Festivals & Events
How the Ga People Turned Hunger Into a Celebration of Life
By mid-morning, the streets of Accra are already vibrating with drumbeats. Women wrapped in bright cloth move in groups through narrow lanes, children weave through the crowd laughing, and the scent of kpokpoi — the traditional corn meal prepared for the season — drifts through family compounds.
Elders stand at doorways pouring libation, while the sharp rhythm of traditional Ga drumming echoes from one neighborhood to the next.
This is Homowo, the most important annual festival among the Ga people of Ghana’s coast. Celebrated across the Greater Accra Region in towns such as Prampram, the festival arrives in August and September, the season when fishing waters and farms traditionally yield their greatest abundance. Its name translates simply but powerfully: “mocking hunger.”
Remembering Hardship, Celebrating Survival
Homowo traces its origins to a difficult period in Ga history when famine and hardship threatened entire communities.
Oral tradition says the people endured severe hunger before rains finally returned and crops flourished again. The festival became a yearly reminder that suffering does not last forever and that survival itself deserves celebration.
At the centre of the festivities is food. Families prepare kpokpoi, often served with palm nut soup, and share meals among neighbors and visitors. Traditional priests sprinkle the food throughout homes and streets as blessings for peace, fertility, and prosperity.
Music and dance carry the spirit of the celebration. Processions move through town accompanied by energetic drumming, singing, and the firing of muskets.
Chiefs appear in richly embroidered cloth, surrounded by elders and cultural groups performing dances passed down through generations. Every corner feels alive with movement and memory.
More Than a Festival
Today, Homowo remains deeply important socially and spiritually. For Ga communities, it strengthens family ties, honours ancestors, and reconnects younger generations with their heritage at a time when modern city life moves quickly. For visitors, the festival offers something rare — not a staged performance, but a living tradition still woven into everyday life.
As evening falls and the drums continue long into the night, Homowo becomes more than a celebration of harvest. It becomes a reminder of resilience, gratitude, and the enduring power of community.
Festivals & Events
Beyond the Hype – Next Level Is Bringing Ghana’s AI Future to Life at Google Accra
On 11 September 2026, one of Accra’s most exciting gathering spaces will trade ordinary conversations for bold ideas as professionals, entrepreneurs, students and creators come together for Beyond the Hype – Next Level at the Google Accra AI Community Centre.
Rather than another conference built around speeches, this event promises something more practical: learning by doing.
The return of Beyond the Hype reflects a shift taking place across Ghana’s creative and professional landscape.
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond being a buzzword and is becoming part of everyday work, from marketing campaigns and classroom lessons to financial analysis and business planning.

After a successful first edition that brought together 30 professionals for hands-on training and networking, the event returns with a stronger focus on helping participants use AI with greater confidence and purpose.
Visitors can expect five hours packed with interactive experiences rather than passive listening. Live demonstrations will showcase some of today’s most powerful AI tools, while advanced productivity sessions will explore faster ways to research, write, organise and create.
Industry-specific breakout sessions will allow professionals from fields such as HR, finance, consulting, technology and education to tackle real workplace challenges.

Networking moments and AI use-case pitching sessions add another layer, creating opportunities for fresh collaborations long after the event ends.
For international visitors interested in Ghana’s growing innovation scene, the gathering offers a window into a country where technology and entrepreneurship increasingly go hand in hand.
The Google Accra AI Community Centre has become part of a wider movement nurturing digital talent across Africa, making it an intriguing stop alongside the city’s galleries, cafés and creative districts.

For Ghanaians, the event is equally meaningful. It celebrates curiosity, practical problem-solving and a willingness to embrace new skills in a rapidly changing world.
When the doors open at 12:00 PM GMT, attendees won’t simply hear about the future of work—they’ll spend an afternoon building it.
Festivals & Events
Ahoba Kuma Festival: How the Abura People Keep Their Warrior Legacy Alive
The first drumbeat rolls across Abura like a heartbeat returning home. Soon, the streets come alive with swirling cloth, elders carrying symbols of authority, and young dancers moving to rhythms that seem to echo from another century.
As traditional horns cut through the air, the community gathers for Ahoba Kuma Festival, a celebration that transforms memory into movement and history into living tradition.
Observed occasionally in June by the Abura people in Ghana’s Central Region, Ahoba Kuma commemorates the community’s ancestral migration while paying tribute to the warriors who protected their people during uncertain times.
Rather than allowing those stories to fade into folklore, the festival keeps them alive through ceremonies that remind each generation where they came from and what their ancestors endured to build the community they call home.
The festival unfolds with colourful processions led by chiefs, queen mothers and elders dressed in striking kente, beads and ceremonial regalia.
Traditional musicians fill the streets with the sounds of talking drums, horns and songs that recount bravery, sacrifice and unity. Dancers perform with energetic precision, while community members follow the procession, turning the town into a shared stage where every step carries historical meaning.
Beyond the public celebrations, moments of reflection remain at the festival’s heart. Elders share oral histories with younger generations, prayers are offered for peace and prosperity, and families reunite to strengthen bonds that stretch far beyond bloodlines.
These rituals ensure that remembrance is not confined to the past but becomes part of everyday identity.
Today, Ahoba Kuma serves as both a cultural inheritance and a community reunion, drawing people back to their roots while welcoming curious visitors into its story.
For travellers exploring Ghana’s heritage, experiencing this festival offers something rare: the chance to witness history not preserved behind museum glass, but carried proudly through the streets in music, movement and collective memory.
Festivals & Events
Drums, Chiefs and Blessings: Inside Kwahu Tafo’s Gyenpren Festival
As June settles over the rolling Kwahu hills, Kwahu Tafo wakes to the deep rhythm of talking drums, the gleam of colourful kente cloth, and the steady procession of chiefs carried beneath ceremonial umbrellas.
The streets fill with cheers as families reunite, visitors gather, and elders exchange greetings that carry generations of history. This is Gyenpren Festival, a celebration where gratitude, unity and hope for the seasons ahead meet in one unforgettable spectacle.
Observed by the people of Kwahu Tafo in Ghana’s Eastern Region, Gyenpren is rooted in the community’s enduring connection to the land.
For generations, farming has shaped life in the area, making the festival an important moment to seek blessings for abundant harvests while strengthening the peace that keeps the community thriving.
It also serves as a reminder that prosperity grows not only from fertile soil but from harmony among neighbours and respect for tradition.
The festival’s centrepiece is the durbar of chiefs, where traditional leaders appear in magnificent regalia, accompanied by queen mothers, elders and cultural groups.
The procession transforms the town into a moving gallery of royal symbolism, with gold ornaments, intricate fabrics and beautifully crafted stools reflecting the authority of the Kwahu people.
Traditional drumming, dancing and libation ceremonies accompany the gathering as prayers are offered for rainfall, fertile farms, healthy families and peaceful coexistence.
Beyond the formal ceremonies, Gyenpren becomes a homecoming. Relatives return from across Ghana and abroad, local businesses come alive, and younger generations learn customs by watching elders perform rituals passed down through time.
For today’s Kwahu Tafo, Gyenpren remains both a cultural anchor and a celebration of collective identity.
For travellers, it offers something equally valuable: the chance to witness a living tradition where every drumbeat, greeting and royal procession tells the story of a community that continues to honour its past while looking confidently toward the future.
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