a man carrying a tied up deer on his head with another man escorting him through the streets

Aboakyer: the Deer Hunting Festival of Winneba

Posted on by Christine

Every year, the first weekend of May, my city’s population of 70,000 swells, the restaurants get a fresh coat of paint and temporarily expand, and the tents go up for impromptu, mobile shops to sell whatever it is they have as inventory. It the weekend of the Aboakyer (pronounced uh-BAW-chay) festival in Winneba, and it is definitely a raucously good time.

The Guan People

The Aboakyer festival is a part of the Guan people’s heritage and culture. The majority of the Central Region, and stretching a bit beyond, is and has historically been the domain of the Fante people. Winneba is a small, cultural island of the Guan people, who migrated here. While Fante is a part of the Akan family, and thus the Fante language is mutually intelligible with other Akan languages, like Twi, the Guan people are not a part of the Akans, and the Effutu language, which is spoken by the Guans in Winneba, is not understood by Twi or Fante speakers.

Legends of the Aboakyer Festival

It is believed that the Guan’s migration to the area was through the benevolence of their deity, Penkye Otu. In order to honor their god, the Guans would annually sacrifice a member of the royal family, but as the royal line began to diminish, the people asked to substitute a leopard instead.

Pekye Otu agreed, and for a while a live leopard was caught and offered to the god. However, the expedition for the leopard was still rather costly in terms of human lives, and so once again, the people asked to substitute a deer.

The deer was also accepted, either because it’s spotted markings are similar to a leopard’s or because the blood of the deer is similar to a leopard’s, which is also similar to human’s blood.

Aboakyer Festival Events

Parading the Gods

The festival begins in the week leading up to the weekend of the deer hunt, and includes parading the icons of Penkye Otu around the town, bringing it to sacred places around the town to bring fortune to the hunters. Of course, there is also all kinds of merry-making in the forms of singing and dancing, eating and drinking.

Three men, before the parading of the icon through the town.
A man clears the way for the icon to be paraded through the streets.
The deity icon, on top of the man’s head, being paraded around town for Aboakyer.

The Deer Hunt

There are two clans among the Guans of Winneba: the Dentsifo and the Tuafo. During Aboakyer, they are friendly rivals, as it is a bit of a contest to see which clan will catch the deer first.

They each set off to their respective hunting grounds early in the morning, after being blessed by the headmen and shamans. No weapons, other than clubs and sticks are used to catch the deer, as it must be brought back alive.

When one group catches a deer, everyone returns for it to be presented to the headmen and shamans, before being paraded through the streets and ultimately ending at Penkye Otu’s shrine. There are different beliefs for what happens in the coming year depending on who catches the deer, ranging from there being plenty of fish or plenty vegetables to it being a year of peace and prosperity or being a year of war and famine.

A man, returning from the deer hunt.
A group of men returning from the hunt and entering the durbar.
Women clamoring to get a glimpse of the deer as it’s brought into the durbar.
The deer, still alive, being paraded through the streets, on its way to the shrine and to be sacrificed.
Drumming and celebrating in the streets.

After arriving at the shrine, rites are performed and the deer is sacrificed for Penkye Otu, and the meat is left in the shrine for the god.