Traditional Akan Research Articles

Africa and the prospects of rotational democracy

AbstractSharing of social, economic, and political opportunities is crucial for the stability of many African states. Democracy has been identified as an inclusive framework that allows individuals to freely contest for these opportunities. However, in Africa, democracy appears not to work as compared to Western democratic societies. Some African political philosophers blame the problem on liberal democratic type practiced in the continent, which is modeled after the hegemonic socio‐political discourse in Europe and North America. Thus, it is argued that workable democratic model for Africa must be embedded in the continent's cultural and historical nuances. Consequently, initial effort by the Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu appealed to the nonpartisan Consensus Democracy of traditional Akan society. But it is doubtful that the consensual model, which was successful in the mono‐ethnic traditional Akan society, will produce the same effect in a multi‐ethnic society as the modern African states. At present, ethnicity inter alia remains a major obstruction to democratization of the continent. Africa needs a democratic model that takes its rigid multi‐ethnic character into account instead of uncritically imposing global democratic knowledge to African situations or totally disregarding local knowledge of democracy. Therefore, I investigate how ethnicity inter alia can be accommodated in democratic practice. An experimental model called “Rotational Democracy” is introduced based on the traditional African social practice of One Cup, which embodies the phenomena of power rotation and rationing of the traditional society. The article demonstrates how indigenous knowledge can be the starting point for democratic practice in Africa.

Molefe on Wiredu's Humanistic Interpretation of Akan (African) Ethics

Abstract In his 2015 Theoria article titled ‘A Rejection of Humanism in African Moral Tradition’, Motsamai Molefe argues that Kwasi Wiredu's humanistic interpretation of traditional Akan ethics cannot be the best account of African ethics because Wiredu overlooks the significant sentiment in traditional African thought that regards reality as a holistic totality of spiritual, social and environmental components. I point out that Molefe's rejection of Wiredu's humanism follows from the latter's de-emphasising of supernaturalism. I argue that Molefe overlooks the fact that the displacement of God in this humanism is consistent with the limited God sentiment in traditional African thought, which confirms Wiredu's humanistic ethics as one rooted in traditional African worldviews. Adopting the method of philosophical exposition and analysis, I show how Wiredu's limited God framework motivates scepticism about the possibility of a supernaturalist ethics and renders a humanistic orientation a more attractive account of African moral tradition.

Relating to the Whole Community in Akan and East Asian Ancestral Traditions

Ancestors play crucial roles in the cultural consciousness of diverse traditions, many maintaining ritualistic practices related to commemorating the dead. Ancestor commemoration reinforces cohesion within traditional as well as modern societies, directing a group’s focus to past accomplishments of its cultural heritage whilst providing a unifying narrative of the values that bring and hold a community together. The West African Akan tradition values those who honor their ancestors and, by leading a moral life, seek to become ancestors themselves: persons whose lives enjoy standing in the community beyond their own death. This short paper explores ideas about the role of ancestors as (symbolic) constituents of enduring moral communities by comparing traditional Akan belief to traditional East Asian conceptions of ancestors. The aim is to consider the metaphysical, social, and moral dimensions related to ancestors, highlighting continuity and communal concerns.

The Rhetoric of “Bragoro”: The Philosophy Behind Akan Traditional Concept of Marriage

This paper discusses the intertextual relationship between the world of Akan Bragoro (puberty rites) song texts and the real world of Akans. The Akan Bragoro song texts are performed during Bragoro celebrations and the song texts define the Akan concept of sex and marriage within the parameters of traditional Akan philosophy. The paper uses qualitative research methods that are irrigated by ethnographic and stylistics approaches to text interpretation. The findings of the research indicate that texts of Akan Bragoro songs key all the meanings this traditional philosophy has to offer: sex is strictly a marital affair and marriage is for those who are prepared for it. The stylistics of the song texts also frame the epistemic of Akan love and that the basic condition of Akan conjugal love is a good character on the side of both the man and the woman. The paper further reveals that the Akan Bragoro song texts constitute the site where the precipitates of Akan marriage are provided and Bragoro initiates are introduced to the Akan way of life. These precipitates are rehearsed in performance year after year, making the Akan Bragoro an enduring cultural practice that guides the life of the Akans throughout all ages. Keywords: Performance, Bragoro song texts, Verbal art, Cognitive poetics, Tradition

