‘The road is blocked’: notions of sound and silence in the Ga Hɔmɔwɔ festival, a Teshie perspective

Abstract

Since the early 2000s the literature on the Ga code of silence, or what is often referred to as a ban on drumming and noise-making, has focused predominantly on the violent clashes that emerge between the Ga Traditional Council, and Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Accra during the commemoration of the annual Ga Hɔmɔwɔ harvest festival. With most scholars perceiving the code as a ritual that instigates conflict, it has become a dominant point of reference for discussing conflict-related matters in Accra and Ghana in general. My interest here, however, is not to examine the code in relation to the conflicts it incites. As a ‘native researcher’ and ethnomusicologist, my findings suggest that the Ga code is about more than provoking conflict or settling scores with churches or non-Ga residents in Accra. The code presents selective Ga communities with an opportune moment to undergo a degree of introspection through the mediation on indigenous notions of sound and silence so as to renew themselves. In this article, I explore from a Teshie perspective the notions of the code and how it impacts the music performances of the Hɔmɔwɔ festival. I argue that the Ga code, to borrow from Turner (1979), is a ‘frame’ within which Ga society is enabled to inspect itself.