In the history of the Ga people of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, beyond their much-touted victory over hunger, which has become the essence behind the celebration of their Homowo Festival, the wars they fought to secure their present home is one that is not lost on them.
The 17th-century Ga-Akwamu war is one of those.
Recounting this history to GhanaWeb in this week’s episode of People and Places on GhanaWeb TV, Numo Blafo Omaetu III, one of the well-known faces of the traditional priests of the Ga community, explained that even his name came about from one of those wars.
He further explained that when it got to a period in time when the Akwamus wanted to trade with the White traders who had come ashore Ghana’s coastlines in pre-independence days, they had to come to some agreement with the Gas.
As a sign of good faith, and as an assurance that should they (Akwamus) be offered a place to settle to enable to effectively trade, they would not foment trouble among the Ga people, Numo Blafo said the former decided to offer them one of their deities.
The name of that deity is ‘Blafo’ and it formed a sign of good faith between the two ethnic groups, sealing what has become many centuries of peace that has lasted among them.
“Blafo itself is not a Ga deity. It’s a deity that was actually brought by the Akwamus because then, they wanted a place to settle. So, they gave the Blafo to the Gas as a surety for good behaviour.
“You know, we had these Ga-Akwamu wars in the 17th century: why the Gas had to leave where they were originally at Ayawaso, to come and settle here. So, when they came and wanted also to trade with the White guys, and they needed a place to settle, they had to give assurance that if they give them a place, they’ll not usurp our authority… and so they gave the Blafo to the Gas as a surety of good behaviour, which I am the wulomo,” he explained.
Numo Blafo III also spoke about quite a number of other interesting details that make up the history of the Ga Mashie people of Accra.
Watch the full details in the video below:
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