Anti-Ga Mantse Intrigues Thicken

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Category: Culture & Tourism

Created on Friday, 04 September 2009 00:00

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Anti-Ga Mantse Intrigues Thicken

By A.R. Gomda

THE INTRIGUES to dethrone King Tackie Tawiah III as the Ga Mantse are heading for a crescendo as meetings on the subject now shifts to the Castle, Osu, the authoritative endorsement by a judicial committee on 18th July 2008 notwithstanding.

Towards this end, the faces of some personalities inclined to the scheme are now regular features at the Castle, where the dethronement agenda is a priority. Coming and leaving the seat of government, the intriguers have joined the long list of others who come to the location seeking the dismissal of one public official or the other. Proving to be a formidable subject whose fallout can be devastating to the government, meticulousness, DAILY GUIDE has gathered, is the hallmark of the schemers.

An earlier attempt at effecting the dethronement during the last June 4 celebration in the country was quickly shelved following security concerns.Whether this time around the scheme can go through, remains to be seen given the security implications this could wreak on the nation’s capital at this time. The alarms have been sounded over the development by some concerned citizens of Ga Mashie who seek anonymity.According to one of them, chieftaincy issues are so delicate and explosive that governments which delve into them soon burn their fingers and as he put it, Empirical evidence exists to prove that. Let them try it and they will live to regret it.

The concerned group has also expressed amazement about President John Evans Atta Mills paying courtesy calls on other chiefs in the country. But not deeming it fit to render the same deference to his hosts in Accra, especially since his wife is an indigene of the city”.The Ga Mantse, King Tackie Tawiah III, an intellectual known in his private life as Dr. Joe Blankson, lived for a long time in the United Kingdom and succeeded the late Nii Amugi.His brief reign has been docked with seeming government interference through a subtle non-recognition of his authority.

The King was stopped from performing the traditional annual Homowo festivities at the stool house by the Greater Regional Security Council which pointed at security concerns as informing the decision.

The MP for the Odododiodio constituency, Hon. Tackie Commey and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Armah Ashietey, have both distanced themselves from any intrigue since the subject first hit the media.

During a rare press conference a few months ago, the King, a descendant of the legendary Ga King Tackie Tawiah I, expressed dismay at what he considered deliberate interference by the government in the affairs of the Ga state, recalling for instance the closure of the stool house of the Gas on the orders of the National Security apparatus.

The Ga Mantse, whose stool is entitled to a certain percentage of the takings of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has not received a dime since ascending the stool he stated during the media engagement.

The King told media representatives at his palace that although he had written to the President on his assumption of office, no acknowledgment of the correspondence had been received, a development which observers consider evidence that the government has something sinister up its sleeves against the royal personality.

His explanation that whoever infringes upon the tradition of the Gas, by for instance usurping the authority to perform certain rites when they are not entitled to them will reap the consequences was misinterpreted to mean a curse and was carried by a local daily.

The story, considered a slant, was preceded by a further explanation by the King who said, I do not curse, but rather pray for the progress of the nation”.But for the recent visit to the Ga Mantse's palace by the Mayor of Accra, no government official has met the King since the assumption of power of the incumbent political administration.

During a recent Homowo activity at Jamestown, where the arrival of the King raised the temperature of the venue as the crowd to catch a glimpse of him, government ministers present virtually took to their heels, not wanting to be seen to be associating with him and therefore attract the ire of their bosses at the Castle.

It remains to be seen just how the intrigues would work considering the 18th July 2008 ruling by the Judicial Committee of the Greater House of Chiefs from which the King draws extra authority to hold himself as such.The ruling was prompted by an application to nullify the Ga Mantse's nomination and enstoolment having been inducted into the Ga Traditional Council on 18th February 2007.

The application for interlocutory injunction was dismissed because the judicial committee held that, “Nii Tackie Tawiah III cannot be restrained from carrying himself out as Chief. Cannot be prevented/restrained from performing Customary Rites that go with his office as Ga Mantse.

We are also unable to restrain the Ga Traditional Council from inducting him into the Council as a member. Equity, it is said, aids the vigilant, not the indolent.

A party seeking to come to equity must have his eyes wide open, ears alert and even a sharp nose. Application for interlocutory injunction dismissed”.The revered members of the committee which deliberated on the application were Nii Tetteh II, Chairman, Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, member, and Nene Tetteh Djan III. Counsel/recorder was Mr. S.K. Klayson.