Examining the usage of traditional Akan poems in early childhood education

Examining the usage of traditional Akan poems in early childhood education

Leadership Development: Influence of Christianity on Akan Leadership Formation – A Case Study of Kwaebibirem

The study investigated the influence of Christianity on Akan leadership formation in Kwaebibirem in the Brong – Ahafo Region of Ghana. It was conducted using descriptive survey as its research design. The population of the study comprised chiefs, clan’s heads and members of the clergy. Ten (10) were selected to form the participants for the study. These participants provided data for the study by way of interview in the form of focus group discussions. The data that was gathered by way of interview was analyzed thematically. It was found that the participants affirmed that Christianity has had influence on the traditional Akan leadership. Fetishism was also motivated as contributing to leadership development in the area. It is recommended that in order to preserve the core aspects of the traditional leadership system, there is the need for deliberate integration into the school curriculum at the basic school level in the Akan areas. Native language is to be used as the medium of instruction at the lower primary school. This is crucial to preserve and transfer the rich culture which involves education in the traditional and Christian institutions in the Akan areas. This will help blend the sweeping Christian ethos in modern Akan societies from which derive their identity and heritage. Keywords: Traditional leader, Black Stool, Spirit DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/57-06 Publication date: March 31 st 2020

Proverbs and Patriarchy: Analysis of Linguistic Prejudice and Representation of Women in Traditional Akan Communities of Ghana

Discourses govern the phenomenological interpretation of our everyday existence and influence both our way of thinking and our relationship with one another in the world. Undoubtedly, popular sayings and proverbs mediate the way of being in African context. This paper examines the role of proverbs and wise sayings in the African culture. This paper attempts to analyze the representation of women in sampled Akan proverbs and the ways in which these proverbs institutionalize the position, identity, and roles of women in traditional Akan communities of Ghana. This paper suggests that oral traditions are used in the systematic perpetuation of patriarchal culture, gender inequities, and inequality. Therefore, it recommends the revolutionalization of oral traditions to assist in the deinstitutionalization of the prevailing patriarchal discourses and culture in traditional Akan communities of Ghana.

Examining the Usage of Traditional Akan Poems in Early Childhood Education

Examining the Usage of Traditional Akan Poems in Early Childhood Education

Suicide and Mortuary Beliefs and Practices of the Akan of Ghana

Akan society has traditionally held a negative and condemnatory view of suicide. Evidence of this is reflected in the lack of public mourning, brevity of the grieving period, and denial of proper burial rites and funeral obsequies for the suicide. Furthermore, because suicide is regarded as an abomination against the living, the departed ancestors, as well as the gods of the land, the political authorities of the land must be notified immediately of suicide deaths so that proper placatory and propitiation rituals can be undertaken to forestall any catastrophic diseases, accidents, and natural disasters. Given the current paucity of scholarship on the issue, it is the purpose of this article to explore in depth traditional Akan mortuary beliefs and practices governing suicidal death.

