaian soul, far beyond the typical tourist trails.
It offers a chance to see how modern Ghanaians express their deepest convictions through art.
For locals, it is a moment to reconnect, to shed the weight of the work week, and to be part of a legacy of praise that feels both ancient and brand new.
Whether you are drawn by the music or the message, “Before His Throne” promises a memory that lingers.
It is an invitation to step out of the mundane and into a space where every note is a bridge to something higher.
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