THE DAMBA FESTIVAL

 

The Damba Festival is the Second Dagomba festival in a year. It is celebrated in the third month which bears the name of the festival Damba. The Damba Festival, in terms of Culture, length of the period of celebration and the number of people involve in the celebration may be regarded as the most important festival of the Dagomba. Before the appearance of the moon for Damba, young boys and girls put pressure on their parents and guardians to buy for them in advance clothes they wish to wear during this important festival. Wives also look upon Damba as a festival for which they squeeze money from their husbands to buy new clothes and to keep as pin money. Wives who broughtforths children and went to stay with their parents for short periods, will be requested by their husbands to return to the matrimonial homes as soon as the moon appears. This is to enable the husband have a good celebrate of the Damba festival.

 

 

The origin of Damba is not certain, to some people Damba was instituted in commemoration of birth and naming .of the Hophet Mohammad. The eleventh day of the month is said to be the day of his birth and the seventeenth of Damba is alleged to be the date he was named. This claim is contrary to many known facts about the Damba festival. First of all the month of Damba is known to have existed from the beginning of Dagbon. And Dagbon existed long before the advent of Islam in Dagbon in the early part of the 16th Cerüury. The name Damba, apart from being the popular third month of the Dagonba year, is also a very well known and popular Dagomba dance for the Dagmba royalty. One needs to come to Dagbon, to see and also learn, more about Damba. The celebration of the Damba Festival may be conveniently divided into four parts; the celebration of the festival every evening from the day of the appearance of the moon to the 10 of the month is the first part. The second part is the celebration on the eleventh ofthe month. The third part is the celebration on the seventeenth of Damba and lastly the celebration on the eighteenth of the month. Known as (belikulisi) meaning leading the Damba festival to its home.

 

This piece is but an introduction.

 

THE STATUTE OF GEORGE EKEM FERGUSON AT WAR.

He was killed on 6th April 1897 by the Slave raider Samory's Sofas. George Ekem Ferguson, the Hero of British penetration into the Northern Territries of the Gold Coast.
He was born on 14th July 1864, his father was Robert Archibold Ferguson, a trader who later became a Wesleyam Methodist Local Preacher, His grand Father was Dr. Samuel Ferguson a Surgeon. And his mother was Mrs. Amelia Ferguson a pious Woman of Strong Character.
"Governor W.E. Maxwell describe Ferguson as striking example of an intelligent, Industrious and trustworthy native officer" who "was as modest as he was able". The Germans referred to him as an incorrigible person because of his efforts in preventing them from encroaching upon the neutral zone. Sir, William Geary wrote the following words of him; "To depute in lieu of a European an Africa to go on a mission into the hinterland, where he is equally an alien, is a risky experiment, though in the case of an African learned, brave and modest, I mean Mr. Ferguson of the Gold Coast, he was equally successful as messenger of the Empire whether alone or with European officers, till he was killed in action.
The achievement of Ferguson at the age of thirty-three seems to support the belief that if Ferguson had lived longer the map of Ghana may have been longer than it is today. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of Fergusion's work shows that he rendered the British Government and the Gold Coast administration an invaluable service.
It was undoubtedly his mission more than anything else that gave Britain that vast area of land called the Northern Territories which today form the Northern Upper East and Upper West
Regions of Ghana.