Season
1st week · October
Esiama keeps its own week in the Nzema season, 1st week of October, when the palm fruit is ripe. The Palace confirms the exact days.
This year's main event · The Royal Palace
Kundum
Abisa.
Esiama's main event this year is Kundum Abisa — the harvest and ancestral festival kept when the palm fruit ripens. Esiama's week falls in the Nzema season, 1st week of October; the Palace confirms the exact days.
About the Abisa
A week the town is renewed.
Kundum is the harvest and ancestral festival of the Nzema and Ahanta — thanks for the year's catch and crop, and a cleansing that drives out evil and invites good fortune. In Esiama the whole celebration is called Abisa.
It is both social and spiritual. Across the town the week is kept with rituals, song, drumming and dance: a time to thank God, to remember the ancestors, and to renew the community for the year ahead. The season opens when the palm fruit ripens — Esiama keeps its own week, set apart from the neighbouring towns along the coast.
The rites run in stages, each opened with libation. A period of preparation and quiet comes first — musical instruments are stilled and the elders pay their respects at the resting place of the ancestors. Then the Kundum fire is lit, meals are cooked in the open and shared with anyone who comes, and the durbar grounds fill with drumming and dancing that carries to the last night.
The Palace keeps the week. Visitors are welcome to witness it with respect: Kundum is a living tradition, not a performance staged for guests. Follow local guidance, ask before photographing, and let the rites take their course.
Rhythm
One week, at the end
Weeks of preparation and the Abisa rites lead into a public celebration of about a week, kept in the open.
Kept by
The Royal Palace
The stool lights the Kundum fire and the town gathers at the durbar grounds, forecourt and shore.
History
Older than the colony.
Kundum is kept by the Nzema and Ahanta towns of the Western Region, each on its own week. Its story reaches back past European contact.
The founding account is oral. A hunter came upon the motia — the “little people” — dancing in a circle to the drums, and learned the dance they called Abisa. He carried it home, and it became the town's festival: a way to give thanks for the harvest and to drive out evil and famine.
The festival is older than the colony. One of the first written records comes from the Dutch trader Willem Bosman, who described Kundum in 1704; the rites are believed to predate European arrival on the coast.
In Esiama, Kundum was brought to the town by the Alowoba (Oyoko) clan, led by Egya Kadiba Ekua from Princes Town (Kpulisi). The town has kept the festival in recent years — recorded in 2022 and 2023, and celebrated again in 2025.
Kundum history per Nzema oral tradition and early European records · exact dates confirmed by the Palace
The royal family
The palace household.
The family who hold the stool keeps the town's welcome. Select any portrait to view it larger.
Six gatherings — one year
What holds the year.
Kundum Abisa in the Nzema season is the largest — durbar, drums and the week the diaspora comes home — but the town gathers every season. Durbar, ocean and market take turns.
Oct 1–7
Kundum Abisa
Durbar, drums and the week the diaspora comes home. The stool at its most open. Every Esiama household keeps fire — 1st week of October.
Festival · 1st week October
Jan
New Year Durbar
Elders call the year at the palace — libation, welcome and the town's ledger read aloud.
Palace · January
Mar
Ocean Opening
Canoes return after the closed season; first catch shared at the landing.
Ocean & Beach · March
Jun
Market & Town Day
76 stores, one day — the new market blessed, then filled.
Town Centre · June
Aug
Youth & Schools
SHTS and basic schools — essay, football and a durbar of pupils.
Schools · August
Nov
Harvest & Thanks
Farm road and fisher close the year — thanks at the palace and the shore.
All Esiama · November
Palace Contact
Hold your place for the drums.
Esiama marks the year with six town gatherings; the durbar grounds fill at Kundum. Tell us the month and we will tell you what remains.
Announced
What's coming up.
The town's year and the days the Palace has announced. Confirm exact dates with the Palace before you travel.
| Event | When | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kundum Abisa | 1–7 October 2026 (1st week) | Palace & durbar grounds | This year's main event — the harvest and ancestral festival. 1st week of October; exact days confirmed by the Palace. |
| Harvest & Thanks | November 2026 | Palace & shore | Farm road and fisher close the year — thanks at the palace and the shore. |
| New Year Durbar | January 2027 | The Royal Palace | Elders call the year at the palace — libation, welcome and the town's ledger read aloud. |
| Palace Centenary | 2027 | Palace forecourt | 100 Years of the Royal Palace — the courtyard that receives the town marks one hundred years. |
| Ocean Opening | March 2027 | The landing | Canoes return after the closed season; first catch shared at the landing. |
| Market & Town Day | June 2027 | Town Centre | 76 stores, one day — the new market blessed, then filled. |
| Youth & Schools | August 2027 | Schools & SHTS | SHTS and basic schools — essay, football and a durbar of pupils. |