Winneba Masquerade Festival : The First Party Of The Year In Ghana

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If you want to start your New Year with colour, celebration, and pure energy, there is only one place to be on 1st January, Winneba . While everybody is still sleeping after 31st Night, Winneba is already awake. Drums, brass band, costumes, masks. This is the Winneba Masquerade Festival, locally called Fancy Dress. It is the first major festival in Ghana every year. And it is the second biggest festival in Winneba after Aboakyer. There is a morning in Winneba that does not feel like any other morning in Ghana. By 7am, you can hear it. The brass band far away. The drum, shouting and the crowd. If you are in Winneba on that day, you cannot stay in your room. The sound will drag you out. I remember the first time I followed the sound. I thought something had happened. I thought maybe there was a funeral. But when I reached the road, I saw something I had never seen before. Men wearing masks. Big, colourful, scary, beautiful masks. Some looked like animals. Some looked like old white men ...

Ghana's former president Jerry John Rawlings' funeral postponed

The final burial rites of former President Jerry John Rawlings has been postponed indefinitely, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Jerry John Rawlings



 The funeral arrangement had initially been scheduled for December 20, 2020. But concerns raised by some family members led to President Akufo-Addo to ask the family of the late former President, to resolve all outstanding matters regarding his burial and convey the agreed date to the Presidency. The President added that will enable the government to plan a befitting funeral for the former President.

 But a communique by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to the international community and diplomatic missions revealed that the date for the funeral had been postponed adding that a new date will be communicated. “…due to unforeseen circumstances, the funeral will not be held from 20th December 2020 as planned,” a part of the statement read.

Read the full communique below;


The former military ruler died on Thursday, November 12, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.Rawlings died at the age of 73.

He led a military junta from 1981 to 1992 after coming to power through a coup.

In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military and established the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was democratically elected in the same year and then in 1996 for a second term.