A Homemade Kpokpoi & A Stroll Through Osu Homowo 2022 Street Party.
This year’s Homowo has been unforgettable for me in the sense that I got to prepare Kpokpoi in my home with some help from my Mom unlike previous years where our festival food was prepared by both my late grandmothers. Not only did we make a successful and delicious Kpokpoi which we lovingly shared with family and friends but I took a drive and strolled through the famed Osu Homowo street party and boy what a whole vibe that was!
Osu Homowo is celebrated on the Tuesday after the Ga Mashie Homowo celebrations and by tradition most Ga family homes wake up early to cook Kpokpoi whilst the Osu chief goes on the Kpokpoi sprinkling through the streets of Osu.
I’ll always remember helping both my grandmothers in preparing the corn for cooking the Kpokpoi as well as the 4am drowsy state of firing up the Laat3 (clay furnace) in readiness for steaming the milled corn. But now thanks to adulthood, those days are now reduced to 8am morning starts. My Mom has been creative with using a rice cooker to steam the milled corn especially when only a few family members are coming by. Even though it’s a slightly longer process, it still works pretty great!
Kpokpoi is traditionally eaten with palm nut soup with chunks of smoked fish steeped in it’s golden orange delicious waters. I love the soup but have a strong hate-love for the process of prepping the palm-nut fruit from scratch. It was a time-saving process when I used a palm nut soup base from Ed’s. We skipped out on the stress on pounding and separating palm-nut husks from the nuts. No wonder I could afford to start cooking from 8am!
A few of my cousins passed by in the evening after work as the day was a regular working day. The evening was truly memorable as family friends’ also passed by to celebrate with us. Good vibes all around. With baby girl left at my Mom’s place, i headed out to Five Junction area where I was reliably informed of being the ‘happening’ place. Apparently, my area which is behind Frankies and other neighbouring areas are Osu estates (d’bee areas) which don’t put on a show for Homowo. Bougie! I simply had to get in on the action.
I drove up to Christian Council only to find most of the roads blocked throughout the entire street towards the Lokko road. I made several turns before deciding to park close to Photo Club. It was a short walk to Five Junction and a slight drizzle earlier in the day made the walk a chill breeze.
I could hardly recognise the Osu market road. It was brightly lit with powerful stage lights with metal stands strategically placed in square formats aka mini hubs for the plastic seats and tables. Fake white flower garlands were hanging from the metallic stands creating a festive mood. Deafening music flew out violently from nearby speakers. The music was so loud those seated around were hardly engaged in any conversation. And the people! It was only after this night’s exploration that i was reliably told that most Ga women initiate a ‘Susu” at least three months to Homowo and when they had saved enough, they spend it on buying special lace fabrics or wigs to wear for the festival. What a revelation that was! Several Ga women were garbed in the same lace fabric of emerald green with touches of red and they all sat at the same table. Fascinating! I noticed other women in their Sunday best whilst the men wore simpler regular clothing. Hairdressers in Osu must have made a killing this Homowo because the hairstyles were winning! From large to mini-water curl wigs, to bone-straight hair to braids, it was a hairy affair truly!
The human traffic was insane! It actually reminded me of the Carnival era we used to have on the Oxford Street some years ago. I wonder what ever happened to that event. Whilst many struggled to walk through the crowds, others also sat and watched the struggling mass whilst chewing on spicy kebabs and shaking off the economic downturn in dance twists and turns of Shatta Wale.I marvelled at the thunderous cacophony of music from three different speakers all within several meters of each other on the same street. Did i mention it was different music genres as well? One sectioned group danced to Kidi “Open Gate” whilst another belted out DMX hit songs. My heart was literally in my mouth as i got closer to The Garden. The Garden is a small enclave located close to Castle junction, where most social events in Osu are held albeit be it a funeral or baby outdoing. I’ve never seen so many Ga people packed into one space before! Let’s just say a rough estimate would be about 500 revellers all seated underneath the centuries old neem trees. A live band group was belting out ‘blema’ lalai from Wulom3i and other famous Ga musicians to the delight of it’s audience. I managed to beg my way for a plastic chair to enjoy my GHC20 grilled/ fried pork which was insane by the way even if it was more of cartilage pork ears. Too bad the fried yam was done. This was going to be a night of endless drinking and night time shenanigans !
The streets had jammed up and my bed was calling out to me through vibrancy of music and loud conversations milling around me. I headed back and managed not to get mashed up by a rather thick stream of humans going where i had no idea. A light drizzle started just when I got to my vehicle. Several bars after the five junction area were lively with their own version of traditional drummers and dancers. Curious onlookers who couldn’t afford to buy drinks at these bars, stood afar to enjoy the show for free. My memory bank was sated and I patted myself on the back for choosing to make memories out of the Homowo celebrations this year.
How did you celebrate your Homowo? With family and friends ? Do share in the comments below.
