Ablekuma Celebrates This Year's Homowo With A Strong Warning To Chieftaincy Troublemakers
The festival has drawn people home from across Ghana and abroad, as they celebrate family and acknowledge ancestors and those who have passed.
Freeman Koryekpor 
THE ABLEKUMA in the Ga State of the Greater Accra Region was alive on Saturday September 2, 2023 as the traditional rulers, royal families and residents clad in red to celebrate this year's annual Homowo festival and eat the Ga traditional food, Kpokpoi.
The festival has drawn people home from across Ghana and abroad, as they celebrate family and acknowledge ancestors and those who have passed.
The Homowo Festival, which means hooting at hunger, is celebrated by the Ga-Dangmes in Greater Accra Region.
Huge bowls of Kpokpoi and palm nut soup are made and then sprinkled around Ablekuma to signify gratitude to the gods for blessing them with harvest.
The Soireenews.com joined the procession on Saturday as the royals visited houses through the area.
The royals and some residents clad in red cloth and saw the chief sprinkling ‘kpokpoi’ a traditional dish at only limited sacred places in the family home due to the demised of the Paramount Queen-mother (Ga Manye) of th Ga State, Naa Dedei Omaedru III, who reigned for 59 years.
The rituals were performed amidst the pouring of libation, eating of the traditional meal which has characterised for reunion of family members and friends.
The cheif of Ablekuma and Sempeh Atofotse, Nii Larbi Mensah V, speaking exclusively to media explained that the festival was celebrated to remember the famine which once happened in the history of Gas that began with the planting of maize which was used to prepare the Ga traditional food known as Kpokpoi.
He stressed that the sprinkling of the meal was done to show gratitude to the gods and ancestors for a bountiful harvest.
The chief called for peace and unity among the Ablakuma people in particular and that of Ga State in general, adding that, development could only be achieved on the basis of peace and unity.
He said the goodwill of the people throughout the phases of the festival showed that the people were prepared to ensure that the ancestral heritage of the Homowo was not always marked with pomp and pageantry but was also given the needed impetus to become can event on the international cultural calendar.
He used the opportunity to warn those impersonating using the Ablekuma Stool name to extort monies from innocent people.
For his part, the Asafoatse of Ablekuma Stool, OTOBUO ONSUROGYA urged the indigenes to use this year's Homowo festival to showcase peace and unity.
He stressed the need for all and sundry to rally behind the chief for God's interventions and resolution of the minor chieftaincy disputes to safeguard the people and called for the ancestors and God’s blessings upon their lives.
The Omankralo of Ablekuma Nii Osaka ll, called on the youth to respect the elders in the society and also appealed for resolution of all chieftaincy disputes to ensure peaceful coexistence of the people in the area.
"We all have to bury our difference because the the people of Ablekuma need peaceful environment and development," the Ga traditional ruler stressed.
