Denkyira in the making of asante c. 1660-1720

Journal of African History

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 1-25

  McCaskie, T C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Asante; Ghana; Political culture; Settlement history; State formation; West Africa

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL HISTORY; POLITICAL HISTORY; SETTLEMENT HISTORY; STATE BUILDING;

AFRICA; GHANA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WEST AFRICA;

EID: 34250654912     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853706002507     Document Type: Article

References (107)

1. I follow R. A. Kea, Settlements, Trade and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast (Baltimore, 1982) in using 'river basins' to describe the catchment areas and drainage systems of the major southern Gold Coast rivers. In the period under discussion such 'river basins' were sites of intensified farming, settlement and commerce because of their rich alluvial soil, accessible gold deposits and convenience as trade routes.
2. K. Y. Daaku, Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600-1720 (Oxford, 1970), 159
3. A. Van Dantzig, Les hollandais sur la Côte de Guinée à l'époque de l'essor de l'Ashanti et du Dahomey 1680-1740 (Paris, 1980), 130
4. Kea, Settlements, 246-7.
5. W. Bosman, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705), 76
6. I have made use throughout of the corrected text of Bosman in A. Van Dantzig, 'English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A comparison of texts, I-IV', History in Africa, 2 (1975), 185-216
7. I have made use throughout of the corrected text of Bosman in A. Van Dantzig, 'English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A comparison of texts, I-IV', History in Africa, 3 (1976), 91-126
8. I have made use throughout of the corrected text of Bosman in A. Van Dantzig, 'English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A comparison of texts, I-IV', History in Africa, 4 (1977), 247-73
9. I have made use throughout of the corrected text of Bosman in A. Van Dantzig, 'English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A comparison of texts, I-IV', History in Africa, 5 (1978), 225-56.
10. For relevant discussion, I. Wilks, 'Founding the political kingdom: The nature of the Akan state ' in his Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante (Athens OH, 1993), 91-126. Denkyira traditions are recounted most fully in PRAAD [Public Records and Archives Administration Department; formerly Ghana National Archives], Accra, ADM 11/824, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', recorded by Asst. District Commissioner S. R. J. Kingston, Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 1946, Typescript history with enclosures.
11. Thus, O. Justesen (ed.), Danish Sources for the History of Ghana 1657-1754 (Copenhagen, 2005), 1, 156, shows that the Danes at Christiansborg, 100 miles east of Elmina, were getting confused and misleading reports of events in Denkyira months after they happened.
12. A. Van Dantzig (ed.), The Dutch and the Guinea Coast 1674-1742: A Collection of Documents from the General State Archive at The Hague (Accra, 1978), 60-2, 70, 72-80
13. Bosman, Description, 72-7.
14. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', enclosing Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II to Kingston, Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 20 Mar. 1946.
15. I. Wilks, 'What manner of persons were these? Generals of the Konti of Kumase', in his Forests of Gold, 248-52.
16. G. Austin, Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807-1956 (Rochester NY, 2005), 236ff., discusses cocoa farming, including in the Amansie district, the southwest of which was the old Denkyira heartland.
17. See L. White, S. F. Miescher and D. W. Cohen (eds.), African Words, African Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History (Bloomington IN, 2001).
18. M. Bloch, Les caractères originaux de l'histoire rurale française (Oslo, 1931), remains an inspiration without peer for work of this kind.
19. My interest in Bloch has been resharpened by reading C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 (Oxford, 2005), and by long conversations with its author.
20. See T. C. McCaskie, Asante Identities: History and Modernity in an African Village 1850-1950 (Edinburgh and Bloomington IN, 2000).
21. MRO [Manhyia Records Office], Kumase, AM/779, Bekwai District, DC (Bekwai) to Commissioner Eastern Province (Ashanti), 'Report of a tour of inspection', Bekwai, 18 Jan. 1927. Applegate went on home leave in April 1927 and wrote nothing more about his trip to the Ofin river
22. see PRAAD, Kumase, ARG 1/21/47, 'Personal service file: F.W. Applegate', Ag. Commissioner Eastern Province (Ashanti) to DC (Bekwai), Kumase, 26 Mar. 1927.
23. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', enclosing Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II to Kingston, Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 20 Mar. 1946, and 'A compilation of notes on Denkyira history from accounts given at Obuasi, Kubi, Afirancho, etc.', n.d. (but 1940s).
