Akan

Concusion

Akan

• Interesting group of people because they were able to stand up the British during the colonization
• Their rich in gold made their trade so powerful and able to control the trade in the West
• High in education and their conversion to Christianity

• Each has its own priest, okomfo who is a living spirit that interprets the spirit and consults to remove sicknesses and human disaster
• Each kingdom or town had an annual purification, aka odwira
• The king, the office of kingship, and the town are purified of the pollution - known in literature as the "yam festival"
• The Akan have been largely Christians after the nineteenth century, except for kings who maintain their religious status and practices
• European Christians were highly successful
• Especially education because of Akan's high literacy
• Islam has a long history for their trade
• The royal used Muslim scripture for court deities
• These two religious beliefs and activities go side by side according to their needs

Religion

Hee Jae Ko

• They worship a High God - Onyame
• He is accompanied by Asase Yaa - goddes of the earth
• Also have many spirits and deities
• The living can communicate through prayer, sacrifice, and possession
• The ancestors lived in a dead land and gave offering
• Including slaves in the past
• The royal ancestors are protection of the rituals
• Stool
• The stool was anointed with human blood, gun powder, spider webs, and alcoholic drinks

Golden Stool

Household

• Verbal taboos
• Menstruation
• Belief - in one High God but also have other spirits, deities, and ancestors
• Language - Kwa
• high in literacy
• Food - Corn

Culture

slave trade

Ghana's Independence - March 6th, 1957

Ivory Coast - August 7th, 1960

Kente Cloth

• Art is wide-ranging
• Traditions of crafting bronze gold
• Mythological stories called anansesem
• Means "The spider story," figuratively means "Traveler's tales"
• Also referred to "words of a sky god"
• Stories revolved around Kwaku Ananse, trickster spirit
• Depicted as a spider, human, or combination of both

Akan People

Adinkra Cloth

• Ethnic group in West Africa, that still exist today
• Neighboring countries with Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and possibly Benin
• Population: over 20 million
• Ghana: about 10 million
• Ivory Coast: 8 million
• Migrated south to coastal regions of West Africa around 1400
• Built powerful kingdoms
• The British did not come to colonial rule until late 1800
• Dominated trade in West Africa
• Rich natural resources of land - GOLD
• Access to major trading routes

Politics and economics

• Based on matrilineal leneages
• Several lineages would be grouped into political unit headed by chief and council of elders
• Each were elected head of a lineage
• Lineage property only inherited by matrilineal kin
• Political unit were grouped into eight larger groups - abusua
• Aduana, Agona, Asakyiri, Asemie, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona, and Oyoko
• The members of abusua were united by their belief that they were all descended from the sme anciet ancestress
• Marriage from same abusua was forbidden
• Rich in gold

Naming

Lifecycle

• Matrilineal descendent
• Based of inheritance and succession
• The members of the subclan, which are eight, occupy a single town or village
• Comprised of constituent groups referred as lineages
• not a segmental linear system - power and wealth

• Naming is important
• Describes the spiritual identity of a person
• Shapes character and behavior
• First name of the child is determined by the day of the week the child is born
• Name describes the child's spiritual qualities
• Last name is determined by the father
• Chooses the name carefully
• Usually of an ancestor or relative

• Cudjo is a first name
• First name usually called soulname (kradin)
• reflects the child's soul (okra), enters at birth
• There are different deities each day of the week
• The deity chooses the unborn child
• The child gets born on the day of the deity and gives the child his/her soul and destiny (nkrabea)
• There is an outdoor ceremony exactly one week later and announce the child's soulname
• Boys born on Monday - Kwadwo (Akan for Cudjo)
• Gris born on Monday - Adwo
• Monday is Dwoda - receive their soul from Adwo, deity of Monday

Marriage

Slavery

• Expected to be exogamous
• Simple
• No bride-wealth
• Transfer of rum or other drink
• Some money form the groom to the bride's family
• Divorce is easy
• Can be initiated by either men or women

• Practiced slavery
• Slaves from northern slave dealers, usually Muslims
• War captives, criminals, people who opposed local chiefs, and many local ritual leaders
• Used for domestic and field labor
• Sale to traders across the Sahara and the Atlantic
• Used as sacrifices to royal and other ancestors
• The Europeans also shipped Akans to the New World, especially Jamaica