Xetoto Arts festival 2023 (Celebrating Black History) in Brief.

A BRIEF SUMMARY ON THE 2023 DEFIA TRADE, ARTS AND CULTURAL FAIR , KETA TO THE WORLD STREET CARNIVAL AND XETOTO ARTS FESTIVAL

The festival, a collaboration between Xetoto Arts Foundation, Keta Municipal Assembly and Collinwud started with a float on Monday, 30th  October, 2023 through the streets of  Tegbui to Keta. The main aim of the float was to alert the town folks that the festival is commencing and this float recorded a great turnout by the people of Keta and its surroundings. That same Monday happened to be the beginning of the Defia Trade Fair at the forecourt of the Keta Municipal Assembly where vendors and exhibitors came to exhibit and sell their products to clients in the Municipality. The trade fair lasted for a full week.  Traders and exhibitors from all parts of Ghana represented. There were exhibition and sales of made in Ghana products ranging from art works, locally designed garments, medicines, cosmetics, foot wears, bracelets, local beverages and food etc. People from all over the world came to patronize their goods and services.

As part of the activities, the festival organised an Inter-school’s robotics, arts and crafts battle in collaboration with Byte Africa, which was held on Tuesday, 31st of October, 2023 at the Keta Senior High School (KETASCO) premises. The theme for the competition was to provoke the students to “Identify a problem, find a solution, nurture and provide the ultimate solution.” in climate change. The schools in attendance were the host school Keta Senior High (KETASCO), Keta Business College (KETABUSCO), Zion College (ZICO), Anlo Senior High School (ANSECO) and two basic schools namely, ABOR E P JHS and Covenant School. The inter-school competition recognized a new dimension where there was competition in robotics, drawing and painting etc. This competition didn’t follow the old way of organizing competitions. The students also had lots of fun by playing around the robotics kits. You’d be amazed to meet ABOR E P JHS, the only basic school competing with the SHS schools in robotics. This same school manufactured a lawn mower of which they exhibited at the competition. Ketasco came out to be champions of the drawing and painting battle.

On day three which was Wednesday, 1st November, 2023, there was a trade and investment seminar at the Municipal Assembly Hall, Keta. This seminar was held to educate the people in the community on trade and investment policies that will benefit them most especially the traders at the fair. This seminar had speakers from Ghana Export Promoting Authority, Commodities Investment Ghana and other stakeholders in the trade industry.

The trade and investment seminar was followed by a night vigil dubbed “EMANCIPATION VIGIL” held on Thursday, 2nd of November. This vigil began with a torchlight procession from the Keta Municipal Hospital to the Fort Prezenstein and was  followed by a movie show about black history. The vigil was held in memory of those Keta lost through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The vigil also had an epic performance by Bacteria a musician who always preach about the black history and a short poetry from Megborna.

The following day which was Friday, 3rd November, 2023 was a health walk, health screening and bodybuilding expo at the Aborigines beach resort. The walk commenced at around 5am from the forecourt of Jubilee Radio and ended at Aborigines Beach with a lot of activities like aerobics, filling bottle and other outdoor games. There was also a health screening by the Keta Municipal Hospital and breast cancer screening by an NGO called Run for Cure. There were also beach activities and merry making till evening. 

The evening was entertaining and splendid with a show dubbed “Keta to the World Street Carnival”  organized by our partner Collinwud where artists/artistes from far and around shared a common stage and graced the night with terrific performances. There was also a welcome bonfire night at the Aborigines beach.

 On Saturday 4th of November, was “The Xetoto art experience”  which had an art exhibition, live arts, cultural, music and theater night. This was the most thrilling and entertaining night where we witnessed live acoustic performances, live cultural dance by Anlo Stars, A poetry performance by the Hakpanya Collective headed by Megborna and G K Dahume. There was also a live performance by the Xetoto Dance Crew featuring the Keta songstress Mprez Ody, Street Gadi and the Anlo Cultural troupe. A live magic performance by Torgbui Blagozi shrine also added more thrill to the cultural night. The whole cultural night was awesome and some say it was the best night ever and the best show ever in Keta.

On the last day of the event which was Sunday 5th of November, 2023, the event was climaxed with “Sip & Paint Mask Party and Networking”. The mask party was another whole experience where visitors wore masks and danced to the beautiful local Borborbor tune. A night where everyone has to shake their body and show off the ewe in them.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the festival recorded a huge turnout as compared to the previous editions held in the previous years. The visitors, the experience and the outlined activities made the Xetoto Arts Festival the best in the southern part and in fact the whole of Volta region. Some visitors recommended that the festival be held twice yearly due to the fully packed splendid activities which is good for relaxation.

To sum it all, the festival was a success. So thrilling, engaging, splendid, educative and as well as entertaining.

APPRECIATION

• Keta Municipal Assembly 
• Keta Municipal Hospital
• Ghana Ambulance Service 
• Ghana Fire Service 
• Ghana Police Service
• Jubilee Radio, Keta
• Coastal Bay Properties
• Run for Cure
• Byte Africa
• Collinwud
• Volta First TV
• Keta Senior High School
• Bel-Beverages 
• Guinness Ghana
• Aborigines Beach Resort
• Fort Prinzenstein management
• Hakpanya Collective
• All visual Artists who Participated
• Akosua Scheck Bespoke Tailoring
• Viber Sports Keta 
• The Redlight Voice Worlwide
• The people of Keta

Below are some excerpts from the event.

Senior High Schools Robotics, Arts and Craft Battle

Creating Garments out of recyclable  waste materials

Trade and Investment Seminar 

Emancipation Vigil featuring Bakteria

Health Walk and Screening in Collaboration with Jubilee Radio and MTN

Keta To The World Street Carnival by Collinwud

The Xetoto Night (Black History night) featuring Hakpanya collective, Anlo star Cultural Group and Torgbui Blagozi shrine

Mprez Ody 

The Keta Municipal Coordinator

The Keta Municipal Cultural Director and her team

Xetoto Cool off Sunday