Perhaps this year, Thanksgiving might be a little different. Maybe we might find even more things to be thankful for, people to re-connect with, more people to care about and family members and friends to love, and learning and doing more constructive and positive things like mentoring a child or taking a bag of non-perishable food or clothing to a shelter, honoring our health and the survival of a deadly pandemic, and for the state of Minnesota and states around the country, the blessings and messages of political victories that defied corruption at the highest level, saved our democracy, and all made possible by good people who stood up, exercised their freedom to vote, and declared, no more! Enough is enough!
Though we were taught in grade school about how colonists known as Pilgrims and Native Americans came together putting all differences aside and sat down breaking bread together for a day, the tradition is not unique to North America. Our Motherland celebrates a form of the Thanksgiving holiday calling it Homowo which means ‘hooting for hunger’. It is celebrated with one of the largest cultural festivals of its kind in Africa.
In Ghana among a tribe called the Ga Dangme, the Homowo Harvest Festival goes on for weeks starting with the blessing of crops like maize and yams before the rainy season. The origin of the name goes back to a very difficult period for the Ga people who migrated to pre-colonial Ghana traveling for many years before reaching the region of Accra where they now live. While in transit, some suffered a severe famine brought on by the absence of rainfall. Closing in on more people dying and others nearing starvation, those strong enough for the labor embarked on a desperate team effort of food cultivation hoping for rain. The rains did come, and the harvest was beyond bountiful.
The Ga people celebrate the blessing of harvest by preparing a feast with traditional dishes such as palm nut fish soup and a corn-powder delicacy. The day of the actual feast is followed by dancers performing a dance called Kpanlogo and parades moving through towns which last for several days. Like the North American and other continental holiday recognitions, this is also a time when African families have an opportunity to almost safely re-unite with family and loved ones, sharing a special meal and giving thanks for all that is well and good. Both the Thanksgiving and Homowo celebrations honor similar values and morals such as gratitude for Mother earth’s life-giving food, for community, hard work, perseverance, and the faith and resilience of our forefathers.
