View source for Akan People

{{Infobox ethnic group
|group=Akan
| image=[[Image:Akan female figure on a gourd.jpg|([[Akan]])|200px]]
|poptime= over 20 million Ethnic Akans
|region1   = {{flagcountry|Ghana}}
|pop1      = ~12 Million
|region2   = {{flagcountry|Côte d'Ivoire}}
|pop2      = ~8 Million
|region3   = {{flagcountry|Togo}}
|pop3      = unknown
|region4   = {{flagcountry|Burkina Faso}}
|pop4      = unknown
|region5   = {{flagcountry|Nigeria}}
|pop5      = unknown
|region6   = {{flagcountry|Benin}}
|pop6      = unknown
|region7   = {{flagcountry|Liberia}}
|pop7      = ~41,000
|region8   = {{flagcountry|United States}}
|pop8      = unknown
|region9   = {{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
|pop9      = unknown
|region10   = {{flagcountry|Canada}}
|pop10      = unknown
|region10   = {{flagcountry|France}}
|pop10      = unknown
|region11   = {{flagcountry|Mali}}
|pop11      = unknown
|region12   = {{flagcountry|Jamaica}} [[Jamaican Maroons]]
<ref>http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/Maroons/individual_essays/leanna.html</ref>
|pop12      = unknown
|region13   = {{flagcountry|Suriname}} [[Ndyuka]]
|pop13      = unknown
|region14   = Other [[Caribbean]] countries
|pop14      = unknown
|rels= [[Christianity]], [[Afrikan traditional religion]], [[Islam]]
|langs= [[Central Tano languages]], [[English language|English]],
[[French language|French]]
|related= [[Akan language|Akan]]
}}

The '''Akan people''' are an ethnic [[Dialect continuum|linguistic group]] of [[West Afrika]]. They speak the [[Akan languages]].

This group includes the following sub-ethnic groups: [[Asante]], the [[Akwamu]], the [[Akyem]] , the [[Akuapem]], the [[Denkyira]], the [[Abron]], the [[Aowin]], the [[Ahanta]], the [[Anyi people|Anyi]], the [[Akropong-Akuapem]], the [[Baoule]], the [[Chokosi]], the [[Fante]], the [[Kwahu]], the [[Sefwi]],the [[Agon]], the [[Ahafo]], the [[Assin]], the [[Evalue]], the [[Wassa]] the [[Adjukru]], the [[Akye]], the [[Alladian]], the [[Attie]],the [[M'Bato]], the [[Abidji]], the [[Bri-an]], the [[Avikam]],the [[Avatime]] the [[Ebrie]], the [[Ehotile]], the [[Nzema]] and other peoples of both [[Ghana]] and [[Côte d'Ivoire]]. 

==Late history==

From the 15th century to the 19th century, the Akan people dominated gold mining and the gold trade in the region. From the 17th century on the Akan were the most powerful group(s) in the West Afrikan region and, fought many battles against europea  colonists in order to maintain [[autonomy]]. By the early 1900's all Akan Lands were Colonized by the french and english. On the 6th of March 1957 Akan Lands in the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] were liberated by the efforts of [[Kwame Nkrumah]] and, were joined with other lands to form the state of [[Ghana]]. The Ivory Coast was liberated on 7th August 1960. 

==Culture==

[[Akan art]] is wide-ranging and renowned, especially for the tradition of crafting bronze gold weights, which were made using the [[Lost-wax casting|lost wax casting method]]. Branches of the Akan include the [[Abron]] and the [[Afutu]]. The Akan culture is the most dominant and apparent in present-day Ghana.

Some of their most important [[Mythology|mythological]] stories are called [[anansesem]]. ''Anansesem'' literally means 'the [[spider]] story', but can in a figurative sense also mean "traveler's tales". These "spider stories" are sometimes also referred to as ''[[nyankomsem]]''; 'words of a sky god'. The stories generally, but not always, revolve around [[Anansi|Kwaku Ananse]], a [[trickster]] [[spirit]], often depicted as a spider, [[human]], or a combination thereof.

