Odwira Festival (Akropong, Ghana)

Odwira is an annual festival held in September or October in Akropong, the town in Ghana where we now live. Odwira means “purification,” and commemorates the four-day battle between the peoples of Akuapem and the Asanti people who came down from the Kumasi area of modern-day Ghana. This year is unique in that 2026 is the 200th anniversary of the battle whereby the Akuapem staved off the attacking Asanti. Because of this grand occasion, local re-enactments of the five different divisions of the Akuapem people who garnered victory after holding off the Asanti are being held in different parts of the Akuapem region from June until September when the two week festival will take place.

Over the last three weeks, Kristi and I have been able to attend two of these events, each sponsored by the royal house of Akuapem in partnership with Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture (ACI, where I work) and the Center for Performing Arts of the University of Ghana in Legon (Accra). Three of my colleagues have been busy each week with the planning and preparations for the events, and they are heartened by our attendance. In fact, one of these colleagues recently told me that the ɔmanhene (Paramount Chief) of Akuapem invited ACI to help facilitate these events for the purpose of documenting and recording the oral histories of the local people.

Some of the interesting and noteworthy occurrences of this history include one division of the Akuapem having the special power to call bees to help them fight off their attackers. Also, as the Asanti came with their sacred artifacts which they believed would grant them victory, these artifacts were taken by the Akuapem people and represent a central part of their annual rituals and remembrance. In the enactments we have seen, men wear “batakari,” war regalia, and the women play a prominent role as they support the men as they go off to fight and then mourn the loss of the men who die and their bodies are brought back from battle. In one re-enactment, a medicine man, influenced by a spirit, dances around wildly and anoints the men for battle as a young woman goes before him, throwing white powder onto his body as part of a sacred ritual.

The late Kwame Bediako, co-founder of ACI, developed a strong relationship with the former ɔmanhene (Paramount Chief) of the Akuapem region and people; this relationship serves as an ongoing legacy of the Institute and part of our witness to the community. And yet, while the annual Odwira continues to hold a central place in the hearts of many, its purpose of annual purification for the peoples of Akuapem foreshadows the purification all peoples can now receive. For as Kwame Bediako writes, “The Odwira to end all odwiras has taken place through the death of Jesus Christ.”*

To learn more about Odwira, this website provides additional information. Below are some photos we have taken of our experience of the two re-enactments over the last few weeks. We hope to attend more re-enactments and the actual two-week festival this year in September.


*Bediako, Kwame. Jesus and the Gospel in Africa: History and Experience (Theology in Africa) (p. 33). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.