'Kobine' literally means farming dance. According to history, it is a cultural festival started and performed annually by a certain clan in the Lawra Traditional Area, when they saw their farms just before harvest and were sure of good yields. They would dance happily for a good cropping season.
However, about ten years ago, the Late Naa Abayifa Karbo II, the paramount chief of the Lawra Traditional area instituted it as an annual festival for the sons and daughters of the Area.
During the festival they showcase their farm produce, discuss their farming challenges and dance and drink to express their happiness and appreciation to God Almighty.
| Because harvesting of farm produce normally starts in October every year, the festival is celebrated around the 20th of October. However, this year's celebrations came about a month earlier, i.e. in September for one particular and justifiable reason - to make it coincide with the 10th anniversary of the death of the Founder, Late Naa Abayifa Karbo II which fell on 29th September to honour him. Another thing that makes a difference in this year’s celebration is the opportunity for beneficiaries of the CHF/ACDEP Resilient and Sustainable Livelihoods Transformation (RESULT) Project to participate | |
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The Canadian Hunger Foundation (CHF) and the Association of Church-based Development NGOs (ACDEP) launched a $19 million project in October this year that will strengthen poor rural communities in Northern Ghana by increasing and diversifying what is produced on farms, by building on existing sources of income, and by establishing new income opportunities. Farming families will also be supported to become more resilient to climate change and to access better prices for their products. Women will be supported to have more control and influence over resources and income in the community and household. |
Madam Clare Dery giving her testimony
In total, as many as 120,000 people will benefit from the project.
Madam Clare Dery of Tanchara community in the Lawra District is a beneficiary of the RESULT project. This is how she expressed her feelings about the project achievement in the first year of implementation:
“The men will farm and the women will also farm. The men’s produce will finish because that is what the whole family will feed on but the women will keep theirs so that if a child is driven away from school because of non-payment of fees, the woman will gather all that she has stored and sell it to send the child back to school. In view of that we thank the RESULT project so much for what they have done for us this year. They should please extend our gratitude to the management of the project. Thank you for the opportunity to share this thought”.
By Ben K.Wumbila, Project Coordinator - UWR