The Savannah regional parliamentary caucus and other prominent individuals from the region have been invited to grace the 2023 annual Deng Festival at Sonyo in the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district of the Savannah Region
The invitation was extended to Members of Parliament when the Vagla Youth Association led members of the Deng organising committee and chiefs to pay a courtesy call on the MPs on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, at Parliament House in Accra.
Deng, which is the biggest indigenous Festival in the Savannah region, is scheduled to take place from May 19 to May 21, 2023.
The President of the Vagla Youth Association, Isaac Donwaazum Mwagu, told the members of Parliament it was time they supported the people of Sonyo to promote the festival.
“The Deng Festival at Sonyo attracts thousands of patrons from across the country to the Bole District every year without any promotion, so we know what it can do to our tourism sector if we promote it.”
“The rich culture of the Vagla, Safalba, Chorba, and Nomee people, as well as its impact on the local economy, is something we cannot underestimate, so we are taking steps to put the festival on the world map as our representatives, we are here to invite you to this year’s Deng Festival and to seek your support in promoting it,” Mr. Mwagu said.
The Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi and chairman of the Savannah Regional Parliamentary caucus, Alhaji Yussif Sulemana, expressed delight on behalf of his colleagues in the steps being taken by the organising committee.
He was of the view that promoting the age-long Deng Festival at Sonyo is long overdue and assured the support of the causes for the committee.
“I want to say that our caucus is so excited about these steps you are taking, we know Deng is as old as our people in that area, and we see how people in their thousands troop to Sonyo and Bole every year, some are not even from that area, yet they come there, it is because there is something unique about that festival that attracts people even without a radio announcement.”
“And so we have a duty as MPs from Savannah region to support in its promotion. So we will be there, and we will support you, it is part of our jobs to lobby investors to our region and what you are doing can be the catalyst for us because we need investors also in our tourism sector.”
The annual Deng Festival at Sonyo in the Bole District of the Savannah Region is a melting point of the beauty of the multi-ethnicity of the Gonja State where many of the Gonja tribes meet at Sonyo to perform a traditional rite of sacrifices to their powerful earth deity known as Sornyor Kipo.
The Deng Festival brings the Indigenous Tribes of the Vagla, Safalba, Choruba and Nomee together with their sister tribes as well as other tribes within Ghana and beyond.
Thousands of people from within and outside the Savannah region troop to Sonyo for the three-day Festival.
The festival is also a means to enhance Tourism in the Savannah Region of Ghana.
The festival has a rabbit hunting event known as Woori which is the version of Aboakyere amongst the Effutu people of the Central Region of Ghana and a display of unique cultural performances of the people.
It is believed that the Savannah Region of the North is free from Witches Camps due to the cleansing power of the Sornyor Kipo, which neutralizes the powers of witches and wizards.
