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The 2012 Asogli Yam Festival has been officially launched with a mini-dubar at Takla Gborgame in the Ho Municipality on Thursday.
Launching the festival, Togbe Anikpi lll, Chief of Ho-Heve and Chairman of the Festival Planning Committee, said the purpose of organizing the official launch of the festival outside Ho, is to foster unity and peaceful co-existence among the various divisions under the Asogli state.
The launch formally kicks start activities for the month long festival on the theme “Political Tolerance, a Prerequisite for Peace and Development”.
Togbe Anikpi therefore called on Asogli citizens and Ghanaians to be of good conduct during the coming elections.
There was a demonstration of yam planting, tendering and harvesting at the durbar, which according to Togbe Anikpi is to afford young persons the opportunity to learn the rudiments of yam farming.
Togbe Koku Ayim lll, Paramount Chief of the Takla Traditional Area, lauded the development focus of the festival and called on all Asogli citizens to actively participate in the festival, which would be climaxed with a grand durbar on September 22.
Major highlights of the festival is the pilgrimage of the Asoglis to their ancestral home of Notsie in the Republic of Togo, hiking at Adaklu Mountain, a beauty contest and the Yam hailing procession among other funfair activities.
The festival, beyond being a symbolic start of harvest time, is now a huge homecoming event, as it affords citizens abroad the opportunity to reunite with their families.
To ensure effective celebration, the Asogli state council has announced a ban on burial and funeral activities within the jurisdiction till the end of the festival.
