Damba festival is mainly celebrated every year by the people of the five Northern Regions to commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W).
This year’s Buipe Damba festival, led by the paramount chief of Buipe traditional area, Buipewura Jinapor Abdulai II, brought together families and friends in merry-making.
The first day, November 4 saw the tribe engaged in rice picking. The second day was slaughtering of animals.
During this process, the chief performs a ritual of marching around the sacrificial cow seven times, after which the Imam will offer short prayers and slaughter.
Warriors are expected to drink the blood from the cow slaughtered to signify strength and unity.
Giving an address on the state of Gonjaland, Abutu Kapri, who spoke on behalf of the Paramount Chief, stated that the region’s vegetation level has seen an improvement following the ban on charcoal burning and illegal logging.
He said per observation, this year Savannah Region has recorded a maximum rainfall in five years across the region. This was achieved after the ban on commercial charcoal burning. This was achieved because most of the youth now engage in farming.
The Buipewura added that he was very sad with the poor performance of education in the Savannah Region based on the statistics on basic and Senior High School education as Savannah Region was placed 16th out of the 16 regions in Ghana.
The Buipewura has, therefore, urged all stakeholders to put hands together to ensure Savannah Region is always first or second.
The Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusugu, John Jinapor, addressing the people of Buipe, appealed to the Savannah Regional Minister to see to it that the Buipe Shea factory is working to create more jobs for the youth.
The Savannah Regional Minister, Saeed Muhazu Jibril, assured the Buipewura of his support to work on the falling standards of education. He thanked the Buipewura for his hard work to resolve chieftaincy dispute in the region.