The period Akwasidae was suspended for 4 years because of the Asantehene’s ill-health

As is commonly known to those who follow happenings in the Ashanti kingdom, the Akwasidae is celebrated annually.

In essence, this festival is marked religiously year after year, but like many other things in life, there was a period when this flow was broken and the celebrations had to be put on hold for a period of four straight years.

And there must have surely been a tangible, air-tight reasons for that! - The Asantehene was unwell.

Captured in a newspaper clipping of the Daily Graphic on September 15, 1958, the headline read, Asantehene celebrates traditional festival.

The page 3 story detailed why this was such a big news because prior to this celebration, the last time it was celebrated was four years earlier.

“For the first time in four years, Otumfuo the Asantehene celebrated the great ‘Akwasidae,’ one of the traditional festivals in the cultural life of Ashanti

“The celebration which is an annual affair, had not been observed during this period owing to Otumfuo’s ‘uncertain state of health and the political tension that reigned in Ashanti,’” the report stated.

During the celebration of the Akwasidae, the Asantehene sits in state and receives homage from his chiefs and his people.

The significance of the Akwasidae is also done to observe the purification of the ancestors’ stools, and in remembrance of the departed souls.

It also affords an opportunity for paramount chiefs in Ashanti to renew their allegiances to the Asantehene.

See the newspaper clipping below:



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