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The Past and Present of an Anlo-Ewe Oral Tradition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Sandra E. Greene
Sandra E. Greene*
Affiliation:
Kalamazoo College
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Extract

In 1680 Jean Barbot made the following observation about the religious institutions found in the Slave Coast Ewe communities of Keta and Anlo: “Their…religion [is] much the same as on the Gold Coast, only they have a vast quantity of idols…” A similar observation was made by Danish cartographer P. Thøning on his 1802 map of the lower Volta, when he described a site near the Anlo capitol of Anloga, as an “Amegase fetisch-plads,” an important religious shrine. Subsequently this shrine was identified as that which belonged to one of the clans from whose ranks was chosen the awoamefia, the highest leadership position in Anlo. In 1935 this clan, the Bate, was, in turn, described by the German missionary D. Westermann as composed of priests, soothsayers, and magicians. It is not surprising then, given such references, that R.A. Kea suggested that “the Anlo ruler's supremacy was based, at least initially on religious and ritual ascendancy.”

In 1978, however, when Anlo elders were consulted on this issue, most were surprisingly vehement in their denials of any such association, past or present, between religious concerns and the offices in the Anlo political system, particularly that of the awoamefia. They pointed to the popular traditions--those published in local textbooks and recited at annual festivals--to support their contention that the two clans which had gained custody of the awoamefia office, the Adzovia and Bate, had gained and retained the same through the “right of inheritance” and the “right of service” respectively.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 12 , 1985 , pp. 73 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1985

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Footnotes

*

This article is a revised version of a paper presented with Sonia Patten at the 1982 African Studies Association Meeting in Bloomington, Indiana.

References

NOTES

1. Barbot, Jean, A Description of the Coast of North and South Guinea (London, 1732), 321.Google Scholar

2. P. Thøning, “Kort Over de Danske Besiddelser; Guinea Forfattet paa Stedet af P. Thoning; 1802,” Kongelig Bibliotek, Copenhagen.

3. Kea, R.A., “Akwamu-Anlo Relations, c. 1750–1813,” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, 10 (1969), 32.Google Scholar

4. Ibid.

5. Sandra E. Greene, “Field Notes,” No. 11, Interview with T.S.A. Togobo, 7 August 1978. These field notes are on deposit at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

6. Pauvert, J.C., “L'évolution politique des Ewe,” Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 2 (1960), 161–92.Google ScholarCommittee of Enquiry (Volta Region) Seventy-Eighth Sitting (Thursday, 17 10 1974), 1–2Google Scholar; Aduamah, E.K., “Ewe Traditions,” [n.d.], 9, 16.Google Scholar

7. Greene, , “Field Notes,” No. 8, Interview with T.S.A. Togobo, 2 08 1978.Google Scholar

8. ADM 11/1661 “Notes of Evidence, Commission of Enquiry, 1912--Awuna, Addah and Akwamu, by Francis Crowther,” 87. Ghana National Archives, Accra.

9. Greene, , “Field Notes,” No. 25, Interview with Boko Seke Axovi, 5 09 1978.Google Scholar

10. Pauvert, , “L'évolution politique,” 168.Google Scholar

11. Gaba, C.R., “Anlo Traditional Religion: A Study of the Anlo Traditional Believer's Conception of and Communion with the ‘Holy’,” (Ph.D., University of London, 1965), 76.Google Scholar

12. Aduamah, , “Ewe Traditions,” 16.Google Scholar

13. A tronua is the male priest of a female tro. A trosi is the female priest of a male tro, while an amegasi refers simply to a tro priest.

14. ADM 11/1661, 22.

15. Tay-Agobzo, C., “The Background History of the Anlos (including origin, immigration, and settlement) and the Origin and Development of the Chieftancy Dispute between the Adjovia and Bate Clans” (B.A. Honours Thesis, University of Ghana, 1971).Google Scholar

16. Greene, “Field Notes,” No. 25 and 45. Among the Anlo vodu is a type of god that is not associated with a kinship group; an edzo is a protective charm.

17. Note that many of the installation ceremonies that indicate a religious orientation to the office of awoamefia would be interpreted quite differently by the Anlo themselves. Between 1679 and 1688, a group called the Dzevi moved into the Anlo area and challenged the authority of the awoamefia through their priest and its god, Nyigbla. The conflict is said to have been resolved by having the priest of Nyigbla share the priesthood with the awoamefia. Most Anlo are familiar with this tradition and associate the religious aspects of the installation ceremony with this event.

