Akuapem people in Ghana celebrate 200th anniversary of a victory over the Ashanti Empire

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AKROPONG-AKUAPEM, Ghana (AP) — The Indigenous Akuapem people in eastern Ghana celebrated this week their military victory over the Ashanti Empire 200 years ago, a vast, sprawling and powerful 18th-century West African state.

The battle helped reshape the area into what has become part of modern Ghana.

The empire might be long gone, but the battle has not faded from memory. Two centuries later, the Akuapem people still come together to honor their victory by reenacting the war.

The festival, called Akuapem Odwira, is also a means of purification, spiritual renewal and thanksgiving, they say.

The two-week-long celebration, which started on Sept. 21, has featured an array of pageantry, a re-enactment and a durbar, or ceremonial gathering.

Both royalty and subjects engaging in the festivities were draped in traditional Kente cloth. Gold ornaments glinted in the afternoon sun as drums rolled through the streets and the chiefs arrived on decorated palanquins carried by attendants. Praise singers and dancers performed around the clock in the streets.

On the 10th day of the celebration,…