AFRICAN WORLDS STUDIES IN THE COSMOLOGICAL IDEAS AND SOCIAL VALUES OF AFRICAN PEOPLES Edited with an Introduction by DARYLL FORDE Published for the INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN INSTIVUTE by theNOTE In fulfilment of a resolution of the General Conference of UN.E.S.C.O. arits fourth session, on the recommendation of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (Conseil International de la Philosophie et des Sciences Humaines), and in accordance with the decision of the Executive Board of U.N.E.S.C.O, at its twenty-first session, a grant was allocated towards the cost of the preparation and publication by the Intemational African Institute of a study of the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African peoples. ‘The present volume has been prepared under the editor- ship of Professor Daryll Forde, Administrative Director of the International African Institute, and contains contribu- tions by a number of distinguished ethnologists based on original field researches. ISBN 0 19 724156 5 ETT First Edition 1954 Eighth impression 1976THE ASHANTI By K. A. Busta Introduction HERE has been a growing literature about the Ashanti since the early | ears of the nineteenth century. In 1819 Bowdich, who was the first Zuropean to visit Kumasi, published his Mission to Ashantee in which he gave descriptive accounts of the laws and customs and the religion and arts of the Ashanti. Dupuis, who was British Consul at Kumasi in 1820, also published accounts of the Ashanti in his Journal of a Residence in Ashanti. In 1844 the Rey. 'T. B. Freeman of the Wesleyan Missionary Society wrote an account of his journey to Kumasi where he was granted a piece of land to build a church. One of the most famous of the wars between the British and the Ashanti was the invasion of Ashanti in January 1874 when the British forces were led by Sir Garnet Wolseley. Ashanti was widely publicized, especially in Britain, through the crop of books written about the campaign by military officers and war correspondents. But the most intimate and accurate knowledge of the Ashanti we owe to Captain R. S, Rattray whose books Ashanti, Ashanti Law and Constitution, Religion and Art in Ashanti, and Ashanti Proverbs have covered in an ad- mirable way different aspects of Ashanti culture. "The tradition which appears to be the most generally accepted nowadays is that the Ashanti were a part of the Akan stock which migrated to the Gold Coast from what is now the French Ivory Coast. The Ashanti settled in the forest belt where they founded the town of Kumasi in about 1665. ‘The clans in this vicinity formed a military confederation against the bouring state of Denkera, to which they were tributary, and defeated it in the Ashanti-Denkera War of 1669. Following this, Ashanti became a pow ful nation which conquered one neighbouring tribe after another. ‘The desire to trade with Europeans on the coast, particularly in order to obtain flintlock guns and ammunition, led to wars with the coastal tribes, and eventually with the British who protected them. The most famous of the eight campaigns fought against the British between 1806 and 1896 were the battle of Insamankow, fought on 21 June 1824, when the Ashanti de- feated the British forces and captured and killed the Governor, Sir Cha MacCarthy, and cight other British officers; the battle of Dodowa on 7 August 1826, when the British assisted by allies of the coastal tribes de- feated the Ashanti; the invasion of Ashanti in 1874, to which allusion has already been made, and the capture and exile of the King of Ashanti in 1896. The b s of the Ashanti confederation was military but, in sjTHE A ANTI 191 external successes, the available data support the view that even at the height of her military glory Ashanti was not a stable nation internally, for the chiefdoms of the confederation were jealous of their regional autonomy. What held them together was their allegiance to the Golden Stool which was the religious symbol of their unity. The strength of the union rested on military power as well as on religious belief. ‘The many wars and conquests of the Ashanti brought into their midst slaves, captives, and immigrants from different tribes of the Gold Ce Ashanti religion was very hospitable, and the Ashanti took over the beliefs, the gods, and the rites of conquered aswell as those of neighbouring tribes: from the Moslem north they bought charms and amulets which were highly prized for the protection they were believed to give in battle, None of these borrowed faiths displaced the fundamental beliefs of the Ashanti, New gods and faiths were merely additions which were believed to give more power and protection against the spirits and forces of the world. ‘Today the Ashanti are largely an agricultural