18. Greene, , “Field Notes,” No. 33, Interview with Boko Seke Axovi, 3 10 1978.Google Scholar

19. Ibid.

20. This site later became known as Batefe, the main shrine for Mama Bate.

21. Greene, , “Field Notes,” No. 10, Interview with Boko Seke Axovi, 6 August 1978Google Scholar; No. 27, Interview with Dzobi Adzinku, 15 September 1978; No. 35, Interview with Boko Seke Axovi, 4 October 1978.

22. Greene, , “Field Notes,” No. 10, Interview with Boko Seke Axovi, 6 08 1978.Google Scholar

23. According to T.S.A. Togobo, the dzokpleanyi trowo were originally Guan-speaking people, who, he notes, were the first inhabitants of Anlo. After their disappearance they (including Mama Bate) were transfigured by the Anlo hunters who first met them and/or lived with them. Pieces of stone tools, sokpe, and remnants of old shrines found on the outskirts of Anloga are cited as the remains of their households.

Linguistic studies on the Guan-speaking peoples locate five groups that are relatively near the Anlo area: the Efutu and Awutu, known as the Coastal Guan in and around Winneba; the Late and Cherepong, Hill Guan in the Akuapem-Togo Range north of Accra; and the Anum, also Hill Guan, who are located in the same chain of hills, but near Akosombo. M. Kropp Dakubu suggests that there is “a Guan language [also] associated with the area between Prampram and Ada as recently as the early nineteenth century.” If true, it is quite possible that these Coastal Guan had also crossed the Volta River and settled in the present Anlo area; the dzokpleanyiwo could have, indeed, been autochthones who were Guan-speakers, and the Bate, either remnants of these groups or the Ewe-speakers who closely associated themselves with these people. Such an interpretation of the Bate clan traditions suggests then that, while religion was a very important factor in determining those groups that were in a position to and did actually acquire custody of the awoamefia position, a group's origin was also of significance. The Bate were identified and identified themselves with those who are said to have formed the autochthonous community in the Anlo area; the Adzovia represented the Ewe-speaking immigrants. See Fiawo, D.K., “The Influence of Contemporary Social Change on the Magico-Religious Concepts and Organization of the Southern Ewe-Speaking Peoples of Ghana,” (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh, 1959), 37–38Google Scholar; Painter, C., “The Distribution of Guang in Ghana and a Statistical Pre-Testing on Twenty-five Idiolects,” Journal of West African Languages, 4 (1967), 25, 29Google Scholar; Amenumey, D.E.K., “The Ewe People and the Coming of European Rule: 1850–1914” (Ph.D., University of London, 1964), 20, 21Google Scholar (wherein he suggests alternatively that the autochthones were speakers of the Togo-Remnant Languages); Dakubu, M.E. Kropp, “Bowdich's ‘Adampe’ Word List,” Research Review (University of Ghana), 5/3 (1969), 47.Google Scholar

24. Fiawoo, , “Influence,” 174–75Google Scholar; Debrunner, H.W., A Church Between Colonial Powers: A Study of the Church in Togo (London, 1965), 85, 101.Google Scholar

25. For a discussion of why individuals chose to convert, see Fiawoo, , “Influence,” 189–90.Google Scholar

26. Ibid., 142.

27. Ibid., 193.

28. Debrunner, , “Church,” 297.Google Scholar

29. Crowther, F.G., “The Ewe-Speaking People,” Gold Coast Review, 3/1 (1927).Google Scholar

30. Fiawoo, , “Influence,” 148.Google Scholar

31. Ibid., 148-49.

32. Wyllie, R.W., “Migrant Anlo Fishing Companies and Socio-Political Change: A Comparative Study,” Africa, 39 (1969)Google Scholar; P. Hill, “Pan-African Fishermen,” West Africa, no. 2430; Nukunya, G.K., “Some Historical and Geographical Influences on Economic Development in Anlo: An Overview” (paper presented at a seminar on ‘Coastal Societies in the 19th Century,’ Legon, Ghana, 4-7 12 1981).Google Scholar

33. Wyllie, R.W., “Tribalism, Politics and Eviction: A Study of an Abortive Resettlement Project in Ghana,” Africa Quarterly, 9 (1969), 132–33Google Scholar, with emphasis added.

34. Ibid., 132-38.

35. Owusu, Maxwell, Use and Abuse of Political Power: A Case Study, of Continuity and Change in the Politics of Ghana (Chicago, 1970), 151.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., 255.

37. Smock, D.R. and Smock, A.C., The Politics of Pluralism (New York, 1975), 205–07.Google Scholar