Traditional Akan Royal Chiefly Institution: Evolving ceremonial protocol in chieftaincy at Duayaw-Nkwanta in Ghana

Chieftaincy is one of the most enduring traditional institutions in Ghana that has displayed remarkable resilience from the pre-colonial period to the contemporary era. This article discusses the introduction of new protocolary forms into the institution. Central to the qualitative method deployed is an examination of the interface between “tradition” and modernity” using the 40th anniversary celebration of the paramount chief of Duayaw-Nkwanta, Nana Boakye-Tromo III. In this article, I argue that “traditional elements” are not necessarily at variance with “modern” elements because societies that are often characterized as “modern” also recognize traditions as relevant, rather than as obstacles, to their development. Keywords: Ghana, tradition, modernity, Duayaw-Nkwanta, ceremonial protocol

Traditional Akan Ethics and Humanist Ethics: A Comparative Study

Since Traditional Akans are Africans, one can logically deduce that the former share in the notorious religiosity that characterize the later. This notwithstanding, it seems that religion is not the sole determinant of the ethics of the Akan people even though it is a sine qua non factor/source of Akan ethics. In addition to religion, the Akan Tradition is an important determinant of Akan ethics. Similar to Akan ethics, Humanist ethics is based on human reason, intellect and the experience of human society but unlike Akan ethics, Humanist ethics debunks religion and any supernaturalism. This study examines Akan ethics and Humanist ethics endeavouring to unravel how two different ethics can have many similar moral values despite differences in their respective sources.

On the Rationality of Traditional Akan Religion: Analyzing the Concept of God

This paper is an attempt to show how logically acceptable (or rational) belief in Traditional Akan religion is. The attempt is necessitated by the tendency by some scholars to (mis) treat all religions in a generic sense; and the potential which Akan religion has to influence philosophical debates on the nature of God and the rationality of belief in God – generally, on the practice of religion. It executes this task by expounding some rational features of the religion and culture of the Akan people of Ghana. It examines, in particular, the concept of God in Akan religion. This paper is therefore a philosophical argument on the sacred and institutional representation of what humans have come to refer to as “religious.” Keywords: rationality; good; Akan religion; God; worship

Growing Culture as Essential Knowledge: The 2015 NSK Neustadt Prize Lecture

52 WLT JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2016 Speaking before a packed audience at the University of Oklahoma last October, Asare reflected on culture as our „ mandate to live life and express with freedom our being here in the world as human beings.” I n a world that turns and rolls along on lofty impressions of itself, it takes a truly special person to step out of the halo and bustle of adult sophistication even for a moment and look for conversation inside the unaccomplished world of the child. But some persons do—persons who are commonly known as parents. Out of responsibility and sentiment, mothers and fathers are often drawn into a child’s still-emerging world. I believe that is what we, too, are doing now, drawn by responsibility and sentiment to celebrate excellence in children’s and young persons’ literature, though not all of us here may be parents in the ordinary sense. But as Friedrich Schiller explains, “It is not flesh and blood but heart that makes us fathers and sons.” That is plain passion, and the Akan people of Ghana, too, suggest similarly that such is the character of a person— female or male—that deserves the appellation Obaatan. Yet this is not an appellation that they bestow on just any parent, for it also expresses appreciation, reverence, and adoration of divine care and sustenance for everything that exists and lives—and one often hears the laudatory utterance in moments of serendipity, “Onyame baatan pa,” God the good parent. Thus, besides supporting the attribution of the parental tendency and expression to passion rather than filial bond, traditional Akan perspective adds a somewhat ethereal dimension. Bearing this in mind, one may perhaps suggest that whatever it is that moves an adult person to give dedicated attention to the interests of a child must be of extraordinary nature. To begin with, the person may be one of uncommon sensitivity and perception and therefore hold the conviction that a child contains everything that is the sum of humanity, and then more—that a child also carries potentiality, for whatever the human race is going to become in the future is already contained in a child. Furthermore , this person, this parent Obaatan, is ever aware that in the end, we become only the adults that our childhood lives and experiences prepared us to become. Perhaps at this point we may even cite a rather unlikely similarity here: a farmer’s “religious” dedication to the initial tasks of preparingthesoil,nurturingitwithnecessary cover feature Growing Culture as Essential Knowledge The 2015 NSK Neustadt Prize Lecture by Meshack Asare WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 53 enrichment, and sowing the seeds, though by custom, a farmer’s recognition is determined by the volume of harvest. Here, I think, the parent, Obaatan, and the farmer converge on the commitment to the beginnings and nurturing of life. This may explain why Ghana seems to achieve more success in the field of literature for children and young persons in Africa, for they say in Ghana, “If the yam is bad, blame the soil in which it grew. Don’t blame the yam.” The farmer is committed to processes of farming from the beginning to ensure the best possible start in life for the seedlings and does not skimp on dedication to them. And there is another thing—the sameness of “farming” and “culture.” Basically a farmer listens seriously to the earth, for the earth talks and the farmer must know what it says. How else will the seedlings be sown and nourished in the right soil, shielded from storms, appropriately supported and protected against blight in the air? It all amounts to “culture,” and the significance is the same. No matter what others may think, to this person, the parent , Obaatan, culture is essential knowledge , the mandate to live life and express with freedom our being here in the world in ways that are recognized as human and valued by the community of human beings. This person who bends to the world of the child, this parent, Obaatan, farmer, is a keen observer, believes that the process of evolution continues just as the world continues to reveal its nature to us. So, avoiding...

