By:Kwame Agyenim Boateng, OTEC FM Kumasi.
The drums are set to roll in Ejura. From October 16 to October 25, 2026, the ancient town of Ejura will come alive with the celebration of the Ejura Yam Festival, known as the Sekyerene Festival – one of the most significant cultural events on the Asante calendar.
But this year’s festival is more than just a cultural display. It is a call to service, a call to development, and a call to preserve the soul of Asanteman.
*More Than a Festival: A Pillar of Asante Cultural Preservation*
In Asante tradition, yam is not just food. It is life, it is wealth, it is the first fruit that signifies abundance and gratitude to the ancestors and to God.
The Sekyerene Festival is the period when Ejura – the food basket of Asanteman – pauses to give thanks for bumper harvest, to pour libation, and to renew its allegiance to the Golden Stool.
In an era where foreign culture is fast eroding our values, the Ejura Yam Festival stands as a classroom for our youth.
It teaches language, chieftaincy, drumming and dancing, respect, and communal living.
To support this festival is to support the survival of Asante identity itself. If we do not preserve it, who will?
*A Festival With a Human Face: Serving Humanity*
What makes the 2026 edition historic and worthy of support from all is its new focus: *Serving Humanity.*
At the official launch of the festival on Saturday, the Ejurahene, *Barimah Osei Hwedie II*, announced a bold, compassionate initiative that transforms the festival from mere celebration into social intervention.
Through the Barimah Osei Hwedie II Foundation and under the auspices of the Ejura Divisional Council, the Ejurahene plans to construct an ultra-modern Orphanage Home in Ejura to curb the growing menace of streetism among children.
The facility, according to the Ejurahene, will not be just a building. It will be a complete home of hope with:
– Modern dormitories for children
– A health center
– Bungalows for teachers and health workers
– A learning center and other modern facilities
“These children are our responsibility, and as Christians and Moslems, God has charged us to watch out for such vulnerable children,” Barimah Osei Hwedie II stated.
*Developing Ejura Through Culture*
This is how festivals must evolve – using culture as a vehicle for development.
For years, Ejura has fed Ghana. Now, it is time for Ghana to feed Ejura back with support.
The Yam Festival brings together chiefs, farmers, traders, businesses, and sons and daughters of Ejura both home and abroad. It is a platform for networking, for investment, for tourism, and for showcasing the agricultural potential of the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality.
Every support given to the festival is a direct investment in the local economy and in the future of Ejura.
*Why You Must Support*
The Ejurahene has announced that the climax of the festival on 24th October, 2026, will be used to officially launch the orphanage project and raise funds for its commencement.
He has therefore made a passionate appeal:
“I urge all, particularly sons and daughters of Ejura both home and diaspora, to support this project because the traditional council alone cannot do it. Let us come together to support children abandoned at birth and give them hope for a better future.”
The call is therefore extended to:
– All Ejuraman citizens home and abroad
– Corporate institutions and NGOs
– Philanthropists and well-meaning Ghanaians
– The Government and the Asanteman Council
This is not just Barimah Osei Hwedie II’s project. It is our collective responsibility.
When we support the Ejura Yam Festival, we are not just dancing to Fontomfrom. We are:
1. Preserving Asante Culture for generations unborn
2. Giving hope to vulnerable children
3. Developing Ejura and strengthening its status as Asanteman’s food basket
Let us all rally behind the Ejura Divisional Council and make the 2026 Ejura Yam, Sekyerene Festival a festival that truly serves humanity.
