Homowo: Significance of holy corn, feeding gods of Ga state

The Chiefs and people of Nungua last Sunday marked this year’s Djenten Nishwamo, a pre-Homowo rite performed to usher in the celebrations of the historical Homowo festival celebrated across the entire Ga state.

The Regent of the Nungua Mankralo Stool, Nii Bortey Kofi Frankwa II, who played an active role in the performance of the rite, told the Daily Graphic in an interview last Wednesday that the rite was performed to ‘’feed the gods of the Ga state’’ as a prerequisite for the celebration of the annual Homowo festival.

“The celebrations do not begin until this rite and others are performed so now the way is clear for the celebrations to begin across the entire Ga state,” he said.

According to Nii Frankwa, legend has it that the rite cleanses the Kpokpoi that would be prepared subsequently for the Homowo feast.

“It ensures that the Kpokpoi that would be eaten during the festival was devoid of any interest of the gods aside their blessing,” he said.

Cleansing

The people who prepare the dish, he said, were barred from talking but were permitted to use sign language to communicate during the entire cooking process.

He explained that when the dish was prepared and the all-important rite began, six elderly priestesses from the Oofu Wulomo shrine and the Gborba Shrine sat in a demarcated area which represented the Gborbu sacred groove where the rites begin.

No other person aside from those permitted by the Gborbu Wolomo-Shitse is allowed into the demarcated area, according to Nii Frankwa II.

He said the Oofu Wulomo would then carry the dish in a clay pot in his arms and the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse would sprinkle it with his fingers at the shrines of all the 99 gods of Nungua.

Holy Corn

Nii Frankwa II noted that before the Djenten Nishwamo would be possible, there was a significant exercise that involved a pilgrimage to Oyibi from Nungua on foot that needed to be completed.

That exercise, he said, was known as the ‘Abele Womor’ corn fetching journey.

“Abele Womor (Holy Corn) depicts the journey our forefathers made when they were plagued by hunger and had to move from the land of the Hebrews in Israel to Egypt in search of food,” he said.

Significance

The Homowo festival, which signifies hooting at hunger, is centred around this legend.

He said the people of Nungua were tasked to perform that significant exercise of carrying the holy corn (a generational crop believed to have been brought from Egypt), wrapped in a white calico, from Oyibi where it is sourced at 4 a.m. to Nungua for the preparation of the meal used for the rites.

“There are 14 main participants in the exercise, one of them carries the corn while another carries the Shaamitso (a special wood used in the ritual in the Gborbu Grove where the corn is sourced) and a leaf is placed on the lips of the participants who are forbidden to look right, left or behind once they embark on the journey while they are followed by the 12 main disciples who keep them company,” he said.

The 12 people, according to history, are believed to represent the 12 tribes of Israel from which the Ga people migrated to their present homeland.

“They journey through the legendary Pinkwai forest in the historic town of Katamanso through Santeo, Borteyman and across the Tema Motorway and into Baatsonaa, Addo-Gonno and finally into the Nungua township.

“Usually when the team arrives at Baatsonaa, they are thronged by the public, including traditional leaders, priests and priestesses who join the final lap of the pilgrimage into the Nungua township,” he said.

He said the participants then proceeded to Kpowulonor, the original home of the founder of Nungua, Nuumo Borketey Larweh, where the Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse received the ‘holy corn’ and the participants back home.

The Gborbu Wulomo-Shitse is assisted by the Nungua Mantse, Nungua Makralo, the Nungua Wuoleiatse and other traditional office holders to receive the ‘holy corn’ before it is used to prepare the meal.

Centre of the world

Nii Frankwa II also indicated that long before the Greenwich Meridian was established by ageement as the point of zero longitude in 1884, the leader of the first Ga settelers in present day Ghana, Wo Kono Numo Bokete Lawweh, had identified the spot as a sacred place that divides the earth into two.

“He initiated some rites for the Anum, the Meridian Rock at that spot in the 13th century and introduced other rites later,” he said.

He said two of such rites are awhitsemo (invocation of all the deities in Ga land) and the Djenten.

“Djenten Nishwamo is two Ga words put together and it means Sprinkling holy meal at the centre of the earth,” he said.