The Cape Coast Festival, also known as Fetu Afahye, "is a festival of the people of the Oguaa traditional area which comprises of Cape Coast and its neighboring villages such as Efutu, which used to be the capital of the original state, while Cape Coast (Oguaa) was a fishing village. Through trade with the Europeans, Cape Coast became the capital of the Oguaa state, later the seat of government for the Gold Coast, and now the capital of the Central Region of Ghana. The festival marks the beginning of the new year for the Oguaa people. It is a six week celebration with many components ranging from religion to preforming arts." Because I was in Mole, I actually missed the day where we went over the festival in more detail, so I can't really explain more about it. Basically, the festival showed that there is still traditional Ghanaian culture in these modern (and Westernizing) times.
So we had a decision to leave on Thursday or Friday and I decided to leave on Thursday despite being exhausted because I didn't want to miss out on any of the festivities. Looking back at it, I wouldn't have missed out on much. It took most of the afternoon to reach our hotel in Cape Coast because of traffic ("Lawless country!"). The hotel looked more like a palace from the outside but inside was pretty standard. That night we were supposed to see these priestesses become "possessed" and when we saw here dancing and singing, it was cool for about 10 minutes; then the novelty wore off for most of the people there. Eventually, enough people got tired of it and we were able to form a group for those who wanted to head back early.
The next day was the bull sacrifice, where a bull was led out from inside Cape Coast castle (another slave castle) to the same place where the priestess was doing her thing. The people leading the bull out had to keep whipping and hitting its hind leg to get it to consistently move, and it was all pretty harsh to witness. When the bull finally got to the shrine, a huge mob of people (mostly children) circled the area, so I couldn't see the actual slaughter, not that I really wanted to. I was able to see a pool of dark red blood once the people had cleared out and looking at pictures other people had taken, I saw the bulls slit throat, body, flesh, bones, everything you can imagine anatomically with blood just oozing out from it. Pretty gruesome indeed. In some of the pictures my friends took, you could see in its eyes the bull start to become agitated and frightened as it was at the shrine, like it knew something wasn't right. Apparently there was a sheep and a chicken that was also slaughtered. Maybe I'll get a picture from one of my friends and post it later.
After that, we were free to explore around the city and by nighttime, exhaustion from Mole set in and I feel asleep around 8 or 9 while the majority of the people went out clubbing. I ended up sleeping for around 14 hours or so. Sleep is so much better than partying, I don't understand why people undervalue it.
The next morning, we saw the procession of the local chiefs from the area walk to this park where they made speeches and organized plans for the upcoming year. Once again, it was cool for the first 10 minutes or so, the chiefs coming in on these little container things held up by four people; basically a parade atmosphere, but the novelty wore off because it just kept getting repetitive. Eventually I made my way across the crowd to the more mellow section near the castle and ended up doing some souvenir shopping. After, I went with a small group to a nearby beach where I became super lazy and did nothing, kind of like a fat cat napping in the shade. It was a nice beach with beautiful weather and hammocks, I'm sure you would do the same. Plus what beach in California has hammocks?
I returned back to the hotel from the beach around the evening and got ready to check out this party that was held at a gas station. You read that right, a party at the local gas station. Alcohol, smoking, hordes of people and gasoline certainly does make an excellent combination. Nothing blew up and it was actually pretty mellow with a live band playing decent music but again, I was over it in about 10 minutes and went back to the hotel to chill with some other people and sleep more. Can't go wrong with crazy dreams about being chased by a giant frog trying to eat me. We went back to campus the next day.
Finally, the last trip before school officially started was in the bag and I could start to prepare for my classes. I'm pretty glad I went out and did all these things because a month in and I've quickly realized how hard it is to find adequate time to travel, especially to the farther places. I strongly believe I won't be able to return to the northern part of Ghana, as well as travel up north to Burkina Faso, but I have been going to nearby places outside of Accra and I am planning a trip to Togo and Benin soon! I'll probably write a post on that trip as well as writing a post on my daily routine here soon so you guys can see what life is like as a foreign student in Ghana, and on the cuisine here, an idea given to me by my roommate. Then again, the cuisine post would probably be better with pictures, so maybe I'll save that for when I return to the states, as uploading pictures and videos is a pain here. Hopefully, all of that will come around soon and this blog will be more than words!