Source: Daily Guide/Ghana

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Asanteman Brief History

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Category: History

Created on Sunday, 16 August 2009 00:00

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Asanteman Brief History

The Asante kingdom was founded by the great King Osei Tutu in the eighteenth century. His fetish priest was Okomfo Anokye, who unified the Asante states through

allegiance to the Golden Stool, which miraculously descended from heaven. Okomfo Anokye planted two trees in the forest and predicted that one tree would live and become the capital of Ashanti. Hence is derived the name Kumasi (the tree lived); the place in which the other tree was planted became Kumawu (the tree died).

Although located in the heart of the forest, Asante dominion was extended by military action and political skill towards the European occupied castles on the coast to the south, and also into the dry savannah lands to the north.

Asante History

Much of the modern nation of Ghana was dominated from the late 17th through the late 19th century by a state known as Asante. Asante was the largest and most powerful of a series of states formed in the forest region of southern Ghana by people known as the Akan. Among the factors leading the Akan to form states, perhaps the most important was that they were rich in gold. In the 15th and 16th centuries, gold-seeking traders came to Akan country not only from the great Songhay Empire (in the modern Republic of Mali) and the Hausa cities of northern Nigeria, but also from Europe. After the Portuguese built the first European fort in tropical Africa at El Mina in 1482, the stretch of the Atlantic coast now in Ghana became known in Europe as the Gold Coast.

Akan entrepreneurs used gold to purchase slaves from both African and European traders. Indeed, while Europeans would eventually ship at least twelve million slaves to the Americas (the estimates vary between 20 - 40 million people who were sent to the Americas as slaves from West Africa by European slave traders), they initially became involved in slave trading by selling African slaves to African purchasers. The Portuguese supplied perhaps 12,000 slaves to Akan country between 1500 and 1535, and continued selling slaves from Sao Tome and Nigeria to the Gold Coast throughout the 16th century. Before Benin imposed a ban on slave exports, a Portuguese slave trader reported that at Benin they purchased, "a great number of slaves who were bartered very profitably at El Mina.

The labour of these slaves enabled the Akan to expand gold production by developing deep-level mining in addition to panning alluvial soils. Even more importantly, slave labour enabled the Akan to undertake the immensely laborious task of clearing the dense forests of southern Ghana for farming. The most prominent historian of Asante, Ivor Wilks, suggests that while some farming on a very limited scale had probably been practiced in the Ghanaian forests for millennia, only when the Akan began importing slaves in the 15th and 16th centuries were they able to shift from an economy which relied primarily on hunting and gathering to one which became primarily agricultural.

As this transition to agriculture took place, Akan communities not only planted more of their traditional crops - plantains, yams, and rice - but also adopted a wide variety of new crops from the Americas, including maize (corn) and cassava, which were brought to Africa by Europeans. Farming led to rapid increase of population in the forest region. As the population grew, small groups migrated across the Ghanaian forest, searching for good farm land. Often these groups were led, believes Wilks, by entrepreneurs who used slave labour to do the initial work of clearing forest. Later, these entrepreneurs would invite free settlers to join them, and in this way new communities were created throughout the forest.

These developments set the stage for state-building in the 17th and 18th centuries. Politically ambitious groups sought not only to establish control over gold production and trading, but also to impose their authority on the new farming communities in the forest. Consequently, formerly independent villages combined together in growing states. Whereas in the late 1500s Akan country contained at least 38 small states, by the mid-1600s it had only a handful, and by 1700 only one state Asante reigned supreme. The events which led to the foundation of Asante began with the rise of Denkyira, a state which waged wars to gain control of the Akan gold trade between 1650 and 1670. These wars led many refugees to flee into uninhabited forest regions. Among the refugees were the clan of Oyoko, who settled at Kumasi, the town which would later become famous as the Asante capital.

Initially the small town of Kumasi had no choice but to become a vassal of powerful Denkyira, a situation which required not only that it pay tribute, but also that it send a hostage to live in the court of the Denkyira ruler as his servant. The chief of Kumasi chose a nephew, Osei Tutu, to become this hostage. According to Akan traditions, after becoming a distinguished general in the Denkyira army, Osei Tutu rebelled against the Denkyira king by refusing to hand over gold booty which he had captured in war. Then Osei Tutu fled home to Kumasi. His action must have marked him as a man of exceptional courage and leadership, for when the Kumasi chief died, probably in the early 1680s, the people of Kumasi selected Osei Tutu as his successor.

