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CULTURAL HERITAGE AND CUSTOMS

Ethnicity

Kadjebi district is ethnically diverse. It is predominantly a settler community. Only 19.4% of the population is made up of indigenous Akans.  47.5% of the population is made up of Ewes and the remaining 33.1% is shared amongst the Guans, Kotokolis, Ga-Dangmes, Mole Dagbanis etc.

 Language

The Akan and Ewe languages are the predominant language spoken in all the major communities in the district and at all social gatherings and state functions. Other/widely spoken languages include Hausa, Kotokoli and Chamba. The English Language is also spoken among government officials and other literates.

Religious Affiliation

The people of the Kadjebi District originally practiced traditional religion similar to what pertains at the Regional level. While the Ewe, Guan, and Akan are mostly Christians, a substantial number of the other ethnic groups such as the Hausa, Kotokoli, Basare and Gurma are Muslims. The distribution of the population in the District by religion is indicated in Table 3.8.

The Table reveals that majority of the population are Christians (66.3%), about 1.4 percent practice Traditional religion and quite a sizeable proportion of 29.6 percent of the population practice Islamic religion. Among the Christians, over one in three are either Protestants or Pentecostal/Charismatic (38.2%). This pattern is typical of the Northern Districts of the region. The Catholic, Protestants and the Pentecostal/Charismatic faith have the largest followers in the District with slightly more females.


 

Traditional Set-up

The indigenous Akan group has eight (8) Traditional areas, namely: - Kadjebi, Asato, Dodi, Dodo, Dapaa, Ampeyo, Pampawie and Ahamansu.  Each Traditional area has a Paramount Chief, Divisional chiefs, Queen mother and Chief linguist.  The settler groups have Headmen who normally pay homage to the Paramount chiefs.

Communal Spirit

In the Akan traditional areas, Thursdays are observed as taboo days for people to go to farm.  The day is therefore set aside for communal labour in which everyone is expected to participate.

Festivals

There are two major festivals celebrated by the Akans in the district.  The Kwasidae Kese or Kuntukunu festival is celebrated by the people of the eight (8) Traditional areas.  It comes off on Sunday, the last forty-two (42) days to the end of the year. The Dawurokese festival is celebrated by the people of Kadjebi in every three (3) years.  The Fontonfrom, Adowa, Kete and Ositi drums are played at such celebrations. The significant of the festivals is to bring together chiefs and people of the traditional areas to assess past performances raise funds for the support of development programmes and projects of the areas.

 

 

Date Created : 11/21/2017 5:12:51 AM