Lake Bosumtwi Hiking
You will find many footpaths for hiking in the hills surrounding Lake Bosumtwi. Some of them reveal fascinating views (for example the one starting from the road between Nkowi and Pipie No.2 over the crater rim to Asisiriwa). On other paths, you will be walking through beautiful valleys that change from thick rainforest full of birds and butterflies to farmlands with plantain, cocoa and other crops. If you are lucky, you may see some monkeys, especially in the area between Old Brodekwano and Konkoma.
Plan ahead for your Lake Bosumtwi Adventure
- Always hire a guide to show you the right path and to translate (although Ghana's official language, many people don't speak English).
- Never forget to take plenty of drinking water, you'll need it!
- For those undertaking the 32 km walk round the lake, you should consider staying somewhere overnight. Completing the whole circle in one day will be to exhausting because of the heat.
- It is possible to hire bicycles, but on some steep parts of the roads you will have to carry them.
- Paddling on a pedua raft is is a real (and fun) challenge - and the village boys will love to teach you for a small charge.
- If you want to take pictures, always ask permission first. Many persons will be offended if you do not show them this courtesy.
- If you wish to visit holy places like Abrodwum Stone or Ekoho Forest, contact the local chiefs for permits and to learn any restrictions or conditions. You may have to pay a small amount for taking photos and for the "schnapps" that is poured as a sacrifice.
History of Lake Bosumtwi
Approximately 1.3 million years ago, a meteorite about 800m in size collided with the earth, creating the huge crater which is today Lake Bosumtwe. The average diameter of the crater rim is 10.5km, and in some places the hills of the surrounding rim exceed an altitude of 600m.
After the metrorites's impact, the landscape in the area underwent several stages caused by climate changes. Sometimes periods of heavy rainfall filled the whole crater with water so the lake level was up to the lowest points of the rim. These periods became obvious when fossils of fish were found on the top of the hills. At its highest levels, water even flowed out of the basin. On the other hand, there were times when the water level dropped to such a low level that rain forest could come up inside the basin and the lake itself was only a small pond. This period lasted until about 300 years before our present times.
Legends of The Lake
The legends say that in 1648 an Ashanti hunter named Akora Bompe from the city of Asaman was chasing an injured antelope through the rainforest. Suddenly, the animal disappeared in a small pond, as if the little water wanted to save the animals life. The hunter never got the antelope but he settled close to the water and started catching the fish. He called the place "Bosumtwi" meaning "good antelope". This story also offers a hint that by then the lake level was very low, and the dead tree giants standing offshore in the lake give evidence for it as they are over 300 years old.
The following centuries saw several wars about the lake as the Ashanti and the Akim both claimed the area to be theirs. Finally the Ashanti were victorious and secured Lake Bosumtwi for their kingdom.
Many fallen Ashanti warriors from Asaman were buried in a mass grave close to the lake at a place called Ekoho. As a sacred location, farming was forbidden, resulting in the protection of the rainforest, something destroyed in many other parts of the basin. This burial ground is located near the village of Esaase.
The Ashanti consider Lake Bosumtwe as a god. He was born on a Sunday, his birthday celebrated in a special festival called Akwasidae. Each village in the lake area has its own shrine or fetish grove. The spiritual centre of the lake is the Abrodwum Stone. Here, all the lake people will sacrifice a cow when an omen of bad fish harvest occurs. This act is celebrated in the presence of his majesty, the Ashanti king, the Asantehene himself.
In former times, it was a taboo to touch the water with iron things, so the people never used conventional boats. Traditionally they move on the lake using the padua, a wooden plank that requires much skill to be handled properly.
Lake Bosumtwi Today
Today the area around Lake Bosumtwi belongs to Ashanti region, where about 23 000 people live in 27 lake communities. Most locals are fishermen as this was their single source of income for a long time. With the growing population, the need for fish increased and with more people fishing the catches steadily decreased, resulting in the need for farming.
Lake levels are still changing, causing many of the villages to become submerged several times. This, in turn, forced the people to move up the slopes or outside the basin. That is why there are now double (town) names like Pipie No.1 and Pipie No.2.