Osei Tutu soon expanded his authority, initially by placing the communities within a radius of about fifty miles of Kumasi under his control, and eventually by challenging Denkyira itself. In wars from 1699 to 1701, he defeated the Denkyira king and forced numerous Denkyira sub-chiefs to transfer their allegiance to Kumasi. In the remaining years before his death in 1717, Osei Tutu consolidated the power of his state. Osei Tutu was succeeded by Opoku Ware, who increased Asante¹s gold trade, tried to reduce dependence on European imports by establishing local distilling and weaving industries, and greatly increased the size of Asante. At his death in 1750, his realm stretched from the immediate hinterland of the Gold Coast to the savannahs of present-day northern Ghana. By this time it controlled an area of about 100,000 square miles and a population about 100,000 sq. miles and a population of two to three million.

As Asante grew, it developed an administrative structure modelled on that of its predecessor Denkyira. Historians sometimes speak about Asante's "metropolitan" and "provincial" spheres. "Metropolitan" Asante consisted primarily of the towns in a fifty-mile radius around Kumasi. The rulers of these towns, many of whom shared membership in the Oyoko clan, participated in the enthronement of Asante kings, served on the king's advisory council, and retained considerable autonomy. By contrast, outlying Akan regions were more clearly subordinate and were forced to pay tribute to the Asante rulers.

The most distant districts of the state which were populated by non-Akan people annually sent thousands of slaves to Kumasi." "Opoku Ware and his successors tried to centralize power in the hands of the king, or Asantehene. They placed all trade under state agencies controlled by the Asantehene, and created a complex bureaucracy to govern and collect taxes. They curbed the power of the military by creating a palace guard whose commanders were chosen by the Asantehene himself.

Asante achieved a high degree of administrative efficiency (its well-maintained roads, for example, were famous) and the ability to implement sophisticated fiscal policies. Nevertheless, the Asantehene and his state always had many opponents. Opoku Ware himself barely survived a revolt by military leaders in 1748, while towns around Kumasi resisted interference by the Asantehene bureaucracy. Much of the opposition to the king came from a class of wealthy traders.

The nineteenth century brought new adversaries: British traders and colonial officials who wished to end Asante control of coastal towns and trade routes. Between 1801 and 1824, Asantehene Osei Bonsu resisted the spread of British influence, and led the defence of Kumasi when the British attacked in 1824. Although Asante had exported slaves to the Americas throughout its history, when Europe gradually ended its slave trade in the 19th century Asante was able to compensate for the decline in slave exports by increasing sales of kola nuts to savannah regions to the north.

Like virtually all African societies, however, Asante was unable to prevent European colonization. Its independence ended in 1874, when a British force, retaliating for an Asante attack on El Mina two years earlier, sacked Kumasi and confiscated much of its wealth, including its artistic treasures. Kumasi was captured by the British Army in 1873 (as a result of which much of the magnificent Asante gold regalia can be seen in London in the British Museum).

After a final uprising in 1901, led by the Queen Mother of Ejisu (Yaa Asantewaa) Asante came into British Protection and finally became a region of the Gold Coast colony.

By AngloGold Ashanti

Credit AngloGold Ashanti (2005) All Rights Reserved

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Anlo-Ewe Brief History

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Category: History

Created on Sunday, 16 August 2009 00:00

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Anlo-Ewe Brief History

By CK Ladzekpo

Location: The Anlo-Ewe people are today in the southeastern corner of the Republic of Ghana.

History: According to oral history, the Anlo-Ewe people settled at their present home around the later part of the 15th century.

(1474) after a dramatic escape from Notsie, an ancestral federated region currently within the borders of the modern state of Togo. The escape and subsequent resettlement are commemorated in an annual festival known as Hogbetsotso Za.

Earlier settlements were established along seamless stretches of white sandy beaches of the Atlantic ocean, from what is now the international border between Togo and Ghana and due west to the eastern shores of the Volta river. Names assigned to some of the settlements - Keta, which means "the head of the sand," Denu, which means "the beginning of palm trees" etc. - echoed the natural endowment and beauty of the landscape they were to call home.

The close proximity of the settlements to the sea, however, offered no safety from the frequent raids for slaves by European slave traders who would navigate their ships easily to the shores of the ocean for their human cargos. The memory of these raids and the loss of entire settlement populations have been deeply imprinted on the Anlo-Ewe consciousness through the holdings of oral tradition such as folklore, myths and songs. A mass migration northward and the establishment of lagoon island settlements begun as a necessary security against becoming a slave in some strange land.

The Keta lagoon became central to the early evolution of the Anlo-Ewe traditional state. Its shallow waters were not navigable by the large slave ships and provided a much needed buffer-zone between the settlers and the aggressive slave traders.