people, though there is an increasing diversity and differentiation of economic pursuits; there are changes not only in economic activities, but indeed in all aspects of life; for as a result of the long contacts with Europe, fifty years of British rule, the rapid growth of the cocoa trade, developments in education, trade and commerce, and transport, and the introduction of new laws and political ideas, Ashanti is undergoing a social change that may be described as a revolution; it may be asked to what extent all this has affected the cosmology of the Ashanti people In recent years Ashanti religion has proved similarly hospitable to Chris- tianity. But, as is shown below, the world outlook of the Ashanti and their interpretation of the universe have been but little affected by the turbulent events of the last three hundred years; they have held very largely to their ancestral beliefs and practices. I A World of Spirits ‘To the Ashanti the universe is full of spirits. There is the Great Spirit, the Supreme Being, who created all things, and who manifests his power through a pantheon of gods; below these are lesser spirits which animate trees, animals, or charms; and then there are the ever-present spirits of the ancestors (nsamanfo) whose const: ct with the life of man on the earth brings the world of the spirits so close to the land of the living." * ‘The Ashanti form part of the larger body of Akan-speaking peoples widely distributed in the Gold Coast and Ivory Coast who have in common a number of social institutions, religious beliefs and rituals; but the traditional cosmology of the Ashanti differs sign canclv from that of some other Ak . ren diieaw, aol fax puceteala at fy oncept of a bi-sexual godhead and its relation to ideas com ig human personality and the divine chieftainship embodied ie the ar, re Eva Sitey192 AFRICAN WORLDS The Ashanti conception of the Supreme Being may be gathered from the titles ascribed to him. He is, the Ashanti say, older than all the things that live on the wide, wide earth (Asase tere, na Onyame ne Panin). He is Onyankopon, Alone, the Great One; Teeaduampon, the Dependable One; Bore-bore, the First, the Creator of all things; Otumjoz, the Powerful One; Odomankoma, the Eternal One; Ananse Kokroko, the Great Spider, that is, the Wise One; he is also personalized as Onyankopon Kwame, the Great One who appeared on Saturday According to a well-known myth,' Oxyaukopor go lived very near to men, His abode was the sky, There was a certain old woman who used to pound her fufu (a meal of mashed yam or plantain) and, when- ever she did so, the long pestle she used knocked against Onyeankopon, who lived just above in the sky. So one day Onyankopon said: ‘Because of what you have been doing to me, I am taking myself away far up into the sky where men cannot reach me’, So he went up and up into the sky, and men could no longer approach him. Whereupon the old woman instructed her children to collect all the mortars they could find, and pile them one on top of the other. They did so, till they required only one mortar to add to the pile so that it could reach to Onyankopon. As they could not find an- other mortar, the old woman advised her children to take one mortar from the bottom, and put it on the top. The children accordingly removed one mortar from the bottom, and when they did so all the other mortars rolled and fell to the ground killing many people ‘The idea of the original nearness of God illustrated by this myth gains support from the Ashanti belief that everyone has direct access to the Supreme Being. This is expressed in an old Ashanti maxim: ‘Obi Atvan nsi obi keoan mu (no man’s path crosses another's)’, meaning that everyone has a direct path to the Supreme Being. There is another saying: ‘Obi nkyere abofra Onyame’, which may mean either, ‘No-one shows a child the Su- preme Being’ (he knows by instinct) or, ‘No-one shows the child the sky (which is the abode of the Supreme Being). It is noteworthy that the Ashanti neyer had special priests for the Supreme Being, though every god (sbosom) has a priest. Outside many a house in old Ashanti villages were altars to the Supreme Being? which consisted of a three-forked stick cut from the Nyame dua (the tree of God) with 2 basin or pot or gourd placed between the forks. Into the receptacle, offerings of food or wine were placed for the Supreme Being. ‘This did not require the offices of a special priest; anyone could place his own offering in the receptacle, ‘Though many of these altars were to be seen in Ashanti villages some twenty years ago, they have now become extremely rare. This, however, has not affected the belief in the Supreme Being. As the myth of the old woman and her fufte prove Ashanti have for a long time held the b: Supreme