Prampram prepares for Kpledomi festival
On April 23, this year, the people of Prampram, a fishing community east of the Ghanaian capital, Accra, will celebrate the first of three Kpledomi festivals.
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Kpone and Tema New Town are the other communities within the GaDangme tribe which celebrate Kpledo.
Ahead of this year’s festivities, the Prampram Traditional Council has announced elaborate traditional rites, including the customary pouring of libation at the Lalue shrine, to announce the official ban on drumming and noisemaking.
The Lalue is the female deity of the people of Prampram. The first celebration is therefore held to acknowledge her. The rites paved the way for the performance of the symbolic visit to the ancestral forest, huemiyami, last Monday.
The all-white ceremony, led by the various priests and priestesses, was attended by the Paramount Chief of Prampram, Nene Tetteh Wakah III, Queenmother Naa Osabu Abbey I, Asafoatsemei and Asafoanyemei, and elders from the town. For the first time in many years, other traditional leaders within the traditional area also attended the ceremony.
The presence of the other chiefs was a manifestation of the years of peace building efforts led by some of the elders. The symbolic visit to the forest, according to Numo Ayiku Obleh IV, Numlor Kpanyor or Counsellor, is to recreate the encounter the forebears had with the deity and the instructions given to them regarding the wellbeing of the town.
Numlor Kpanyor said Prampram used to be a forest, and that it was during that time the ancestors first encountered the Lalue which offered specific instructions regarding the wellbeing of the town.
The ceremony therefore was to show reverence and pray for the goodwill of the town and its people. “We come here to seek the face of God to bless the people of Prampram and its environs,” he said.
“We pray for the good of the land; for our fishermen, farmers, teachers, drivers, and any other professional to flourish in whatever they do,” he added. Contrary to what some label as ‘fetish,’ Numlor Kpanyor said what is done is not different from what other religious faith do.
He, therefore, encouraged the youth especially to be involved in their culture and history since that was what gave them an identity. Apart from the spiritual aspect of the tradition, conversations have started regarding how to use the festival to attract tourists to the town.
Prampram boasts of the oldest police station built by the Danes in 1814. The bulletproof structure is still in use. There is also the Fort Vernon built in 1742 by the Royal African Company to facilitate the transatlantic slave trade.
One of the people leading the Prampram rebranding agenda, Ronnie Akwetey Botchwey, said the town had not sold itself enough to the outside world. “ Ghana has become the focal point for foreign visitors and I believe as one of the towns where European merchants used as a trade route, the time has come for us to leverage on that rich history, and I believe the festival offers us that unique opportunity.”
The second and third celebrations will take place on April 30 and May 7.
