Festivals & Events
Inside Ghana’s Ohum Festival, Where New Yams and Ancient Traditions Unite Communities
The deep sound of fontomfrom drums rolls through the streets before sunrise, while women in bright cloth balance baskets of fresh yams on their heads and children weave excitedly through gathering crowds.
In the Akyem towns of Ghana’s Eastern Region, the Ohum Festival is more than a celebration. It is a homecoming, a thanksgiving, and a powerful reminder of ancestry carried proudly into the present day.
Celebrated by the Akyem people, Ohum marks the first eating of the new yam harvest, one of the most symbolic moments in the traditional calendar.
Before the community can enjoy the season’s fresh crops, rituals are performed to honor ancestors and thank God for protection, fertility, and abundance. For many families, the festival is sacred ground where history, spirituality, and identity meet.
The festival unfolds over two lively days, transforming towns such as Kyebi into centres of colour and cultural display.
Chiefs appear in richly woven kente cloth, adorned with layers of gold ornaments that reflect the historic wealth and authority of the Akyem state. Traditional horn blowers announce royal processions while drummers and dancers fill palace grounds with movement and rhythm.
One of the most anticipated moments is the ceremonial lifting of the ban on eating new yam. Elders offer prayers and libation before the first servings are shared, symbolising gratitude for survival through another farming season. The ritual also honours the labour of farmers whose work sustains entire communities.
Yet Ohum is not only about tradition. It is also a reunion. Families living abroad return home, old friendships are renewed, and younger generations are introduced to customs they may otherwise only hear about in stories.
Local businesses thrive during the festivities as visitors crowd markets, food stalls, and cultural events.
In a rapidly modernising world, festivals like Ohum continue to anchor communities to their roots.
They preserve language, music, dress, and values while reminding people that cultural identity is something to celebrate publicly and proudly.
For travellers seeking a deeper understanding of Ghana beyond beaches and city nightlife, Ohum offers something unforgettable: the chance to witness a living tradition where gratitude, royalty, spirituality, and community still move to the beat of the same drum.
Festivals & Events
Breakfast, Business and Big Ideas: Inside One of Accra’s Must-Attend Professional Gatherings
On a Saturday morning in Accra, conversations over breakfast will carry more than casual small talk. They will revolve around entrepreneurship, leadership, financing and the decisions that shape careers.
Winning in Your Corporate and Business World – 3.0, taking place on Saturday, July 25, at the Accra Marriott Hotel, offers a refreshing twist on the traditional business seminar by blending practical learning with meaningful networking in one of Ghana’s leading hospitality venues.
A Platform for Growth and Connection
Now in its third edition, the summit has become part of a growing culture of professional development events in Ghana, where entrepreneurs, executives and emerging business leaders regularly gather to exchange ideas and sharpen their skills.
This year’s theme, “Fearless Financing in Business,” reflects an issue that resonates across the country’s expanding business landscape. Access to capital, financial confidence and sustainable growth remain priorities for start-ups, small businesses and established companies alike.
Rather than focusing solely on theory, the event promises tested business strategies delivered by experienced professionals. Interactive sessions and opportunities for one-on-one engagement with resource persons are designed to leave participants with practical knowledge they can apply long after the event ends.

More Than a Business Seminar
Visitors can expect an atmosphere that balances professionalism with Ghanaian warmth. The breakfast networking session encourages conversations that often prove just as valuable as the formal presentations, creating opportunities to meet entrepreneurs, corporate executives and business owners from different industries.
For international visitors, the summit offers a window into Ghana’s dynamic business community. It showcases a country where innovation, entrepreneurship and collaboration are becoming defining features of economic life.
For locals, it provides a chance to expand professional networks while gaining insights that support career advancement and business growth.
The formal dress code adds to the occasion, creating an environment where participants arrive prepared to make lasting impressions while exchanging ideas over a carefully prepared breakfast.
An Experience Worth Adding to Your Accra Itinerary
Whether you are building your first business, climbing the corporate ladder or simply curious about Ghana’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, Winning in Your Corporate and Business World – 3.0 offers more than a morning of speeches.
It creates a space where knowledge meets opportunity, and where a single conversation could become the beginning of your next professional breakthrough.
Festivals & Events
Why Agona Nyakrom and Swedru Come Alive Every August for Akwambo
Before sunrise, the sound of cutlasses striking brush echoes through the roads leading into Agona Nyakrom and Agona Swedru.
