FESTIVAL BRINGS RELIGIONS TOGETHER (MIRROR, [PAGE 36)

From George Folley Quaye, Wa

Festivals in Ghana are usually associated with religious beliefs . However, one festival which embraces all religious denominations is the Zumbenti Festival.
Celebrated by the chiefs and people of the Kaleo Traditional Area in the Upper West Region, the festival is devoid of religious and cultural barriers, hence it is recognised by both traditional worshippers and persons of orthodox religions such as Christians and Moslems.
For the Moslems on one hand, Zumbenti is a period of revelations of the future when various efforts are made to forecast the good and bad omens that lie ahead and to offer necessary prayers and rituals to seek what is good for the people.
For the traditionalists, Zumbenti is a period of anxiety when efforts are made to read the skies and the moon to predict the future, Community leaders and elders are subsequently informed of the findings and advised on possible means of averting dangers through rituals and change of behaviour.
Young men and women are also cautioned on what to expect if certain unwarranted forms of social behaviour are not curtailed.
In essence, Zumbenti is a period of forecasting the future and making the necessary efforts to avert dangers that are ahead.
Beyond this however, Zumbenti is also a period of reconciliation and all those who wronged others have the opportunity to say sorry during this period. It is a reconciliatory period that brings luck and therefore marriages contracted and children brought forth during this period are deemed to be lucky ones.
Zumbenti, is also an occasion when people get close to their ancestors and dead relatives.
Information gathered revealed that during the festival, a guinea fowl or hen or a liver of a cow is cooked without pepper together with "Tuozaafi" served in a calabash and kept on the family's drinking pot overnight for dead relatives.
In the morning of the second day the food is turned upside down to check if their relatives had eaten it. If they fail to see any perforation under the "tuozaafi" it is deemed that they have done something against their ancestors or dead relatives and would immediately seek the esoteric knowledge and attention of a soothsayer for redress.
On the other hand, if the perforations are seen, they become happy because it is a manifestation that the relationship between them and their ancestors is still cordial.
In the morning of the festival, all those who are responsible and capable of performing their obligations slaughter cattle and the meat is sold on liberal credit terms.
Buyers take the meat and only pay up on the appearance of the new moon, that is, in three weeks' time as a relief.
Addressing this year's festival, the Paramount Chief of the Traditional Area, Naa Sand Bananwini II, in a speech read on his behalf, said it was the desire of the Chiefs and people of the area to work towards institution, maintaining and sustaining the festival as an annual affair in the coming years.
He used the occasion to appeal for more infrastructural facilities for the area.
For his part, the Regional Minister, Mr George Hikah Benson, gave the assurance that, the government would continue providing amenities in all parts of this country.