This year’s Damba Festival was unique in that it was observed twice in the same year due to the way the lunar calendar lined up with the standard calendar year. We first observed it on January 1-3 and then again on December 22-24th.
The second unique aspect was that it was the first time in the festival’s history that the president of the nation attended. President John Mahama arrived with much fanfare on the second day of the festival. He gave a speech (in which he vowed to pave our horrible dirt road from Walewale) and was then presented with a traditional Mamprusi smock and hat. He danced a bit to our drummers before hopping back into his motorcade and roaring away.
On the first day I was thrilled to see my own son get called out by the drummers to dance for the crowd. He did a great job on his first dance and was quite the cloud pleaser. Here’s a video clip of his dance:
I didn’t take as many photos on the second day of the festival because the security was tight and the crowds were packed even tighter. I spent a good hour working my way through the mob and convincing security to let me through to get images of the president.
