The search for Ghana’s next cultural ambassador is about to begin. In Accra this April, confident young women will step forward to compete in the fifth season of Miss Akwaaba, a pageant that blends beauty with heritage, storytelling, and tourism advocacy.

For thirteen weeks, contestants will be immersed in a journey that celebrates the country’s traditions while preparing them to represent Ghana on a global stage.

Organised by Ceejay Multimedia in partnership with Tour Motherland Ventures in the United States, the competition has steadily grown into one of Ghana’s most culture-focused pageants.

Auditions for Season 5 will run from April 20 to April 25 at the Ceejay TV Studios, where aspiring contestants will present not just poise and talent, but also their knowledge of Ghana’s customs, languages, and tourism destinations.

Unlike conventional pageants, Miss Akwaaba places culture at the centre of the competition. Participants are encouraged to explore Ghana’s diverse traditions—from storytelling and indigenous fashion to music, dance, and the country’s historic landmarks.

The aim is to produce ambassadors who can confidently introduce Ghana’s heritage to the world.

That mission has resonated with audiences in recent years. Previous seasons have highlighted the country’s cultural wealth while giving young women the opportunity to grow as leaders and advocates.

The stakes are high this year, too. The reigning queen from the previous season drove home in a brand-new car and received a cash prize of GH¢10,000, signalling how the pageant rewards both talent and dedication.

Beyond the competition itself, the event has become a meeting point for Ghana’s creative and tourism sectors. Supporters of the project include Dodi World, one of the country’s best-known leisure destinations, along with Bigoo Drinks and cultural advocate Mama Africa. Their involvement reflects the pageant’s growing role in promoting Ghana as a travel destination.

For visitors exploring the country, Miss Akwaaba offers a unique window into contemporary Ghanaian culture. The event captures the energy of Accra’s creative scene—where fashion, language, music, and heritage meet modern storytelling.

For locals, it’s also an opportunity to reconnect with cultural traditions and support a platform that celebrates Ghana’s identity.

As auditions open in Accra, organisers are calling on bold and culturally rooted young women to step forward.

The crown of Miss Akwaaba represents more than a title; it carries the responsibility of telling Ghana’s story to the world.

For those ready to take part—or simply witness the beginning of the journey—the stage is set.

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.

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.