Men and women move together beneath the August sky, clearing footpaths, sacred routes and communal spaces that have become overgrown with weeds and undergrowth.
By midmorning, the work has transformed into celebration: drums roll, voices rise, and the towns begin to pulse with the energy of Akwambo Festival.
Known locally as Akwan-bo, meaning “clearing the path,” the festival is one of the most distinctive traditions of the Agona people in Ghana’s Central Region.
Its origins reach back generations, when communities depended on shared roads, rivers and sacred sites for trade, farming and worship. Clearing these pathways was both a practical necessity and a symbolic act—removing obstacles so that people, blessings and good fortune could move freely.
The festival’s most striking spectacle arrives the following day. Crowds gather as groups of celebrants appear covered in clay, their bodies painted in pale earth tones that give them an almost otherworldly appearance.
They carry twigs and tree branches aloft while drummers set a relentless rhythm and dancers weave through the streets. The procession is accompanied by bursts of musket fire, whose sharp reports cut through the air and announce the community’s unity, courage and continuity with the past.
For residents, Akwambo is far more than a colourful parade. Families reunite, disputes are settled, and younger generations learn the stories and customs that define Agona identity.
Elders offer prayers for protection, prosperity and a fruitful season, while traditional authorities reaffirm their bond with the people they serve.
In an era of rapid urban change and migration, Akwambo remains a powerful reminder that heritage is not something stored in museums—it is something lived together in streets, shrines and family compounds.
The festival keeps memory alive while strengthening the social ties that hold the community together.
For travellers seeking a deeper understanding of Ghana beyond its beaches and castles, witnessing Akwambo offers something rare: the chance to see a tradition that is simultaneously practical, spiritual and joyfully communal.
To stand among the drummers, feel the earth tremble beneath dancing feet and watch the clay-covered procession pass by is to encounter the enduring heartbeat of Agona itself.
Festivals & Events
An Evening of Conversation and Community Awaits at LOLA Africa Liberty Mixer Night
Some of the most meaningful journeys begin not with sightseeing, but with conversation. On Sunday, August 2, Accra’s welcoming spirit will once again take center stage as professionals, changemakers, entrepreneurs, and curious visitors gather at La Villa Boutique Hotel & Soprano Restaurant for the LOLA Africa Liberty Mixer Night—an intimate evening where ideas travel as freely as friendships.
Background and Significance of the Event
Organised as the closing social event of the LOLA Africa Leadership Retreat, the mixer celebrates something that has long shaped Ghanaian society: the value of community.
Across the country, meaningful discussions often happen around shared meals, lively gatherings, and open exchanges of perspectives.
The Liberty Mixer embraces that tradition by creating a welcoming space where chapter leaders, local partners, and newcomers can meet on equal footing.
The event reflects Ghana’s growing reputation as a destination for dialogue, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement.
As Accra continues to attract innovators, investors, creatives, and members of the African diaspora, gatherings like this demonstrate that the city is becoming more than a business hub—it is also a place where networks are built through genuine human connection.
What Visitors Can Experience
Running from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the evening promises relaxed conversations in the elegant surroundings of La Villa Boutique Hotel, one of Accra’s charming boutique venues known for its tranquil atmosphere. Guests receive a complimentary welcome drink, setting the tone for an evening designed around conversation rather than formal speeches.
Visitors can expect to meet liberty-minded leaders from Ghana and across Africa, exchange ideas on leadership and social change, and learn more about the broader liberty movement. The intimate setting encourages authentic interactions, making it easy for first-time attendees to feel included.
While the programme centres on networking, the experience is enriched by Ghana’s renowned hospitality, where strangers quickly become acquaintances over refreshments and thoughtful discussion.

Why Tourists and Locals Should Attend
For international visitors, the mixer offers a rare opportunity to experience Accra beyond its famous beaches, museums, and markets. It provides insight into the city’s vibrant intellectual and entrepreneurial community while fostering meaningful cross-cultural exchanges.
For Ghanaians, the evening is a chance to reconnect with fellow professionals, discover new partnerships, and engage with ideas shaping conversations across the continent. Whether you’re a student, entrepreneur, policymaker, or simply someone eager to expand your network, the event offers an environment where dialogue takes precedence over hierarchy.
Closing
The LOLA Africa Liberty Mixer Night reminds us that travel is as much about the people we meet as the places we visit. For anyone seeking thoughtful conversation, fresh perspectives, and an authentic taste of Accra’s welcoming social culture, this gathering promises an evening well spent.
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