The Gologo festival, also known as the Golib festival, is celebrated in the month of March at the end of the dry season before the sewing of the early millet (Ansah, 1997; Allman & Parker, 2005).^[1] The Gologo Festival is among the major festivals^[2] in Ghana and is celebrated by the chiefs and peoples of Talensi, Tong-Zuf, in the Upper East Region of the country,^[3] serving "to reinforce the community belief in the Nnoo shrine or Golib god",^[4] which deity regulates Talensi agricultural life.^[5] It is a pre-harvest festival celebrated in the months of March and April, with sacrifices offered to seek protection and ensure plentiful rain and a good harvest in the coming season from the earthly gods.^[2] The festival has a three-day programme at three different villages. The first part takes place at Gorogo, the second at Yinduri, and the final and biggest at Teng-Zug (Tong-Zuf). Libation is poured at the Teng-Zug shrine to thank the gods for a successful occasion.^[3] The one in March is called Gol-diema, which means tutorial. The main Gologo festival is celebrated in the second week in April. Traditional songs are composed by the elders of each community for the occasion and people dance to the composed songs. During this period, noise-making is prohibited and no one mourns their dead. The Gologo festival which is also known as the Golib festival is celebrated in the month of March at the end of the dry season before the sewing of the early millet (Ansah, 1997; Allman & Parker, 2005). Tengzug, Santeng, Wakii, Gbeogo, Yinduri/Zandoya, Shia, Gorogo and Spart are the communities which celebrate the festival. There is a special dress code whereby men wear a short knicker and a towel on the chest. Women are also expected to tie a long towel from their chest down to the feet and cover their heads with a special local-made cloth.

Costumes used in Gologo Festival

The Talensi people of Tenzug^[6] in the Upper East Region celebrates one of the rarest festivals in the country of Ghana. It is probably the only festival where participants observe a strict compliance to the wearing of certain kind of costume. Due to the nature of this custom, researchers sort to find out the art form which make up the costume and their religious or functional significance. The study used participant observation and interviews to document the festivities before, during and after the festival. The prominent features of the costume includes towels of different sizes and colours, knives of different sizes and the wearing of triangularly shaped aprons. The study concludes that there is the need to advertise the festival in the entire country of Ghana as well as abroad in order to open up the Tengzug area to more tourists and investors.

Preparation of the festival

In the month of February which precedes the festival celebration, new songs are learnt by the communities for the celebration also new costumes and accessories are procured or prepared. The date for the celebration depends on the appearance of the third moon in each year. And this could appear in March or early April. In 2016, the new moon surfaced on 9 March. On the first day when the moon appears, the Chief and the Tindaana's remove their clothes (especially shirts and trousers, and put on traditional regalia meant for the celebration). The people in the community also remove theirs a day after the chief and the Tindaana have done so. For community members, the removal involves all clothing covering the upper part of the body, removing all trousers and wearing only boxer shorts, pants or shorts which have no pockets on them, or wearing kpalang or kpalang peto. This removal is for a period of one month. During this period, no noise is to be made in the community. As such crying for the dead, roofing of houses, loud music playing among other activities are prohibited during this period. The communities then begin series of mini festival rites in the towns that surround the Tongo Hills^[7] which include dancing and merry making. On the 16th day after the removal of dresses (in 2016, the day was on 24 March), all the communities will congregate at Tengzug for the final festival celebrations.^[1]

Relevance of the festival

It is celebrated to ensure “success in all food getting enterprises, security from danger, disease and death” (Insoll, et al., 2013). In the celebration prayers are said to the Golib god led by the Nnoo shrine. According to Joffroy (2005), the festival is to reinforce the belief of the people of the community in the shrine.^[1]

References