Religion and the Problem of Rationality: Insights from Akan Religious Thought

Arguments against the practice of religion and, in general, against belief in metaphysical entities, have been made in different cultures and at different times in human history. This article, however, does not offer a historical outline of such arguments. Rather, it reflects on some contemporary remarks made, especially in Western thought, against religion. It illustrates how a correct understanding of Traditional Akan Religion renders untrue claims that seek to dismiss religion on the grounds of irrationality. Utilising philosophical reflection, it shows how rational belief in a Traditional African Religion such as the Akan one is.Key WordsRationality, revelation, logical positivism, predestination, free will, Akan religion, African religion

Religion and Development

Unlike several decades after the World War II, there is now a growing recognition of the importance of religion for designing development programmes and projects. However, the involvement of religions of the indigenous peoples is not given the desired attention. This article, therefore, aims at presenting African traditional religion’s voice in this important discourse by using the traditional Akan people of Ghana as a case study. Despite its suffering from stereotyping, African traditional religion continues to play a critical role in the life of the traditional African. The term “Development” is not easy to define, the divergent theories on it point to this fact. The traditional Akan people’s understanding of development, however, is derived from their religious worldview. The institution of chieftaincy, gerontocracy, institution of taboos, kinship ties and their attitude towards nature are the main development mechanisms among the Akan. Despite the threats these mechanisms are undergoing today, the potential of these indigenous mechanisms for development is not in doubt, hence the need for further research.

Salvaging Nature: The Akan Religio-Cultural Perspective

AbstractThe way many Ghanaians relate to the environment now is not the best; they just do not care about how to handle the environment in a sustainable way. They have forgotten that life is environment and environment is life due to rapid cultural change, population explosion etc. There is indiscriminate logging, annual bushfires, illegal surface mining, bad farming practices, dumping of human and industrial wastes into our water bodies and the like. It is estimated that over 90 percent of Ghana's high forest has been logged since the late 1940s. The sanitation situation is growing from bad to worst as the records show. All efforts to salvage the situation over the years have failed to yield the needed results. It is for this reason that this paper argues strongly for the inclusion of indigenous Ghanaian religion and culture in this fight, for they have proven to be eco-biased religion and culture due to the environmentally beneficial mechanisms inherent in them. Specifically, the traditional Akan use their conception of land, taboos, totemism, sacred groves and sasa to ensure the conservation of nature. Therefore, this paper believe, the time has come for us to forge a common ground in our efforts to find a lasting solution to our environmental problems from both the perspectives of science and that of Indigenous Spiritualities and Culture.