24. IAS [Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana], Legon, KAG/8, 'Abankeseso and Abuakwa: Material collected on the ancient Denkyira capital', recorded by K. Ameyaw, 15 Apr. 1966
25. and J. K. Kumah, 'The rise and fall of Denkyira' (MA thesis, University of Ghana-Legon, 1965).
26. For aban and abankesese, see J. G. Christaller, Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi) (Basel, 1881), 5.
27. In O. Davies, Ghana Field Notes: Part III Ashanti (Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana-Legon, 1972), 4, the entry for 'Abuakwa' says only that 1 mile to the west 'is the site of a village with 3′ of habitation earth'. To the best of my knowledge no excavation has taken place.
28. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', enclosing 'A list of the old Denkyira towns and villages, given by Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II and his elders', Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 17 and 19 Mar. 1946. I have identified these settlements using the relevant map sheets of Gold Coast Survey Department: Scale 1:250,000 (3rd ed., Accra, 1952)
29. and Survey of Ghana: Scale 1:125,000 (Accra, 1962).
30. Daaku, Trade, 147
31. see too his 'Pre-Ashanti states', Ghana Notes and Queries, 9 (1966), 11.
32. MRO, Kumase, 'History of the immigrants from Takyiman', n.d., 'History of Akrokerri', 22.
33. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, Testimony of Ayanfuri [Ayamfori] Linguist Kwaku Bredwa.
34. Colonial Reports - Miscellaneous: No. 66: Gold Coast: Report on Forests by Mr. H. N. Thompson, Cd. 4993 (London, 1910), 56.
35. Report of the Geological Survey for the period 1st January, 1922-31st March, 1923 (Accra, 1924), 5, 15, 28, 40-3.
36. For Oboase, MRO, Kumase, CRB 21, Manso Nkwantahene vs. Bekwaihene, commenced 11 Aug. 1937
37. for Piaso, ibid.
38. Concessions, No. 82, Nkawie Paninhene vs. A. Ntiful (Bibiani and Upper Offin Gold Syndicate), commenced 27 Mar. 1926
39. for Ntoamu and Kotimso, RH [Rhodes House], Oxford, Mss. Brit. Emp. s.344, Papers of Sir Charles Henry Harper, 'Dunkwa on Offin: Some notes prepared for the Gold Coast Guide', 1922
40. for Kubi, ibid. 'The traditional history of Denkera and Ashanti collected from native stories told to Jan. H. Koens at Dunkwa'
41. for Nyinawunsu, M. Fortes Papers (Cambridge University), History File 3, 'History notes of certain towns in the Bekwai District - Ashanti', Atweri, 5 Mar. 1939.
42. Report of the Geological Survey Department for the Financial Year 1933-34 (Accra, 1934), 20. By the later nineteenth century, Asante miners at Obuase had excavated 50 feet into the bedrock. E. A. Cade of Ashanti Goldfields applauded their achievement which 'passes my comprehension' see Cade Mss. (CWAS [Centre for West African Studies], Birmingham University), Cade to AGC Directors, Obuase, 30 Mar. 1898. Unlike in the Ofin river valley, precolonial mining of this kind in south Asante required large inputs of labour over a long period. The mature Asante state mobilized this effort, but it was beyond the resources available to those who ruled over seventeenth-century Abankeseso and Kwaman.
43. I. Wilks, 'Land, labor, gold, and the forest kingdom of Asante: A model of early change', first published in 1975 and then revised in his Forests of Gold (1993), 41-90
44. and his 'Founding the political kingdom', 91-126.
45. Kea, Settlements, 154-64
46. for Akwamu, I. Wilks, Akwamu 1640-1750: A Study of the Rise and Fall of a West African Empire (Trondheim, 2001)
47. for the sequence of events leading up to Feyiase as reported in authoritative Asante tradition, see A. Adu Boahen, E. Akyeampong, N. Lawler, T. C. McCaskie and I. Wilks (eds.), 'The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself' and Other Writings by Otumfuo, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I (Oxford, 2003), 100-3.
48. R. Law (ed.), The English in West Africa: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681-1699: Part 1, 1681-1683 (Oxford, 1997), 99.
49. Bosman, Description, 72-3.
50. Ibid.
51. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, Testimony of Nyinawunsu Agona 'Family Head' Charles Osei Nkansah.
52. NMP [New Manhyia Palace], Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', manuscript prepared by a Committee of Traditional Authorities under the Chairmanship of Otumfuo, Asantehene Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, n.d. (but 1937-46), Chapter 3, 'War with Dankyira'. Compare here Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 104-5, 185-90.
53. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', Chapter 3, 'War with Dankyira'.
54. Ibid. 105.
55. Compare G. Duby, Le dimanche de Bouvines: 27 juillet 1214 (Paris, 1973), for accounts explaining King Philip Augustus of France's victory over the German Emperor Otto of Brunswick and the English King John.
56. For some discussion, T. C. McCaskie, 'Komfo Anokye of Asante: Meaning, history, and philosophy in an African society', Journal of African History, 27 (1986), 315-39.
