Hogbetsotso festival

A festival of exodus

Hogbetsotso belongs to the Anlo, an Ewe-speaking people on the eastern coast of Ghana. The word comes from their language and can be read as a festival of exodus, or as coming out from Hogbe, the name they give to Notsie. The celebration itself is young: it was instituted only about four decades ago, according to the account the community gives. It is held each year on the first Saturday of November at Anloga, which the Anlo hold to be the customary capital of their state and the seat of its rituals. Chiefs and ordinary people alike take part.

The story of Notsie

The Anlo trace themselves to a tribe on the eastern coast of Ghana, though they did not always live there. Their oral tradition speaks of a long migration that began in southern Sudan and moved through Oyo, a place in Nigeria, and further towns in Benin and Togo, until the people settled at Notsie, a town in what is now Togo. There, the story says, they lived under a harsh ruler named Togbe Agorkoli. To get away, they softened the earthen wall around the town by pouring wastewater on one spot, day after day, until they could break through it.

Peace and cleansing

Before any dancing, the festival makes room for peace. Disputes are settled and quarrels ended, because the Anlo hold that their ancestors kept harmony among themselves throughout the escape, and that this is what brought them safely out. Next come purification rites for the ceremonial stools, where ancestral spirits are believed to live; libations are poured for them. Then the villages are cleaned: rubbish is swept up and burned, in a sweep that begins at the Volta River and finishes days later at the Mono River, across the border in Togo.

The durbar and Agbadza

The high point is a durbar, a formal gathering of chiefs and people. Chiefs wear kente cloth and other bright regalia, and their subjects come forward to pay them respect at the durbar grounds. Singing, dancing and general merry-making run through the whole festival. The dance most associated with the Anlo is Agbadza, once a war dance called atrikpui, said to imitate birds in flight. It is performed with energy at the durbar and also at funerals, parties and naming ceremonies, and today anyone may join it, whatever their tribe. Ewe dancers also perform borborbor.

Recent years

Two recent editions show how the festival has grown into a public occasion. In 2019 two former presidents of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings and John Dramani Mahama, were among the guests, and the theme that year spoke of uniting the Anlo through its values. The 2022 festival was held as the sixtieth anniversary of the event, with a durbar at Hogbe Park in Anloga attended by the vice-president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Kwahumanhene Daasebre Akuamoah Agyapong II and the Ga Mantse, King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II.

How Hogbetsotso festival is kept

Anlo chiefs and their people gather at Anloga over several days. First comes peacemaking: disputes are settled. Then libations are poured and the ceremonial stools, where ancestral spirits are thought to rest, are purified. Villages are then swept and rubbish burned, a cleaning that starts at the Volta River and ends at the Mono River in Togo. The festival ends with a durbar, where chiefs in kente receive homage and people sing, dance and celebrate, with the Agbadza dance performed vigorously.

When and where

The festival is kept once a year, on the first Saturday of November, so the date shifts with the week but stays in the same month. It lasts several days rather than one, with the cleaning rites running from the Volta River to the Mono River before the final durbar at Anloga.

Hogbetsotso belongs to the Anlo, an Ewe-speaking people on the eastern coast of Ghana, and its home is Anloga, which they treat as their capital in custom and ritual. Anlo towns such as Keta and Anyako take part, and the cleaning ceremony reaches the border and ends at the Mono River in Togo.

What Hogbetsotso festival means

For the Anlo, the festival keeps alive the memory of a hard-won escape and the harmony that, in their telling, made it possible. Settling disputes each year is not just housekeeping: it repeats the unity of the ancestors on the road. The ceremonial stools stand for the presence of those ancestors, and the libations poured for them are a way of honouring and thanking them. The durbar shows the chief as head of a people, and the Agbadza dance turns memory into joy before the ancestors and the gods.

Questions people ask about Hogbetsotso festival

See also

GeledeA Yoruba masked dance festival honoring the spiritual power of mothers and social harmony.HomowoA harvest festival of the Ga people in Ghana to remember surviving famineDamba festivalA Ghanaian celebration of royal authority, ancestral memory, music and danceFetu AfahyeA harvest festival of cleansing, boat races and royal durbars in Cape Coast, Ghana

Good reading and sources

• Hogbetsotso festival on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.