The Ewe Calendar, history and facts.

The Ewe ethnic group are generally found in the south central coastal areas of WestAfrica specifically Ghana, Togo, Benin and part of Nigeria. The Ewe of Ghana are located inthe south eastern part of Ghana. Those found in the extreme south eastern corner of thecountry are the Anlo and Tongu; those found to the north of these in the hinterland are knownas Eweme. (Agbodeka, 1997: i) The Anlo are found east of the River Volta and the Tongu are westwards of Anlo along theVolta River (Abotchie, 1997). These two groups speak variants of the Ewe language whichare mutually intelligible. Even though they are considered separate cultural units, Abotchie,(ibid: 9) asserts that they share “same cultural values, knowledge, belief, art, morals, laws,customs and habits....” The Anlo area is generally low lying and marshy. Their traditionaleconomic activities are predominantly fishing, (riverine, lagoonal and marine) farming(shallot, and vegetable along the littoral) and animal husbandry. It is acknowledged that thepeople also have been involved in some commercial activities especially trading. Thepresence of major trading companies like G.B. Olivant, UAC, Lever Brothers in some areasof the southern Ewe attests to their trading activities. The northern Eweland (Eweme or Ewedome in local parlance) comprises Ewe and non-Ewe(Guan and Akan origins). Their main economic activity is dependent on their natural resourceendowments of the area (Gockel: 2000). Like their southern counterparts they also engage insome trading but their principal vocation is farming, livestock production, agro-processing,Aziaku, VE. & Akyea, G.M.F. 2012. The Ewe Indigenous Calendar and Climate Change. Climate change and Sustainable Development.

The Monthly Calendar of the Ewe.

The monthly calendar of the Ewe is lunar as well as traditional. Among the traditional Ewe,the month is referred to as dzinu which means moon. The Ewe calendar is described astraditional because it is not structured along the Julian line. In the Julian there are twelvemonths that make a year; however, the traditional Ewe calendar has thirteen (13) months witheach month having twenty-eight (28) days each. Furthermore, unlike the Julian calendarwhich has three hundred and sixty five (365) or three hundred and sixty-six (366) days in ayear, the Ewe traditional year has three hundred and sixty four (364) days. The critical issue for our purpose is that the names of the months are drawn from naturalevents and activities relating to their vocations and lives. 

 The following are the Ewe traditional months their major characteristics and major activities carried out by the Ewe people.

They are as follows:

Dzove - January

Dzodze - February

Tedoxe - March

Afɔfie - April

Dame -May

Masa -June

Siamlɔm -July

Deasiamime -August

Anyɔnyɔ -September

Kele - October

Ademekpɔxe -November

Dzome -December 

Ƒoave (ending of december & beginning of January)