Enjoying Aboakyere Festival – The Deer Hunting Adventure!

Ever heard of the Deer Hunting Adventure of its own unique kind! This may sound strange, but it is true indeed. Book cheap flights to Accra soon and be ready to witness the exciting Aboakyere Festival which you might haven’t seen at all. This grand festival, also popularly known as the ‘Deer Hunting Adventure’, is held in the month of May every year. It is Ghana’s major event held in Winneba, about 17 miles from Accra. This is a significant event for Effutus (people of Winneba) and draws a large number of tourists to Accra from world over every year.

The word “Aboakyere” (in Akan dilect), after which Aboakyere Festival has been named, literally means catching of animal. This festival is unique in the whole world as a deer or antelope is hunted with bare hands without the traditional use of weapons of any kind whatsoever. The hunters form two groups – Twifo and Dentsifo. Both these groups set out on deer hunting adventure separately. The groups engage into a stiff competition and try hard to defeat one another by hunting the deer first and bringing it to the chief.

The unique part of this festival is that the deer has to be hunted without any weapons and shouldn’t get hurt in any way. The deer has to be literally chased down and caught with bare hands thus displaying the prowess, speed and strength of the hunter. If the deer is first caught by the Twifo group and brought to the chief then it means that there would be abundant food that year. However, if the deer is caught by the Dentsifo group first then there would be plenty of fish that year. The contest finally concludes in the durbar grounds in the presence of tourists, dignitaries, the chiefs and their subjects amid beating of drums and singing. This is a must-watch event.