Case Study: Papa Nantwie Festival

My compatriot Nii Bannerman has written numerous times here on Ghana Home Page (www.ghanaweb.com) to expound upon many of the negative aspects of Ghana’s institution of chieftaincy, so I am not going to revisit or rehash the same old issues about the general wrongs and backwardness associated with chieftaincy and its many practices. Instead, I am going to just talk about one particular practice of chieftaincy from one particular area in Ghana, as an example of what continues to ail us as a people of enormous potential and resources harboring regressive and unexplained ideals based on outdated customs and tradition.

Just this past weekend, there was a festival held by Kumawuhene (chief of Kumawu) and the sub chiefs/elders of Kumawu –Ashanti Region traditional area. Incidentally, one of the former sub chiefs from the area, “James,” resigned his seat as a chief a couple of years back in direct protest against this very festival. This festival is called Papa Nantwie. The two day weekend festival (Saturday thru Sunday) has a lot of the same revelry, fun activities (e.g. a dance competition) and showcase of custom and tradition that you will find elsewhere in Ghana from any festival. But the main attraction of this festival revolves around the cutting of a bull or male cow’s meat (hence the name, “nantwie,” meaning “cow” in the Akan language spoken by the people of Kumawuman), which is done on the last day, Sunday. As found from the website for one of the towns in the Kumawu traditional area, the festival is described as follows:

“Only few citizens of the Kumawu traditional area can partake in the meat cutting part of the festival. Visitors go to the festival only to watch it. Cutlasses, knives and sticks are used to discourage or intimidate any person who intends to cut the meat. Anyone with courage, strength and bravery who is able to cut a piece despite the intimidation is considered to be a brave son of Kumawuman (people of Kumawu).”

Reference: www.bodomase.com/festivals/indexfestival.html

As a point of correction from the above website, the machetes and other weapons used by participants of the festival serve not just for mere harassing, bullying and entertainment purposes. These tools of violence, in addition to human hands, feet and other unmentionables, are actively used by participants to harm individuals who dare partake in some of this “heavenly” meal. During the most recent festival that took place this past weekend, a number of individuals were seriously abused and injured, with one person even losing his life at the hands of these machetes, knives, rocks, and sticks wielding selected few whose sole mission is to not allow persons of non “royal” descendant to get a piece of the aforementioned meat—all for the sake of fun and tradition. This victim profusely bled from the merciless wounds imposed by the “cutters” and died the next day in the hospital with no person to be blamed for his untimely death. There was only this one known fatality at this year’s festival, but that is one death too many. Who even knows the still yet untold and unpredictable number of people who are still recovering from injuries that could lead to possibly more deaths?

In another incident, I am told of a young man who took some meat and apparently ran for cover to the wrong place—an area reserved for the police and law enforcement personnel employed to watch over the festival. These “protectors of the community,” entranced by the euphoria of the abusing festivities, rather than shielding this gentleman from further harm instead decided to also “participate” by beating the young man ceaselessly to a pulp. Isn’t it ironic and quite sad indeed that these men of law who were at the festival to protect the interest and safety of the defenseless turned out to be the source of this man’s most serious harm and ultimate undoing?

I know and some will argue that other parts of the world may also have similar festivals of gore and mayhem, but does that excuse or make such practices as performed in Ghana anymore justified? The Running of the Bulls, as part of the Fiesta of San Fermin—done annually in Pamplona, Spain—can be used as an example of another festival from a different part of world that brings about the same sort of risk, harm and possible casualties. But the obvious glaring difference between the Running of the Bulls and Papa Nantwie is that one involves man against beast while the other evidently is of man against himself. There is no deliberate human on human inflictions practiced in the Running of the Bulls as is the unfortunate case with the Papa Nantwie festival. I am all for some merrymaking, but can’t forward-thinking leaders for such a festival provide a creative alternative and safer means for their citizens to have fun and show bravery (such as walking on burning charcoal as a requirement on one’s way to get some of the revered meat) instead of these “officially” approved intentional beatings?

What purpose did these senseless beatings and killing truly serve when our people are looking for viable solutions to our mounting development and social problems? The town and area of Kumawu, like everywhere else in Ghana, has a lot to aspire (www.kumawu.com), and yet this festival is what is deemed to be of importance to the town’s “royal” caretakers. The supposed purpose of this festival is community building and development (a fund raising effort, one would like to believe) for the Kumawu traditional area. Where is the apparent community spirit when people (mostly the very poor and obviously voiceless) are being harmed just for a chance to get food off from some dead animal? How does such a festival foster bonding within the community when families are being torn apart as a result of such meaningless killings? If chieftaincy is supposed to be a noble institution, as its supporters would like for us to believe, then how do a people of an apparent superior ethics and moral repute (the “royals”) advocate, sanction and justify the beatings and killings of their own kind—all merely just for some laughs and fun in the name of some obsolete tradition?

I am dead tired of hearing my fellow Ghanaians making excuses to defend some of our practices and ways that we know (or at least should know) are obviously wrong. Should we forever continue to pursue these old and ridiculous acts just because they were somehow a part of our past? I am sure the many spectators and various onlookers at the festival found it quite amusing while people were being sliced and diced in their vain attempt to just get some of the supposedly precious meat. This vigilante and mob mentality that some of us Ghanaians harbor in our warped minds has to stop, once and for all. Those killed in this festival were not some feared armed robbers. These were people trying to participate in something that should have been fun, wholesome and productive towards community pride and development. They deserve not to have paid with their bodies and lives for the sake of some piece of meat. Are we a people of common sense, logic, and compassion or merely a bunch of heartless court jesters with unexplained animalistic tendencies? I don’t find it funny at all when people are being harmed and dying because of such a foolish and sinful practice in the name of tradition. In Ghana, our people cry for days and days when one of our loved ones dies, but do we truly value human life and appreciate it when people are still living? It seems that at times that we esteem the dead more than those of us who are alive (hence, the general populace’s preoccupied fixation and obsession with funerals attendance and such).

What happened at the closing of this festival this past weekend (Sunday, March 25, 2007) is outright barbaric and criminal. In this modern age, why are we still allowing such practices as those exhibited at this Papa Nantwie festival to continue to exist in our beloved country? These tragic events at this year’s festival are unfortunately not the first of their kind or of isolated incidents. The festival and some of its participants continue to needlessly abuse its own people and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future unless people of social conscience rise up to take some positive and punitive course of actions. Who is going to grieve for the families who were affected by these horrendous acts of man’s inhumanity against his own? Who is going to pay for the cost of health care, hospital stay, funeral expenditure etc. for the people who were hurt or died needlessly as result of this archaic festival? What do you say to the surviving family members and children of those who were maimed or killed? “We are sorry but since your son, brother, father, uncle was not of royal blood, his life has no meaning so mutilating and killing him is of no consequence”? These families affected need some answers and accountability, and they need them now.

I implore DCE Mr. Philipp Basoah and MP Mr.Yaw Baah and other civic leaders in Kumawuman to act expediently and swiftly by investigating and bringing to justice a case against those culprits who participated in these baseless daylight dismembering and death of the innocent. No stone should be unturned and all who are culpable should be prosecuted to the fullest of the letter of the law, regardless of one's economic status or social standing (“royal” blood or no “royal” blood). Such an injustice should not be happening in today’s Ghana. If we say and profess to be a people of civility, but yet continue to condone such actions, then what really are we? Animals? Laughingstocks—in the eyes of the rest of the “modern” world? Ghanaman, we now live in a global village and world is watching us. Please, lets learn from our mistakes and change our ways and practices that are not good for us and our fellow human beings.