Creativity, surprises, ingenuity, and enthusiasm have been the real experience at the 2022 edition of the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC) currently taking place in Cape Coast.
Consequently, there is no end in sight for the entertainment and excitement characterising the biennial festival, which is expected to end on Friday, December 16, 2022.
Word on the street after the spectacular performances by the Western, Oti and Upper East Regions last Sunday was that “it may not get higher than this.”
The Western North, Northern, Volta and Bono East Regions raised the bar several feet higher on Monday afternoon through to the evening, with series of sensational festival simulations and indigenous dances when they took their turns at the national event.
The various troops turned many heads and kept the audience at the edge of their seats as these regions displayed their cherished cultures.
It was all applause and cheers until the last performance of the day which the audience wished never ended.
The Modest Dance Group from Sefwi Chirano in the Western North Region set the ball rolling with the “Dansuom” cultural dance in their predominantly yellow, black, and white multi-coloured outfits.
The performance featured all groups of ages including children as young as five years and the aged who danced to amazing sounds of drumming and singing.
Alongside the display, a story was told of a hunter who discovered monkeys playing melodious music with a calabash capsized in water in the 1960s.
The hunter sent the idea home when he fetched water into a basin and capsized a calabash in it.
He then beat the calabash with his hands to produce a melodious sound which was later developed into a traditional rhythm and dance of the Sefwi people known as “Dansuom.”
The euphoria at the Adisadel School Park grew even stronger when the Yamgari Naa Yili Cultural Troupe, the resident troop for Northern Regional Centre for National Culture (CNC) took their turn.
Draped in the traditional fugu outfit, the all-men group turned, twisted, struck metallic rods and shook hands as they did the Takai dance with drumming and singing.
At this point, Mion Sabaa Naa Inusah Amidu who could not contain his excitement was forced out of his seat by the inspiring performance to demonstrate his dancing skills amid cheers from the Ministers of State and the audience gathered.
The Takai dance is a royal dance which promotes unity.
The troupe returned later with a second dance, ‘Jera,’ a thanksgiving dance usually to celebrate bumper harvest.
The name of the troop, “Yamgari Naa” translates as “wiser than the king” and they can perform nearly every traditional dance in Ghana.
As a model group, they train many institutions including schools and have visited several countries across the world to perform.
Before long, the Volta Region followed with a sensational display of the Adevu (hunting drum), a hunters’ dance by the Lume Adevu Troupe, from Lume, in the Ho Municipality.
With fantastic props – buckets and sacks with planted trees for forest, a plastic cheetah for wild animal, and muskets for guns, the hunters served a dramatic simulation.
Adevu is performed to celebrate and hail the bravery of hunters who use supernatural powers to kill wild animals that go into the community to harm women and children.
Dziedzorm New Generation Borborbor Group from the region also came to fan the flames with another thrilling display.
Borborbor is a recreational dance that is performed mainly for entertainment but in recent times, it is performed at funerals to assuage the pain of the bereaved.
Almost as if the best was saved for the last, an incredible simulation of Nkoranza Sessiman’s Fokuo Festival by the Bono East CNC resident group, ‘Bonokyempem Agofomma’ took the euphoria to another level.
The energy-filled drama which used fantastic props to aptly mimic the actual festival and tell a vivid story, received cheers and applause at every move of muscle by the group.
The festival is celebrated annually in the month of February by the chiefs and people of Nkoranza Sessiman in the Nkoranza Traditional Area to remember and honour the “Ntoa god” in Sessiman for its supportive role in their war of conquest.
It also signifies the strength and unity of the people of Nkoranza to fight for a common goal.
The Bonokyempem Agofomma aims to preserve and promote the Akan culture in the Bono Region.
NAFAC, Ghana’s biggest cultural festival is celebrated every two years on rotational basis to provide a platform to showcase the diversity and richness in the country’s ethnic and regional cultures to stimulate peace and unity.
This year’s celebration, which also marks the 60th anniversary of the festival is on the theme: “Reviving Patriotism, Peace and Unity through Cultural Diversity for Sustainable Development.”
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo opened the festival last Saturday.
Later, on Tuesday, the Upper West, Ahafo, Eastern and North East regions will take their turns to project their rich cultural heritage.
