It is estimated that over 2000 people both home and abroad are expected to join hundreds of Anlos to celebrate this year’s Hegbetsotsoza slated for November 2, 2019 at Hogbe Park, Anloga in the Volta Region.
This year’s event is said to be the biggest gathering ever as a lot of non indigenes have already confirmed their participation. And notable among them is the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II with his entourage.
His historic participation was confirmed at the news briefing held in Accra by The Hogbe Institute (HI), the organisers of Hogbetsotso Festival led by its CEO, Dr. Sylvanus K. Kuwor.
According to him, “this year’s Hogbetsotsoza will be graced by the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II”.
Speaking on the aims and the objectives of The Hogbe Institute, Dr. Kuwor said The Institute exists “to create visibility of Hogbeza as a repository of indigenous knowledge required for eradicating poverty as well as youth empowerment in Anloland”.
To reconstruct the indigenous knowledge bodies, aesthetic values and virtues embedded in Hogbeza to be merged with modern scientific knowledge for developing Anlo societies”.
The Institute is committed to use the festival with its rituals, music, dance and the related arts to create a platform for multiple voices in order to sensitise Anlo societies both home and abroad about the need to harness socio-economic potentials of their cultural forms as well as “to approach Hogbe’za in a new style as a cultural phenomenon whose exploration may affirm the African conception of society and its benefits to the people of Anlo and the rest of the world in very important aspects of humanity including promoting, good leadership, community cohesion and peaceful coexistence in the midst of diverse cultures and technological advancement”.
The Hogbe Institute is an organization dedicated to research, reconstruction and dissemination of Anlo-Ewe indigenous knowledge.
Background:
The Institute is the main organiser of Hogbetsotso za, 2019. Festivals are very important institutions within African societies and Hogbe’za of the Anlo-Ewe is no exception. Festivals are the embodiments of African aesthetic values, principles and mechanisms of social life as well as indigenous knowledge required in developing the various societies.
Africa is endowed with many natural resources but sadly, the knowledge required for using these natural resources to develop the continent is yet to be discovered. Celebration of cultural festivals is a significant part of the process of self-reflection and identity construction in Africa. Kwame Nkrumah who tried to open developmental doors of Ghana through the arts believed Ghanaian festivals encompass music, dance and the related arts as well as indigenous knowledge of developing Ghana and Africa.
Dtory by Edzorna Francis Mensaah
