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Paper short abstract:

Homowo is the annual Ga festival, celebrated in the Greater Accra Region. The genealogies of the gods and the past memories are at the centre of processes of re-signification that in recent years have also called into play the "diasporic" ga in Togo.

Paper long abstract:

Homowo is the annual Ga festival, celebrated in the Greater Accra Region. The festival has both a family and public dimension but it is first of all the arena of the political tensions among the many family groups. The conflicts are historically played out on the different interpretations and reconstructions of the migratory flow that led to the creation of the Ga political unity.

The genealogies of the gods and the past memories are at the centre of processes of re-signification that in recent years have also called into play the "diasporic" ga, i.e. those groups which, starting from the last years of the seventeenth century, fleeing wars or following economic interests, left the regions of Accra and Elmina to found Glidji and settle in Aneho, in present-day Togo. Here the family divinities, over the centuries, have been reworked by the encounter with the local gods, above all the vodu, but have also maintained a strong link with their original land. For the priests in Accra, the Togolese "brothers" represent a reservoir of religious fervour but first of all it is a place where rebuild ties with the historical past. In Accra, the more influential families compete with each other to invite people from Aneho to join the celebration and the wulomo (Ga priest) do their best to participate to the Epe Ekpe festival in Glidji, in order to reinforce their mystical power, and play the link with Togo in theirs’ favour. My aim is to follow the people involved in this political and religious pilgrimage between the two countries and to understand how the history of the ancient migrations is reworked and the links refreshed in order to increase the repertoire of founding narrations that could be played out on the local political level.