MTN supports Hogbetsotso Festival

MTN Ghana has presented GH¢15,000.00 to the Anlo Traditional Council in support of this year’s Hogbetsotso Festival of the Chiefs and people of Anlo.

The telecommunication network also presented GH¢500.00 worth of airtime and drinks hamper valued at GH¢500.00 to the Council ahead of the festival.

Mr David Boadi, the Sales and Distribution Senior Manager, Southern Business District, MTN, who presented the items, said the gesture was to demonstrate MTN’s continued support to the Traditional Area.

He said the donations were also to appreciate the Network’s appreciation to area for keeping faith with MTN for two decades.

Mr Boadi said the Network would organise a community health walk and a costume carnival along the principal streets of Anloga and football gala to make the 2016 celebrations memorable.

He said during the event, MTN would carry out data activation throughout the period to give its customers experiential feel of the benefits of the Network’s Internet and data services.

Hogbetsotso is celebrated on the first Saturday of November every year by the chiefs and people of Anloga and attracts tourists worldwide.

The festival is to mark their journey from their former home in Togo, to their present settlement in Ghana, travel to discover has quoted historians.

It says the festival is a great time for the people, as this marks a great time in their history and is a time for settling disputes and getting to know each other.

History has it that before coming to their present settlement, the Anlos lived under a cruel and wicked ruler, King Agorkoli of Notsie, somewhere south of present day Sudan.

The Anlo people devised a way to escape from the town. They were led by a brave called the Red Hunter.

The town they were was fenced with a mud wall, so the Anlo women were told to pour water on one side of the wall anytime they had to dispose off any water.

This made the spot soft, and the people were able to break the wall and escape.

To avoid being caught, they "walked backwards" so as to confuse their pursuers. Another account has it that “The Red Hunter” turned himself into a rat and walk over all their footprints to make them look old.

When they got to their present home, they created the festival Hogbetstso (Festival of Exodus) to mark this event.

The festival has a host of other celebrations associated with it. There is a period of peace making. During this period, all outstanding disputes must be resolved. The aim is to bring the people together to live in harmony with each other.

There is also a general cleaning in the town. The whole town is swept, gutters cleaned, bushes are cleared and everywhere is kept clean. The cleaning, which starts at the estuary of the Volta River, goes on until it reaches the Mono River in Benin.

This cleaning exercise is all inclusive and everyone in the town is supposed to take part. The people of Anlo believe that if they keep their surroundings clean, and they live in harmony with each other, no evil can befall.