PHOTOS: Edina Bakatue Festival 2023

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People from far and near joined the people of Elmina to celebrate this year's Bakatue festival on Tuesday, July 4, 2023 and will be climaxed with a durbar on Saturday, July 8, 2023.

The Edina Bakatue Festival is an annual festival celebrated by the chiefs and peoples of Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana. The festival is celebrated on the first Tuesday in the month of July every year.

The name "Bakatue" is from the Fante dialect and translates as "reopening of the Lagoon". 

It's done every first Tuesday of July to lift the six-week ban on fishing that allowed the fishes in the sea to reproduce.

Rites were performed for the Benya river god at the river bank and all the 77 gods of Elmina to traditionally lift the ban on fishing in the lagoon.


This year’s festival mark 25th anniversary of the installation of Nana Kodwo Conduah VI as the Paramount Chief of Edina Traditional Area.


The rites

A net is cast three times by traditional priests after traditional rituals to signify the lifting of the ban after which the fish caught is presented to the Omanhen, Nana Kodwo Conduah VI.


The fish caught would determine whether the fishermen would have a bumper harvest or not. 


The significance

The festival is used to mark the beginning of the fishing season in Elmina. 

It also is used to offer thanks and prayers to the gods for a good fishing year.


Photo excerpt from the 2023 edina Bakatue;









Location: Cape Coast, Ghana

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