GA

Th e Gaarea small ethnic groupcomprising a
po pul atio n of nearly700,000 peop le in the south
of themoderncountr y of Ghana. Therearesix
statesof the Ga peo ple:Accra,Nugua,La, Osu,
Tes hi, andTema. The originalGa kingdom of
Nkran gi ves the cityof Ac cra its name. In the early
par t of the 16thcen tury,the Ga Mantse,the titl e
of thekings,extendedthekin gdomaroundthe
present site of the city of Acc ra.
Homowo refers to “hootin g at hunger.” This
meansthathu ngercannotrulethe peo ple;in other
words, hu ngerhas no victimsamo ng the Ga
becausetheylau gh andhootat hunger.This fes tival
remembe rs a massivefaminethat nearlywip ed out
the people in the 17thcentury. Sin ce thatti me,the
Ga haveco me to realize howfortunatethe y we re to
surviveas a co herentandint act soci al group. Th ey
celebrate Ho mo woeach year to commemorate
theirsurvivalan d theirvict or y overhun ge r.
TheGa Mantseoverseesthe HomowoFestival,
bu t al l th e whilehe neverspeaksdirectly to any -
on e in public.Muchlikethe Akan, the Ga peop le
havea linguistwhospeaks for theGa Mantse.
Th is spokesperson, th e Otsame,carriesa dec o-
ratedstaffthatidentifi es himas the pe rso n wh o
speaksfor th e king.Indeed,the staf f has a coatof
armsthatshowsa deer standing on the backof an
elephantth at symboli zes thefactthatth e small
canexercise power ove r th e large.
TheGa expressthe samege neralcharacteristics
fou nd in otherAfrican societies. Theyrefer to

oth er humansas brothersand sist ersand are

taught to welcomestr an gersinto their homes.

AmongtheGa,respectfor theelderlyis at the

heartof the cultural customs.Thisis whythe use

of proverbs thatoriginatedwiththe ancestorsis a

majorpartof the Ga tradition. Theylovepoetry,

oralperformance,andoratory.TheGa saythat

on e daythere was a massiveexodus of people

fromthe sea to the landandtheylookedlikeants,

thu s the namegaga, andthe Ga believethatthey

represen t thesepeople.

The Gabelieve thatal l th in gs ha ve spirits.

Theysay tha t the Almigh ty Dei ty, Nyomo,cre -

ated all spiritsandpl acedth em in humans,tre es,

mountains,andrivers. Whenth e spirits want to

communicatewithhum ans , theyenlisttheser -

vicesof prie sts,priestes ses,an d oracles thatare

referred to as Dzema Wagi n. Th e highpr iestsof

the religion are cal ledwulomo , and the y are

chosento demonstra te car e andser viceto the

ancestorsandthe people. Thewulomo pra ctic e

herbalmedicine,rit ualcer em on ies to mai ntain

balancein the society,andser ve as consultants

to the Ga Mantse.

The Gaare fam ousfor funerals. They are

sk il led craftpersons whomakecoffins acc ording

to th e desires andneedsof thefamilies.Their

bel ief is thatwhena pe rsondies,he or she moves

to another realmand should take his or her

fav oriteobj ec ts withhim or herto thene w

realm.Thus , if oneis a pilot,he mightwa nt to

havea coff in thatis an airplane. A taxidri ver

maywantto be bu riedin a taxi.A personcould

have a personality tr aithighlighted, such as

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