22/12/2023
Christmas at Abiriw
The Christmas season was a very happy period. It coincided with the annual traditional festival of the people of Abiriw. Abiriw (Abiri) is the last but one town on the Akuapem Ridge to celebrate its festival called Eba, before the people of Mamfe celebrate their Ohum to bring down the curtain on traditional festivals in Akuapem for each year.
The period would always see huge numbers of indigenes of Abiriw (Abiri) coming back home from towns and villages far and near to join their kinsmen in celebrations and to see to outstanding family matters. Traditionally, the people of Abiriw (Abiri), and most Akuapems for that matter, had been settler farmers. Those who were not farmers went into teaching with some of the teachers going into ministry in the Church. In those days that meant the Presbyterian Church.
The farmers tended to live in small settlements dotted all over the country, some as far as the Wassa and Sefwi areas. Indeed, on one occasion I travelled with my father to Opponso Kese in the Wassa area of the Western Region to visit some relatives and also to inspect some lands he had an interest in. We travelled by train and I remember the train making a stop at Huni Valley. I have always wondered what happened to those relatives since I do not remember them coming back home (to Abiri). They seemed to settle well in Wassa and Sefwi.
Those relatively closer to home have their settlements (known as “akuraa’’) at places near Koforidua and Suhum, in the Eastern Region. This is the reason why some of us have always insisted that the litmus test for being a purebred Akuapem is whether you can name a village or “akuraa” your grandparents or great-grandparents had.
Every true Akuapem has an “akuraa” whether he or she has ever been there or not. My father had two “akuraas” at Nyerede, near Koforidua and Saforosua, near Suhum. He was more attached to Nyerede and I believe I am the only one among my siblings who went there with him once. My mother’s “akuraa” is Ayite, near Suhum, which I also visited once, for two nights. I stayed with my cousins Kwadwo Opare and Kwaku Asamani. It was at Ayite, that I first saw at firsthand how palm wine is tapped from the palm tree.
Happy days during the EBA festival
It was a joy seeing the Abiriw (Abiri) indigenes living in “nkuraase” (villages) come home in what was known as mammy trucks. When the vehicles (Mummy Trucks) pulled up at the centre of the town, loved ones would rush to embrace their relatives and help them send their belongings home. The items they usually bring include firewood for cooking, sheep, goats, and fowls.
Some of the “mammy trucks” had inscriptions like “Nyame bekyerɛ” (God will make a way) and “Nya Asɛm hwɛ” (adversity reveals true friends) on the wooden bodies of the vehicles. Drumming and singing usually emanate from these vehicles, signalling the approach of the Eba Fever.
The evenings had a carnival atmosphere. Since there was no electricity in those days, lamps were used. Various groups, from Abiriw Nkuraase (Villages) such as Abame, Amanase, Asikasu, Ayite, Atwerɛdɛ, Bediasi, Budu, Ɔberetema Bɛtease, Kokotease, Konko, Kwaahyia, Kakoase-Nkuraakan Nyerɛdɛ, Pɔtrase Saforosua, Tetekaasom, among others, would congregate by the roadsides and be drumming, singing and dancing. There was a sense of community among the people.
Ref: Memoirs from the HillTop.
(By Kofi Otutu Adu Labi)
