Cape Coast Festival

This past weekend we took a trip to Cape Coast for the annual festival Fetu Afahye.  It included different events like the sacrifice of the bull, procession of the chiefs, and (as dubbed in our informational papers) “dancing and merrymaking in clubs, streets, and open spaces”! Haha couldn’t get over that one.

Seeing the chiefs was by far one of the best parts of the weekend because it really showed a more traditional cultural aspect of Ghana that I haven’t been able to really see much since I’m living in a more developed area.

Although women have gained more rights and higher status levels in certain sectors, there are still some traditional gender issues that remain represented in a lot of the culture.  As the processional continued and I noticed a few of the chiefs were actually women!

 

There were creepy clowns everywhere that went around asking for money.  Needless to say I avoided them at all costs.  Still, they managed to sneak up on us during the parade.

 

Another performer asking for money was this dancer.  He was doing some type of dance and we didn’t understand why he kept bringing a flag over to all of the obrunis (white people), but then after Felicia was chosen, we realized it meant he was asking for a donation.  Felicia was not pleased.

There were tons of people packed into the streets and it was a fantastic sight to see.  Plus, hearing more Ghanaian drumming is always a pleasure.  I included a couple videos below!

 

After the processional, we headed to Victoria Park for some food and shopping.  I was pretty tired so I ended up finding a nice spot in the shade next to a live band.  They ended up being AWESOME and also comprised mainly of WOMEN! YEEEE (It’s funny how much more noticeable my feminism is here than when I’m back in SB)

Later that night, I had some great girl talk time with Felicia, Acacia, and Veronica who are all quickly becoming some of my very good friends.  The only reason why I felt the need to add this was to show the monstrosity that was Acacia’s hair after I was through with it...MWAHAHAHA

 

Almost forgot!  We went to a restaurant close to our hotel and luckily they were playing the Black Stars v. Swaziland game so I got to watch it.  Afterwards, there was a group on stage giving away free shirts if you went up and answered a question, so obviously I did (We all know how much I love my free shirts).  I got up and they asked me to tell them about Solar Power.  As an Environmental Studies major, I was stoked!