Passion Driven Kenkey Fest

On 3rd February, 2016 while undergoing my writer's block (a stage in writing where the writer lacks ideas our has no inspiration to write), I was tagged in a post on Facebook by Prosper Afuti which displayed the size of Fante Kenkey, before and after unwrapping. This was in reference to my famous article, Letter to the Fante Dokono Wura, which caught waves all over the country and he did this to tell me the situation was still the same.

I jokingly said it was the state of the economy which caused this hardship and not really the fault of the kenkey maker or seller so I wrote another satirical piece which was a sequel to the previous article, An Apology Letter to the Fante Dokono Wura, and this is where the whole idea of a Kenkey Festival began. The comments and response from the general public on Facebook was welcoming. Then the bomb dropped........a friend I had met on Facebook, famous for her trotro stories on Facebook, Abena Magis asked, "Nii when are you organising a Kenkey party?" This question was met with a wild response which needed an answer so I said, "it would happen soon."

To me, soon was in July but to Abena, soon was March. We put our heads

together to get something done and the hunt for a venue began. From Efua Sutherland Park, where we were to pay a huge amount for the place, we felt that was the end. We were down but not despaired. Making a few contacts we finally tried to get Mantse Agbona, where the event was finally held. With the help of Yvonne, who was my mate in Junior High and who is a royal from James Town, we managed to begin the process of securing the venue.

With three weeks to go, we already had our date out but no venue. It was a week long of ups and downs.At this point, we began sending out our sponsor let's to corporate institutions knowing for sure the time was short but we were moved by faith. At this point, the number of organisers had increased from 2 to 7. 

Making a few contacts here and there we but our team in 5 days, with everyone knowing what to handle. While Kola Nut and Carino chased our sponsorship, Yvonne was getting us our venue, Namerl and Sabtiya were securing sounds and good deals. Courage was taking charge of the media and publicity. Abena was coordinating affairs on the ground in Accra whole I was getting feedbacks and coordinating too from Cape Coast.

All this while, we never knew each other personally, except for pocket of friends but as a team, not at all. All these were being done via WhatsApp: discussions, meetings, reports, et al were done using social media. At this time, everyone took the event like a personal thing and worked really hard towards it. Then almighty Mustapha came on board. For what he would charge on a normal level, he came in to help for free. He handled all our media and publicity aspec. With 2 weeks to the event, we had still not fully secured the venue until some few days later when we got the confirmation. It was all joy but me work had to be done.

Our sponsors had still not responded to our letters and we were thinking of canceling the event. We had come too far to cancel the event. What were we going to tell our followers on social media? The Team effort backed with a spirit of determination saw is going against the odds. This event had to take place even if we would go into heavy debt. The event, with all the media hype by Hon. Dzifa Gomashie and team members became bigger than we thought.

With a week more to the event, we finally met as a team and it felt like we've been friends for long. The connection was just perfect. We had built trust around the team and accountability was key amongst us. They didn't use the fact that they were older than me, the respect was there and I also reciprocated it. Within 3 weeks, we were able to bring Ghanaians together and what did seem to be a dream became a reality. It was all smiles and joy on the face of patrons and patronesses of the event. 7th March was indeed a day history was made.

Today, I look back and I remember the sleepless nights I had cos I was thinking of how the event would be like: was it going to flop or going to be like the big events we know. With all these, I've learnt a lot of things. Major amongst them is trust: We started on social media without having any physical contact. Accountability, we reported on every single enquiry and expenses made. Respect made us put our personal pride aside, cos the team is made up of people of noble professions, even we the students had personal business we were doing but we didn't undermine the capability of anyone. Last but not least, our passion and determination towards getting the event done is what got us going.

I don't know what it is you want to do in life but I leave you with just 6 things:

Network with people who believe in your dreams. Not necessarily friends. A team full of friends kills a project.
Passion is what moves a nation. Don't make education kill your dreams. Pursue both but use education to promote your passion.
Determination never made anyone mad.
Humble people eat with kings. No matter your achievement, someone has done better.
Prayer does everything. It is the only that can put thoughts together and keep a distressed soul calm.
Social Media is a dream maker and destroyer. How it's able to perform that function depends on how you make use of it.

Kenkey Fest has come to stay and I'm proud to be an agent change in the history of Ghana. 

Mind you, Abena Magis is a co-founder of the International Kenkey Festival.

It was our idea.

Get more pictures from the event by visiting:

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=%21Av%5FjICTvFA9kERU&id=221DA604CAD6CE8%214497&cid=0221DA604CAD6CE8