This year’s Diamond FM’s Damba Festival fun and games ended successfully in a scintillating fashion at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium Annex on Saturday 23rd October, 2021.
The colourful event as usual brought together ‘rival’ tribes in the Northern Sector of Ghana who are traditional play mates and the two leading political parties (the National Democratic Congress-NDC and the New Patriotic Party-NPP).
The fun games saw the ‘rival’ tribes coming up against each other with a chance to win a trophy, cash prizes and assorted drinks. Therefore, Dagombas who have the Moshie people as their playmates played against each other. Gonjas came up against the Kassena people of the Upper East Region. The Bonaboto Youth in the Upper East region presented a team to play against their playmates the Dagaabas from the Upper West Region.
In the first football game of the day, Dagombas beat the Moshie people 1-0 to lift the trophy at stake. The Kassena people defeated Gonjas by 4-2 on penalties after the game ended 0-0 after the regulation time. The Gonjas had in their team the Regional Football Association Chairman Alhaj Abu Hassan Rhyzo who played the first half of the game. Alhaj Rhyzo also donated bottles of water and canned Malt and a cash amount of GH₵ 400 in support of the blood donation exercise. The Bonaboto Youth team defeated the Dagaabas by 2-0 with goals from Abayase Moses and Abdulai Abdul Karim.
In the leading political parties contest, the NDC beat their rivals the NPP 1-0 at the end of the game. The NDC had in their fold the Tamale Central Constituency Chairman Issahak Umar Farouk (Chairman F.K.), a host of the communicators of the party including ‘Zacious’. They were coached by the Regional Secretary of the party Mohammed Abdul Salam (King Salam).
The NPP had Mohammed Mashud (Whereabouts) as their coach and had players such as Mohammed Suawi, the Tamale South Constituency Secretary.
Other games that took place on the day were ludo, sack race, lime and spoon and gold ball by the visually impaired people in which the Sagnarigu Municipal played against the Tamale Metro team.
The Diamond FM Damba Festival is an annual affair where fun games are organized for these tribes and political parties with the aim of fostering unity and peaceful co-existence.
The other significant activity during the Damba at Diamond FM is the day set aside for blood donation to feed the blood bank of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and other big facilities in Tamale. This year’s blood donation is slated for Monday 25th, October, 2021 at the premises of Diamond FM, Nkrumah Volini in Tamale from 8:00am.
On that day some widows and orphans will also have their national health insurance cards renewed for them and others will be registered for free.
Donations have come in from far and near to help achieve this aim.
Below is the results of all the games played:
Football
Dagombas 1-0 Moshies
Kassena 0-0 Gonjas (Kassenas win 4-2 on penalties)
Bonaboto 2-0 Dagaabas
NDC 1-0 NPP
Ludo-Females
- Yakubu Sanatu-Gonja
- Alice Wetah-Kassena
- Hajia Rubaba-Moshie
- Madam Jami-Bonaboto
Sack Race
Salifu-NPP: First
Umar-NDC: Second
Lime and Spoon
Malik Yaasaaba-NDC: First
Huzaifa-NPP: Second
