Yesterday marked the beginning of the new fishing season in Elmina. To celebrate (because in Ghana, we always celebrate!), the local villages have a five-day festival called Edina Bakatue. The opening ceremonies were yesterday, the first Tuesday in July. Basically, all of the local chiefs and chief priests and priestesses, etc., travel to Elmina for the festival, which starts with a parade into town. Each chief was carried into town on the heads of members of that village, and as they traveled into town, locals would run up and pour wine or wave cloths at their feet. We caught up with the parade and followed it toward the lagoon, where the ceremonies took place. I attached a video of one of the chief's posse celebrating as they carried him in the parade. (I hope it works..)
The parade emptied into the lagoon area. We managed to perch ourselves on the front of a huge, parked, fishing boat that overlooked the lagoon. While the crowd waited for the chiefs to sacrifice food to thank the water for providing food, locals had canoe races and the people drove boats around that represented each village. We waited for a looong time for the ceremony to start. Thinking it would be a bit more of a wait, I went with some girls to go get a drink. We asked our friend to give us a call if anything was happening. In 10 minutes, she called to say it was all over and she was coming to find us. Apparently, the actual ceremony wasn't that long, and just consisted of the priests casting fishing nets into the lagoon three times. If the nets catch fish all three times, it's believed to be an omen for a good season. It's going to be a good time here in Elmina, because they caught fish all three times. Heading home, we got caught in the parade exiting the lagoon, which had replaced the chiefs with brass bands and "merry" Ghanaians, who by this point, had been celebrating all day.
Music from the festival blasted long into the night, but all was back to normal on our run this morning. We did see some people cleaning up their yards, which reminded me of the crews cleaning up Court Street in Athens on November 1st every year. We had a great time, even if I did manage to get a royal sunburn and found myself trapped in a party boy circle (I'll let you Google that on your own if you don't know what it is...) I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of the local traditions - this festival has been happening for hundreds of years. A town that at times seems pretty Westernized was rich in heritage yesterday, a reminder that I am definitely still in Africa.
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