Greater Accra
Place Of Attractions
The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana.
The Greater Accra Region, with a total land surface area of 3,245 square kilometers, is the smallest of Ghana’s 16 administrative regions. This accounts for 1.4 percent of Ghana’s total land area. With a population of 5,455,692 in 2021, it is the second most populated region in Ghana, behind the Ashanti Region, accounting for 17.7% of the country’s overall population.
With 87.4 percent of the country’s population residing in cities, the Greater Accra area is the most urbanized in the country. Accra, which is also the capital of Ghana, is the capital city of the Greater Accra Region.
History
Greater Accra, then known as the Accra Capital District, was a part of the Eastern Region in 1960. The Minister in charge of local government, on the other hand, was in charge of it individually. The Greater Accra Area Law (PNDCL 26) established Greater Accra as a legally separate region on July 23, 1982.
Geography
The Eastern Region borders the Greater Accra Region on the north, the Volta Region on the east, the Gulf of Guinea on the south, and the Central Region on the west. It is Ghana’s smallest region in terms of the total territory, with 16 administrative areas.
Festivals
The Ga people hold a festival called Homowo, which literally translates to “hooting at hunger.” This festival dates back hundreds of years. It commemorates a devastating famine that afflicted the Ga people in the sixteenth century. It is mostly a cuisine event commemorating the end of that dreadful chapter in Ga history. Every year in August, all of the Ga clans come together to celebrate.
The Adangbe people of Ada celebrate the Asafotu festival, also known as ‘Asafotufiam,’ an annual warrior’s festival held by Ada people from the final Thursday in July to the first weekend in August to honor military wins and to remember those who died on the battlefield. The warriors dress in ancient combat gear and stage a mock fight to re-enact these historic events. This is also a period for male rites of passage when young men are taught how to fight. The celebration also falls during the harvest season, when these unique rituals and ceremonies are carried out. Purification rituals are among them. A chiefs’ durbar, a colorful procession of chiefs in palanquins with their retinue, brings the festival to a close. Traditional military units known as ‘Asafo Companies’ accompany them around the streets and on the durbar grounds, drumming, singing, and dancing. The chiefs exchange greetings, libations are spilled, and allegiance declarations are made during the durbar.
Ethnicity
The historical population of Accra is the Ga sub-group of the Ga-Dangme people. With 18.9% of the population, they are the largest ethnic sub-group in the Greater Accra Region. Accra (Ga Mashie), Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, and Tema were the six autonomous towns of the Ga people. Each village had a stool that was the focal point of Ga ritual and war magic. The town of La now has a community bank that provides banking services to its residents. Accra rose to prominence as the most important Ga-Dangme town and is now Ghana’s heartbeat and capital. The Ga people were originally farmers, but today their main vocations are fishing and trading in imported commodities. Women are usually the ones who do the trading, and a husband has little authority over his wife’s money. Matrilineal descent is used to pass down most female-held offices and to pass down women’s property. Patrilineal descent governs the inheritance of other property and the succession to male-held governmental offices. Men of the lineage live in a men’s compound, whereas women, even after marriage, live in a women’s compound with their mothers and children. Every Ga town has a variety of cults and gods, as well as a number of annual town festivities. The Adangme people live along Ghana’s coast from Le Kpone to Ada, on the Volta River and in the Gulf of Guinea, as well as inland along the Volta River. The Ada, Le Kpone, Krobo, Ningo, Osuduku, Prampram, and Shai are Adangme people who speak Adangbe, a Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages. Among the two related Ga-Adangme peoples, the Adangmes have the biggest population. The Adangmes, who lives in Ghana’s Dangme East and Dangme West Districts, possess over 70% of the Greater Accra Regional Land.