Dipo week in my town

So this week was the week when the girls who had completed their Dipo training were walking around in their beads and traditional fabric.

Now you maybe asking what the Dipo training is, and that is a good question. Dipo is the "coming of age" custom which turns Krobo girls into Krobo women. In former times, girls were sent to live with the older women on Krobo mountain or in the villages for one year, to learn from them. Now most of the education of the girls takes place in schools so the custom only takes one week.

The custom is interesting, from what I have read. I have not seen it take place, I have only seen the girls walking around in their cloth and beads. The custom is that the girls wear many pounds of beads as part of the ceremonies and for most of the ceremonies the girls are not allowed to wear cloth from the waist up, they can only wear beads. It is only after the girls jump the stone to prove that they are "good girls and have not conceived a child" if they have they will not be able to jump the stone and the pot from which you drink the sacred drink will break.

Most of the girls that I have seen going through the ceremony are between the ages of 12 and 17. The Queen mother of my area try not to allow any girl under the age of 12 to go through the ceremony and try to use the ceremony to education the girls about HIV/AIDS.

It is very expensive for the girls to go through the ceremony. The family has to buy the girls several new pieces of cloth depending on the day of the week and new beads to add to the family collection. In addition they need to purchase gifts to give to the traditional priest who presides over the ceremony. Not all families in the village can afford for their daughters to go through the ceremony but those that do are looked upon with favor and it is a way to emphasize the importance of waiting to have children and family.

Seeing the girls walking around the village this week in their traditional clothes made me smile that this was one tradition that was not lost in the race to modernize Ghana. All to often I see the boys here wearing their pants as low as we do in the States and their hats on backwards like the hip-hop stars do. Everyone wants to be an American hip-hop star and lose their traditions so I am glad that they are holding on to this one and adding HIV/AIDS education.