Covid-19 and the Celebration of the Fetu Afahye Festival in Ghana

被引:1
作者
Assanful, Vincent [1 ]
Boakye, Peter [2 ]
机构
[1] Univ Cape Coast, Dept Relig & Human Values, Cape Coast, Ghana
[2] Univ Cape Coast, Dept Hist, Cape Coast, Ghana
关键词
Covid-19; festivals; celebration; traditional leaders; Ghana;
D O I
10.1163/15700666-12340194
中图分类号
Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
030303 ;
摘要
Festivals are important occasions that African societies have used to bring members together to foster unity and forge development of the communities. Traditional leaders also use festival to propitiate the ancestral spirits and deities to help dispel evil in the society. Throughout the year, festivals and durbars are held in various parts of the country for reunions and developmental purposes, and to the strengthen beliefs of the society. Festivals help the community and people to forge a closer bond with their ancestors and to ask for their protection. Festivals are also held in order to purify the whole state so that people can enter the New Year with confidence and hope. This paper, uses newspapers, interviews, major secondary works and articles on the internet as a source of data. It also uses qualitative and phenomenological methods to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the celebration of the Fetu Afahye festival among the people of Cape Coast (Oguaa) in Ghana. The advent of the pandemic in Ghana altered the lives of the people in the traditional society since it led to the cancellation of the celebration of their festivals. The paper also examines how the non-observance of such festivals, especially the Fetu Afahye, impacted the ritual lives of the people. The paper concludes that even though a ban was placed on the celebration of festivals, due to its significance the traditional leaders found a way to perform the rituals associated with them in the face of the pandemic. This was done in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the sacred and to give the members in the community a sense of identity.
引用
收藏
页码:328 / 343
页数:16
相关论文
共 18 条
  • [1] Ablordeppy Doe S., 2020, THE DAILY GRAPHIC
  • [2] Amoh Rosaland K., 2020, THE DAILY GRAPHIC
  • [3] [Anonymous], 2016, TRADITION CHANGE GHA
  • [4] Awolalu J. O., 2005, W AFRICA TRADITIONAL
  • [5] Calvis T., 2020, OGUAA TRADITIONAL CO
  • [6] Duncan J., 2020, 2 CASES CORONAVIRUS
  • [7] Jaeger K., 2013, Event Management, V17, P213, DOI 10.3727/152599513X13708863377791
  • [8] Kuo Rei-Lin, 2020, COVID 19 1 DOCUMENTE, P328
  • [9] Kwarteng K. O., 2018, MEMORIES REPRESENTAT, P145
  • [10] Kyei Yaw, 2020, GHANAIAN TIMES 0420