Akwasidae
Akↄm is the twi word used to identify the spiritual lifestyle of the Akan people. Akↄm is also the drumming, dancing, singing ritual that is performed on sacred days and special ceremonies. The essence of Akↄm is celebratory, musical, and mystical in nature…..the rhythmic sounds of the drums elicit transcendence to the African ways that establish familiar connections that are satisfying and complete.
The Akan people maintain a 9 month calendar year within which sacred days occur on a 40-42 day cycle. These Sacred days are opportunities for celebration of our spiritual connections with deities and ancestors. Akↄm creates a sacred space that invites Onyame, ancestors and deities and provides an opening for communication between the community and the spirit realm.
Although worship-type expressions of African spirituality are rare in Jamaica, strong ancestral elements of the Akↄm were retained by groups such as the African maroons who are descended primarily from the Akan people. Akↄm as a form of African worship that celebrates our lineage, history and culture as black people, rooted in the cultural practices and the way of life of the Akan people of Ghana and other parts of West Africa.
Sankofie’s primary Akↄm celebration is held on Kwasiadae (Sacred Sunday). It is normally open to the public from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. We are happy to share with you here some of the sacred teachings brought to us by our deities and ancestors during our Akↄm.
August 30, 2026 at 9:30am
!!!!!!!…AKOM…!!!!!!!
In some West African cultures, Ghana and Nigeria for example, the period identified on the Gregorian calendar as August, September, October, is commonly associated with the harvesting of yams and new yam festivals. The exact timing of this activity and the accompanying celebrations vary by community, where their significance broaden to include, not only the harvest, but also an understanding of this time as a completion of cycles and precursor to a New Year. This period, which also includes the autumn equinox, is marked as a time for harvest, feasting, ancestral veneration, community expression of gratitude and cosmic reset. On this final sacred Akwasidae (Sunday) on the adaduanan, (calendar), it is time to close the old year 13,026 and prepare to welcome a new year.
Here in Jamaica, yam harvest comes at a later time, yet yam remains a sacred crop in our ancestral memory. To honor yam in ritual is to honor the resilience and fertility of our African ancestors who carried its meaning across the waters. As we symbolically align ourselves with them, we also remember the Taíno people of this land and the Kongolese who also came, who cultivated cassava as their sacred staple. Thus yam and cassava together become twin pillars of ancestral nourishment—African and Taíno legacies intertwined in our soil and spirit.
As we walk in the path of our ancestors let us gather in commUnity to explore their ways, talk about the practices relevant to the upcoming weeks, sing, dance, eat, drink and honour their and our spirits with offerings of fruits, flowers, money, drinks, prayers, incense, candles, yam and cassava, etc. to convey love, respect, gratitude and devotion. Let us join together to see how we may harvest the abundance from all the efforts we have put into this year and clean and purify the fields of our hearts, minds and spirit in preparation for the new cycle of life.
We invite you!!!