===Matrilineality===
The [[Akan people|Akan]] social and political organization was based on matrilineal ''lineages'', which were the basis of inheritance and succession.  A ''lineage'' was defined as all those related by [[matrilineal descent]] from a particular ancestress.  Several lineages would be grouped into a political unit headed by a chief and a council of elders, each of whom was the elected head of a lineage.  Public offices were thus vested in the lineage, as was land tenure and other lineage property.  In other words, lineage property had to be inherited only by matrilineal kin.<ref name=encyBr> ''Encyclopaedia Brittanica'', 1970.  William Benton, publisher (The University of Chicago). ISBN 0852291353, Vol. 1, p.477.  (This p. 477 Akan article was written by Kofi Abrefa Busia, formerly Professor of Sociology and Culture of Africa at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.) </ref>

The political units above were likewise grouped into eight larger groups called [[abusua]]: Aduana, Agona, Asakyiri, Asenie, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona and Oyoko; or sometimes more than these.  The members of each such abusua were united by their belief that they were all descended from the same ancient ancestress – so marriage between members of the same group was forbidden.  One inherited or was a lifelong member of the lineage, the political unit and the abusua of one's mother, regardless of one's gender and/or marriage.<ref name=encyBr />

According to this source<ref name=com.au> http://ashanti.com.au/pb/wp_8078438f.html </ref> of further information about the Akan, "A man is strongly related to his mother's brother (wɔfa) but only weakly related to his father's brother.  This must be viewed in the context of a polygamous society in which the mother/child bond is likely to be much stronger than the father/child bond. As a result, in inheritance, a man's nephew (his sister's son) (wɔfase) will have priority over his own son. Uncle-nephew relationships therefore assume a dominant position."<ref name=com.au />

"The principles governing inheritance stress sex, generation and age – that is to say, men come before women and seniors before juniors." .... When a woman’s brothers were available, a consideration of generational seniority stipulated that the line of brothers be exhausted before the right to inherit lineage property passed down to the next senior genealogical generation of sisters' sons.  Finally, "it is when all possible male heirs have been exhausted that the females" may inherit.<ref name=com.au />

===Patrilineality===
Other aspects of the Akan culture were determined [[patrilineally]], rather than matrilineally.  Thus their culture was ''both'' matrilineal and patrilineal, or [[ambilineal]].  There were 12 patrilineal Ntoro (which means life force, or spirit) groups, and everyone was a lifelong member of one's father's group.  Each Ntoro group had its own surnames, taboos, ritual purifications and forms of etiquette – its own part of the Akan culture.<ref name=encyBr />

==Elements of Akan culture==


[[File:Kent wove.jpg||thumb|left| Kente cloth]]


*[[Adinkra]]
*[[Akan goldweights]]
*[[Akan name]]s
*[[Akan Chieftaincy]]
*[[Akan Calendar]]
*[[Akan religion]]
*[[Akan art]]
*[[Abusua]]
*[[Adamorobe Sign Language]]
*[[Bono state]]
*[[Kente]]
*[[Sankofa]]

==See also==

*[[Empire of Asante]]
*[[Gyaaman]]
*[[Bono Manso]]
*[[Rulers of the Akan state of Asante]]
*[[Rulers of the Akan state of Akyem Abuakwa]]
*[[List of rulers of the Akan states of Akwamu and Twifo-Heman]]
*[[List of rulers of the Akan state of Denkyira]]
*[[List of rulers of the Akan state of Bono-Tekyiman]]
*[[List of rulers of the Akan state of Gyaaman]]

==Endnotes==
{{reflist}}

==References==

* Antubam, Kofi; Ghana's heritage of Culture, Leipzig 1963
* Kyerematen, A.A.Y.; Panoply of Ghana, London 1964
* Meyerowitz, Eva L. R.; Akan Traditions of Origin, London (published around 1950)
* Meyerowitz, Eva L. R.; At the court of an African King, London 1962
* Obeng, Ernest E.; Ancient Ashanti Chieftaincy, Tema (Ghana) 1986
* Bartle, Philip F.W. (January 1978). "Forty Days; The AkanCalendar". Africa: Journal of the International African Institute.. (Edinburgh University Press) 48 (1): 80–84.    
* For the Akan, the first-born twin is considered the younger, as the elder stays behind to help the younger out.
* Kente Cloth." African Journey. webmaster@projectexploration.org. 25 Sep 2007.
* <references/>
* Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1979) Traditional history of the Bono State Legon: Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.
* Effah-Gyamfi, Kwaku (1985) Bono Manso: an archaeological investigation into early Akan urbanism (African occasional papers, no. 2) Calgary: Dept. of Archaeology, University of Calgary Press. ISBN 0-919813-27-5
* Meyerowitz, E.L.R. (1949) 'Bono-Mansu, the earliest centre of civilisation in the Gold Coast', Proceedings of the III International West African Conference, 118–120.

==External links==
*[http://dictionary.kasahorow.com/all/ak Kasahorow Akan Dictionary The Dictionary of Standard Written Akan]
*[http://www.maltergalleries.com/archives/auction99/mar2799.html Akan gold trade]

{{Akan states}}

[[Category:Ethnic groups in Ghana]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Côte d'Ivoire]]
[[Category:French West Africa]]
[[Category:Ashanti people]]