コスモロジーとリアリティ

In the last decades a considerable number of studies have been published on the Asante/Akan spiritual world. The results can be somehow summarized in the following discourse: “The traditional Akan thought on man is that he is made up of okra, sunsum, ntoro and mogya (Opoku 1978 p. 94).” While this view is now widely accepted not only in the field of research but also in contemporary school education in Ghana, it cannot be found in the village society where I have carried out my fieldwork.The aim of this paper is to investigate Asante villagers' knowledge with respect to their concept of lives. For this purpose the concepts which are said to link their real world with their spiritual world have been taken under investigation: that is, sunsum and okra.I first visited Abankro —a village 3km north from Ejisu, a town located 20km east of Kumasi on the Accra Road (Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana, of approximately one million people)—in November 1993 as a research student of University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. Living as a member of Mr. and Mrs. Prempeh's family, I carried out my research for a continuous period of 9 months.The villager's narratives do not always show consistency and are wanting in their scientific or rationalistic basis. Accordingly they are often regarded as “incorrect” knowledge by the “educated” people and little attention has been given to the villager's vernacular discourse and knowledge.Notwithstandingly, this paper would like to show that villagers' non-standardized contradictive narratives represent a clue to grasp imagination of local people that can create a flexible strategy in the actual lives.First, the Akan/Asante Cosmology constructed by the Western knowledge—mainly dominated by literacy— is reviewed. The construction of Akan/Asante Cosmology can be seen through the “words refer game” and the sophistication applied by those modern disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and philosophy.Second, the village people's narratives in regard to their cosmology are documented and the differences between the literal and narrated cosmology are considered. Although the same concepts (sunsum and okra) are employed, meanings and narratives differ between the people's narratives and the standardized cosmology. This can be found in the case of the manipulation of asram disease which has affected a new-born baby: villagers believe this disease is caused by the evil person possessed by sunsum bone (evil spirit).Finally it is pointed out that Asante people attribute different meanings to sunsum, okra and asram: those alternations are caused by their imaginative ability to manage their lives flexibly and their way of thinking is opened to the imagination of others—nature, self, community and the other world.

The Political Meaning of Highlife Songs in Ghana

This paper explores the political meaning of Ghanaian Highlife songs, which are generally regarded as pure entertainment. The paper is the result of a close cooperation between a Ghanaian insider (Asante-Darko) and a European outsider (Van der Geest). More than one hundred Highlife songs were collected, transcribed, and translated. All these texts are recorded songs. Nearly all Highlife songs examined in this paper are in the Twi (or Akan) language. (The Akan are a collection of culturally related societies with mutually intelligible languages. They number about four million people and live in the southern part of Ghana.) It should be made clear, however, that Highlife is also performed in other languages, within and outside of Ghana. This brief paper does not discuss the methodological problems involved in the use of artistic expressions for anthropological purposes. This has been done elsewhere (Fabian, 1978; Asante-Darko and Van der Geest, 1981). Instead, it analyzes the meaning of songs and people's reactions to them. The first section of the paper provides background information about Highlife music in Ghana. The second section deals with the hidden meaning of art in general and, in particular, with the hidden political meaning of Ghanaian Highlife songs. Highlife is a blend of traditional Akan rhythms and melodies with European musical elements, such as the use of European instruments and harmony. It encompasses a variety of artistic expressions: music, dancing, story-telling, and theater. Performances by Highlife bands are called concerts, even in the Twi language. They usually start with a comic or tragi-comic play filled with musical effects and intermezzos and end with a performance of Highlife songs (Richard, 1974; Collins, 1976a). Both the play and the songs can be about many different topics, rural or urban, modern or traditional, true events or stories. Generally, however, the songs deal with the problems of everyday life: poverty, marriage problems, hatred, gossip, shame, sickness, and death (Bame, 1974; Ricard, 1974). Apart from live performances, Highlife owes its popularity to recordings, which are produced in Ghana.

The Rule of Law in Asante, A Traditional Akan State

The Rule of Law in Asante, A Traditional Akan State