This Festival is celebrated by the people of Simpa or Winneba in the Central Region of Ghana.
The festival is a celebration to mark the migration of these people from the ancient Western Sudan Empire where they were led by 2 brothers and a god called Otu. Upon consulting their god, they were instructed by their traditional priest or mediator between the people and the god to sacrifice a young member of the Royal family every year to their god.
This was not good news so they made an appeal to their god who asked for an animal from the wild cat family to be caught alive and beheaded before the god.
Before the festival began they settled the god at a place called Penkye hence the god became Penkyi Otu. When the people went out to hunt down the wild cat they lost so many men before capturing it alive. This caused the second appeal. Penkyi Otu decided to accept a mature bush buck this looks like a deer.
The people of Simpa sang this story in their war chants and told it during moonlit nights. It was kept and protected till it could be written in English for all to read.
Today, the Aboakyir festival is celebrated in May each year and is a major event in Ghana and the Common festival in Ghana.
Source: The African Network
