ADAE KESE FESTIVAL

Adae Kese Festival also known as the Akwasidae is a very highly regarded and very important festival for the people of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. This is when the rich cultural heritage of the Ashanti’s are brought out for all to see. 

The festival is attended by numerous numbers of people from all walks of life that come to celebrate with the people of the region.

ORIGIN: 

The Adae Kese is a festival celebrated to mark specific milestones in the history of the Ashanti Kingdom. Its first celebration was during the attainment of statehood by the Ashanti kingdom after they fought and defeated the Denkyiras in the battle of Feyiase also known as the Ashanti independence war. 

The Adae kese celebration consists of magnified forms of Sunday Adae festivals thus the name Akwasidae which is celebrated every six weeks in accordance with the Akan calendar.

CELEBRATION:

The rich cultural heritage of the Ashanti people comes to bear during the ADAE KESE festival.  The festival serves as a period of stock taking of events that have happened in the period under review. 

The celebration is divided in two folds. There is the strictly private solemn observance which takes place in the chief’s palace by specific members of the royal family. There are different kinds of rituals performed to cleanse the land from any evil. 

There is also cleansing of the King’s spirit and presentation of the ceremonial meal and drinks to the spirits of their ancestors.

They seek their guidance and protection for the people as they go about their duties. They pray for the kingdom to prosper and be great and mightier than before.

The Adae Kese Festival highlights the tremendous amount of faith the Ashanti people have in their heritage and tradition. They believe being united is what would make them strong and these festivities highlights these great values of such a great people. 

The public celebrations take the form of a durbar of the chief and people in the region. The rich clothes and paraphernalia of the Ashanti people are displayed as they parade in their Kente clothes and Ahenema (traditional sandals). 

The paramount chief of the Ashanti Kingdom, the Asantehene parade with his sub  chiefs in his royal palanquin decorated in the most expensive gold ornaments you can find anywhere on earth,  amidst drumming and dancing and firing of musketry to ward off evil spirits.

The main festivities are on the Adae Sunday, where there is a grand durbar of the chiefs and people of the region, there is a whole lot of drumming and partying, the Asantehene, receives dignitaries from all over the nation, he sits down with his sub chiefs to discuss issues and settle disputes. 

The moral of the celebration is to invoke the bravery of their ancestors into the people and make them more strong and prosperous whiles showcasing their rich cultural history and heritage for the rest of the world to come and see.

The independence of the Ashanti kingdom is a very important part of their history and the AKWASIDAE festival is celebrated to mark this milestone.  It gives the king a chance to share his thoughts with the people, advise them, cleanse the land and bring the people together under one umbrella. 

You should not miss the grand Sunday celebration, which is the peak of it all. The riches of Ghanaian history, comes to bare at the ADAE KESE.