Development of small scale marine commercial activities for sustenance began immediately. These activities included the construction of canoes for fishermen who navigated the lagoon for usable fishing sites and canoe landings. Hunters used the canoes to explore other islands and the inlands north of the lagoon for games, drinking water, farm lands and new settlement sites. Farmers shuttled by the canoes between the islands and the fertile inlands to cultivate crops. The canoe shuttle became an important tradition and a major means by which commodities and information flowed freely between the settlement.

Culture: Dance-drumming is an integral part of this community life and an important necessity in the pursuit of the collective destiny, perhaps the essence of their shared experience. Everybody participates. Non participation amounts to self excommunication from society as a whole and carries with it severe consequences in a similar manner as non performance of some civic obligations in other cultures of the world.

The most severe penalty for non participation is to be denied a proper burial. Receiving a good burial is extremely important to the Anlo-Ewe. In contrast to other societies of the world that demonstrate the importance of having a good burial by buying funeral insurance from commercial funeral homes, the participation of the Anlo-Ewe in the collective and shared experiences of the community is the only insurance towards receiving the proper burial.

The degree of participation by each individual, however, varies and reflects a hierarchy of relative importance among the performers. This hierarchy has the elders at the top representing the chiefs and the leadership of the community. The male elders are called vumegawo and the female elders are called vudadawo. Their principal role is to provide a source of authority and advice insuring an orderly and systematic performance according to the shared traditions of the community and the entire traditional state.

The second level of the hierarchy is held by the composer (hesino), the master arts man, who is responsible for the creation of the distinct texture that forms the characteristic dance-drumming style. He is followed directly by the lead drummer (azaguno), another master arts man, who guides the entire ensemble in performing the various shared traditions of good dance-drumming.

The next level of the hierarchy includes: (a) Tonuglawo (ring-leaders), consisting of some more experienced participants with leadership potentials, who inspire and exhort the performers along the performance arena and provide them with examples that they emulate. (b) Haxiawo (supporting song leaders), who assist the composer in leading and directing the singing. (c) Kadawo, the whips of the musical community who enforce discipline and secure the attendance of the community members at every performance.

The fifth level of the hierarchy is occupied by the supporting drummers who assist the lead drummer in the performance of the various musical guidelines. The rest of the ensemble occupies the lowest level of the hierarchy. Their main roles are to sing, dance, and at times accompany themselves with rattles and hand claps.

Source: Africaguide.com

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Ahantaman Prepares To Receive Head Of Slain King

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Category: History

Created on Friday, 31 July 2009 00:00

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Ahantaman Prepares To Receive Head Of Slain King

Busua(w/r), July 30, GNA - The Ahanta Traditional council in the Western Region has began feverish preparations to receive the head of the late King Otumfo Badu Bonsu II, which had been in the Netherlands for the past 171 years.

Members of the council held an emergency meeting on Wednesday at Busua, the traditional capital, to deliberate on an elaborate programme for the ceremony that would be national in character. A special planning committee comprising eminent chiefs, the regional coordinating council and the regional house of chiefs would be formed to plan the funeral and other rites and to prepare a final resting place for the late Ahanta King.

Otumfuo Badu Bonsoe XV, present occupant of the Ahanta Stool, commended both the present government and the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration for pursuing the people's demand for the return of the head of their King whom they described as a "hero of his time", so they could accord it a dignified burial.

He however expressed reservation about arrangements initiated for the transfer of the head, which he claimed the traditional council had not been adequately involved in.

Recounting the incident that led to the capture and killing of King Badu Bonsoe II in 1838, the Ahantahene said it was as a result of a bitter struggle to assert the freedom and dignity of his people. He said the invading Dutch force that was assisted by a contingent from Nigeria looted gold and gold ornaments including the King's sword and war dress that was plaited with gold parchments.

He said the traditional council, through the government and other relevant institutions, would press for the return of those items and compensation in the form of schools, roads and other social projects for the people.

Otumfuo Badu Bonsoe said the council would formally inform President John Atta Mills of the arrival of the head of their slain King, and about their preparations towards a befitting burial ceremony. He called on the chiefs and people of the area to support the programme to make it a success.

Nana Etsin Kofi II, chief of Aboade and leader of a delegation that represented the traditional council at a ceremony to transfer the head to the Ghana government at The Hague, Netherlands, on July 23, 2009, briefed the meeting on the ceremony.

He said he had to accept to be a signatory to the declaration of transfer documents after a second thought, since he was specifically instructed to identify the head and to report back to the council before any transfer could be done.

The declaration of transfer which was also signed by the Dutch Foreign Minister and the Head of the Ghana Mission in The Hague, was read at the meeting.

Source:GNA

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