Ankos Festival

The Ankos Festival also known as Takoradi street carnival or Masquerade Festival is an annual event celebrated by the people of Takoradi, Ghana. Its main attraction is dozens of groups of people or teams dressing in wild outfits who display their skills and arts via dance. The festival is usually celebrated from 24–26 December of every year, and is popular with tourists.[1]

Ankos Festival
LocationTakoradi, Ghana
LanguageInternational

Masquerades Groups

These are the list of masquerades groups in Takoradi.[2]

  • Ankos
  • Cosmos
  • Holy Cities
  • Nyanta Boys
  • Iron Fighters
  • Unity
  • Missisipi
  • Spain
  • Sunnato
  • Valencia
  • Canadian
  • Chinese
  • Tumus
  • Ohyewakomem
  • Supreme
  • Oil city
  • Millionaires
  • Unicon
  • Addyzee
  • USA
  • Nyanta Boys and Girls[3]

Ethnography

The various masquerades groups come together in the township of Takoradi to display their skills, culture and other arts to the general public through dancing and singing of various songs using brass band. The festival consist of different gender groups joining from various walks of life. It involves the young and the old who are much passionate about the culture and art during this festive moment. Their fancy outfit for the festival varies from one group to another. During the festival the brass band team play all kind of sounds, songs, melodies and tunes to spice up the festivity and also increase the excitement of various participant and watchers of the event who stand across the road, rooftops and balcony.[4][5]

The Year of Return

The Year of Return was to mark the return of black people from the diaspora to meet and learn about Ghanaian culture and partake in local traditions and so forth. The Year of Return had a massive impact on the Masquerade festival because it had a lot of tourists, the majority being black people from the diaspora trooping into Takoradi to celebrate the festival.[6][7]

2019 Artist
A lady Masquerade in Takoradi during the Ankos Festival

References
  1. "Sekondi-Takoradi Masqueraders Street Carnival". CNN iReport. Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
  2. "Masquerades festival climax Christmas celebration in Sekondi-Takoradi". www.ghanaweb.com. 30 November 2001. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  3. http://empirefmonline.com/2019/04/15/yesu-asor-2019-the-sekondi-take-off-of-easter/
  4. "Takoradi MP joins masquerades in colourful Christmas carnival [Photos]". Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always. 27 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  5. "Takoradi Masqueraders On The Streets On X'mas Day 2019 the year of return - Google Search". www.google.com. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  6. "Masquerade Carnival lights up mood on streets of Sekondi-Takoradi". www.ghanaweb.com. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  7. Tumus Masqueraders Club (20 January 2019). "Tumus Masqueraders @ Sekondi - 5th January 2019". Retrieved 8 October 2020 – via YouTube.
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