When the time approaches, the chief priest makes an announcement throughout the krobo land, on behalf of the Earth goddess, Nene Kloweku, for parents to submit their daughters due for the rite.
Parents present their daughters to their clan priest responsible for the Dipo. However, the girls must go through rituals and tests to prove they are still virgins before qualifying to participate in the festival.
In the past, any girl found not a virgin faced humiliation and outcast. Nowadays, however, a set of purification rituals are performed for such a girl.
On the first day of the rites, special ritual mothers shave the girls' heads and dress them with a cloth around their waist to their knee. This part of the process signifies their transition from childhood to adulthood. Afterwards, they parade before the entire community as the dipo-yo(initiates).
Early next morning, the chief priest gives the initiates a ritual bath and pours libation to ask for blessings for the girls. He then washes their feet with the blood of a goat presented by their parents. The process helps to drive away any spirit of barrenness.
The ritual mothers then train them on cooking, housekeeping and childbirth. They also learn how to seduce and treat their husbands and are taught the Klama dance, performed on the final day of the rites.
On the last day of the rites, the girls are dressed up in colourful Kente cloth (a traditional cloth in Ghana) and decorated with beads on their neck, arms and waist.
Later they are released to a gathering of the entire community, who welcome them with songs as they perform the Klama dance. At this time, any man interested in any of the initiates can start investigating her family.
Any lady who participates in the rites brings honour to herself and her family. The Dipo rites are significant as they help prevent teenage pregnancy and sexual promiscuity until girls are of age and ready to be married.
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