So we had a decision to leave on Thursday or Friday and I decided to leave on Thursday despite being exhausted because I didn't want to miss out on any of the festivities. Looking back at it, I wouldn't have missed out on much. It took most of the afternoon to reach our hotel in Cape Coast because of traffic ("Lawless country!"). The hotel looked more like a palace from the outside but inside was pretty standard. That night we were supposed to see these priestesses become "possessed" and when we saw here dancing and singing, it was cool for about 10 minutes; then the novelty wore off for most of the people there. Eventually, enough people got tired of it and we were able to form a group for those who wanted to head back early.
The next day was the bull sacrifice, where a bull was led out from inside Cape Coast castle (another slave castle) to the same place where the priestess was doing her thing. The people leading the bull out had to keep whipping and hitting its hind leg to get it to consistently move, and it was all pretty harsh to witness. When the bull finally got to the shrine, a huge mob of people (mostly children) circled the area, so I couldn't see the actual slaughter, not that I really wanted to. I was able to see a pool of dark red blood once the people had cleared out and looking at pictures other people had taken, I saw the bulls slit throat, body, flesh, bones, everything you can imagine anatomically with blood just oozing out from it. Pretty gruesome indeed. In some of the pictures my friends took, you could see in its eyes the bull start to become agitated and frightened as it was at the shrine, like it knew something wasn't right. Apparently there was a sheep and a chicken that was also slaughtered. Maybe I'll get a picture from one of my friends and post it later.
After that, we were free to explore around the city and by nighttime, exhaustion from Mole set in and I feel asleep around 8 or 9 while the majority of the people went out clubbing. I ended up sleeping for around 14 hours or so. Sleep is so much better than partying, I don't understand why people undervalue it.
The next morning, we saw the procession of the local chiefs from the area walk to this park where they made speeches and organized plans for the upcoming year. Once again, it was cool for the first 10 minutes or so, the chiefs coming in on these little container things held up by four people; basically a parade atmosphere, but the novelty wore off because it just kept getting repetitive. Eventually I made my way across the crowd to the more mellow section near the castle and ended up doing some souvenir shopping. After, I went with a small group to a nearby beach where I became super lazy and did nothing, kind of like a fat cat napping in the shade. It was a nice beach with beautiful weather and hammocks, I'm sure you would do the same. Plus what beach in California has hammocks?
I returned back to the hotel from the beach around the evening and got ready to check out this party that was held at a gas station. You read that right, a party at the local gas station. Alcohol, smoking, hordes of people and gasoline certainly does make an excellent combination. Nothing blew up and it was actually pretty mellow with a live band playing decent music but again, I was over it in about 10 minutes and went back to the hotel to chill with some other people and sleep more. Can't go wrong with crazy dreams about being chased by a giant frog trying to eat me. We went back to campus the next day.
Finally, the last trip before school officially started was in the bag and I could start to prepare for my classes. I'm pretty glad I went out and did all these things because a month in and I've quickly realized how hard it is to find adequate time to travel, especially to the farther places. I strongly believe I won't be able to return to the northern part of Ghana, as well as travel up north to Burkina Faso, but I have been going to nearby places outside of Accra and I am planning a trip to Togo and Benin soon! I'll probably write a post on that trip as well as writing a post on my daily routine here soon so you guys can see what life is like as a foreign student in Ghana, and on the cuisine here, an idea given to me by my roommate. Then again, the cuisine post would probably be better with pictures, so maybe I'll save that for when I return to the states, as uploading pictures and videos is a pain here. Hopefully, all of that will come around soon and this blog will be more than words!
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