Bakatue: Festival of Elmina - Part 3

In the year 2001 I played a big role in the Bakatue festival. I took part with a cultural group from Accra, which we renamed it after the event, benuye cultural group. We did a rehearsal in Eguafo and performed in Elmina Bakatue.

This was very important for me. An artist from Eguafo supported Bakatue as our ancestors did. The Eguafo people were also fascinated about our rehearsal.

As we prepared to go to Elmina, everybody wanted to join the vehical. We could only take a few people along.

The performance was a story telling, drumming and dancing. The story was about the importance of the traditional royal music. It was fascinating. People did not expect this story or subject at all. You can see people who knew the story were so beaming and people who didn’t know the story were suspicious how the show or story will end.

On that day on the stage I was so in the mood and that made me also to play the character as it was exactly in the story. The special connection of Eguafo and Elmina came out so good and I felt , that we could reach the audience with it. The elders, chiefs and audience was touched. This gave the festival a boost. Everybody was in a good mood and the local people could loose the tension and relaxed towards the festivities.

All important activities, like the rituals and fish catching oracle, was successful. In the end of all acitvities as we were walking in Elmina, we can hear a lot of chearing about us and thanking.

People were talking in the bars about and were surprised, that the powerful group was from Eguafo.

That made me remember one of the best drummers oft he central region  the late Openin kofi sre from Eguafo.

As we arrived in the village, all the people from Eguafo welcomed us with joy and happyness, because they heard already the informations about the show. From the people we took along from Eguafo, I saw how they felt bold and proud. Through us they were also in the activities and close to the chiefs.

Many years after, anytime we came to Eguafo, they asked me: “When are we going again to Bakatue?“

The special part in that year 2001 was, that I was there with my family for one year and my wife was doing a research about performances. That gave me also a push to organize meetings and interviews with the chiefs around Eguafo and the Abrem district. After one year we got to know the chiefs and had good conversations with them. Some became our good friends.

It inspired me so much. When I came back to Europe, I used a lot of the Bakatue activties in my teaching: The traditional music and the gathering of the chiefs in the palace judging a case.  The strong tradition in the activities, especially the important and delicate  role of the spokesmen

Witnessing this event helped me to create a lot of story telling and dance drama. I use some oft hem till now.

Peter Kofi Donkor