The just-ended Aboakyer Festival has been certified by many analysts and culturally-inclined individuals as unprecedented.
This verdict is hinged on how successful the festival has been in terms of the number of people who attended, the manner in which the festival was held and the unity that characterized the whole celebration.
Though many have made it a ritual to travel to Winneba to feast their eyes on the colourful festival and even participate in some of its activities, the number of people who trooped to Effutu for this year’s Aboakyer more than doubled.
Winneba and it’s surrounding towns and villages were buzzing with so many people that the indigenes were overwhelmed by the development. The local market got boosted by the large population that participated in the festival.
Of much significance is the participation of the two main Asafo groups that took part in the festival for the first time in so many years. Since 2010, Aboakyer has been mostly celebrated by either the Tuafo Asafo Company (Whites) or the Dentsefo Asafo Company (Reds). The two were not celebrating the festival together due to many reasons.
Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin set to change this phenomenon by bringing the two gates together so as to celebrate the festival as a united people.
He invited the two groups to his residence in Winneba for a unity talk and successfully got the two gates to see the need to remain united in all things including participating in the Aboakyer celebrations.
That engagement some months ago yielded fruits as the two gates who had not celebrated Aboakyer since 2010, took part in the 2022 Aboakyer by embarking on a hunting expedition for a deer to climax the festival.
Apart from Afenyo-Markin’s influential role in brokering unity between the two Asafo groups which was seen in the celebration of the festival, he also affected the festival in another way.
The ECOWAS Parliament in 2021 which he lobbied to be held in Effutu was another selling point of Effutu’s culturally rich Aboakyer. More foreigners from other areas, especially, Europe and America, visited Winneba to witness the Aboakyer.
In effect, the success story of the 2022 Aboakyer Festival can be attributed to the consistent, deliberate and strenuous efforts of Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, the Honourable Member of Parliament for Effutu. Afenyo-Markin is an emblem of unity as demonstrated in this year’s Aboakyer Festival.
