By: alusinerehme.wilson@awokonewspaper.sl
Makeni, SIERRA LEONE – Like never before, this year’s Boxing Day celebration saw a number of residents and descendants of Rokupr town in Kambia District and several from other towns and cities in the country as well as some from abroad danced with “Athongo.”
Some old locals in the town told Awoko Newspaper in Rokupr that this year’s crowd of persons that showed up to dance with “Athongo” – (Kambia District’s most famous masquerade) is the largest ever.
This year’s crowd is estimated at 5,000 the highest population ever to have shown up for an end-of-year masquerade dance in Rokupr town as well as the whole Kambia District.
Among the huge crowd that showed up for this year’s traditional dance of “Athongo” were children, young people and adults, between the ages of 5 to 68 years.
It was learned that “Athongo” is a revolutionary masquerade that was founded in the late 1940’s by a group of influential young and old descendants of Rokupr town who teamed up to raise their voices against some “Susu” settlers from Guinea Conakry who were taking over the outskirts of the touristic town of Rokupr Khaliza which is famous for its touristic nature apart from it being the hub for mass rice production and the economic town for all the fishing communities such as Mambolo, Kothr, Katema, Samu, Rokun, Tombo Wala among others, it’s also located on the banks of the Great Scarcies River. ARW/27/12/2022