The Apoo Festival is a festival celebrated annually in western Ghana (specifically the towns of Techiman and Wenchi), lasting a week in March and April.[1] The festival is meant to ritually purify the people of social evils, as well as uniting people and families, and includes a variety of other traditional cultural activities. The word 'apoo' comes from the root word 'po', meaning 'to reject.'[2]
The festival is heavily associated with the Bono people. Not only is it held in Techiman, one of the most important cities to the Bono people and kingdom, insults, proverbs, maxims, songs, and historical recountings of the Bono Kingdom are exchanged during the titular Apoo procession; many of these insults, proverbs, and songs are directed towards the Ashanti, who conquered the Bono Empire.[3]