57. IAS AS [Asante Stool Histories] 89: Adanse, 1 May 1963. I note but do not discuss here the fact that traditions ascribe the source of many conflicts in this period to sexual transgression. Thus, Osei Tutu is said to have fled Abankeseso because of illicit sexual relations with one female royal or another. It is sometimes even claimed that Osei Tutu was Ntim Gyakari's real father. Such tales are rooted in Akan ideas about demonstrable superiority and inferiority between men expressed through mpoatwa ('setting at de- fiance'), in this case involving the theft of sexual and reproductive rights. They are also linked to male constructions of female sexuality and to the broader, often conflicted, realm of gender relations. For some relevant insights, see J. Allman and V. Tashjian, 'I Will Not Eat Stone': A Women's History of Colonial Asante (Portsmouth NH, 2000)
58. and McCaskie, Asante Identities, 159-78.
59. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, Testimony of Denkyira Gyaasehene Yaw Tumtuni (given at Dunkwa-on-Ofin).
60. MRO, Kumase, 'History of the immigrants from Takyiman', n.d., 'History of Akrokerri', 22, 62-3.
61. Revd. C. C. Reindorf, History of the Gold Coast and Asante, Based on Traditions, and Historical Facts, Comprising a Period of more than Three Centuries from about 1500 to 1860 (Basel, 1895), 57-8.
62. Yaa Hom, daughter of Asantehene Osei Yaw (1824-33), who was captured at the battle of Katamanso in 1826 and later married in Accra, may have been Reindorf's informant; see T. C. McCaskie, 'Asante and Ga: The history of a relationship', in P. Jenkins (ed.), The Recovery of the West African Past: African Pastors and African History in the Nineteenth Century (Basel, 1998), 135-53, especially 142.
63. T. C. McCaskie, State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante (Cambridge, 1995), 315.
64. Denkyira tradition (fn. 33) says 'the Abooso people fearing their death by the hundred at the burial ran away to Kumasi'; Adanse tradition (fn. 34) says 'the whole of these Tribes now fled to Ashanti for protection, in the time of Osei Tutu the Great'; Reindorf, History, says they 'fled for protection to the Asantes'.
65. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 107-8.
66. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', Chapter 3, 'War with Dankyira'; for 'soul-washers', see McCaskie, State and Society, 293.
67. Sometimes also 'Atwimafo' in modern Twi usage. For relevant stool histories, IAS AS 128: Toase, 14 Aug. 1964; 135: Atwima Agogo, 5 Oct. 1964; 184: Atwima, 29 Nov. 1966. Reindorf, History, 57, says simply 'the Bontwumafo, now Atwomafo', but conflates the derivation of both terms to ntwoma.
68. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'War with Dankyira'.
69. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, Testimony of Ayanfuri [Ayamfori] Linguist Kwaku Bredwa.
70. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 108; IAS AS 135: Atwima Agogo, 5 Oct. 1964; 291: Gyedu/Ahafo, 20 Mar. 1974.
71. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 108; NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'War with Dankyira'; IAS AS 39: Bantama, Nov. 1962.
72. For more on Amankwatia, Wilks, 'What manner of persons were these?', especially 243-55.
73. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 108; NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'War with Dankyira'; IAS AS 1: Asokwa, 3 Feb. 1963; 70: Fontomfrom, 22 Apr. 1963, drum history, stresses the miraculous in its sudden flight 'one night through the sky' from Denkyira to Asante
74. for horns generally, P. K. Sarpong, The Ceremonial Horns of the Ashanti (Accra, 1990).
75. IAS AS 43: Safie and Amoanim (Domakwai), 28 Mar. 1963; 80: Akumanten, 2 June 1963; 105: Besiase, 30 Nov. 1963; 122: Okyerekurom, Mar. 1964; 134: Amoako, 10 Dec. 1964; 136: Nkwanta Kessie, 7 Oct. 1964; 164: Ahensan, 20 Nov. 1965; 174: Busumuru Fabem Linguist, 6 Mar. 1966; 176: Nkwanta Esaase, 19 Mar. 1966; 209: Okyerekurom (Part 2), 2 Nov. 1967; 211: Kwaku Ndwema, 25 Nov. 1967.
76. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 108.
77. Ibid.
78. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/834, Testimony of Ayanfuri [Ayamfori] Linguist Kwaku Bredwa, and Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II to Kingston, Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 20 Mar. 1946.
79. For the problem of Akwamu capitals in this period, Wilks, Akwamu, 2, 37-8.
80. RH, Oxford, Mss. Brit. Emp. s.344, Papers of Sir Charles Henry Harper, 'Enquiry into the relations between the stools of Bantama and Nkawe', Testimony of Nkawiehene Kwabena Kufuor, Kumase, 12 June 1920.
81. MRO, Kumase, K10, 'Kumasi towns and villages: Nyinahin and Nkawie', Nkawiehene Kwabena Kufuor to Chief Commissioner (Ashanti), Kumase, 3 Dec. 1925.
82. RH, Oxford, Mss. Brit. Emp. s.344, Testimony of Nkawie Linguist Kojo Kura, Kumase, 27 July 1920.
83. IAS AS 102: Nkawie Kuma, Dec. 1963, argues that Asensu Kufuor died on the way to Kwaman (Kumase), and his sister Adoma Akosua agreed that a 'commoner' (akwankwaa) named Maafo should take her brother's place. This is implausible, and is linked to Nkawie Kumaa's attempts to claim that it was not founded by settlers from Nkawie, so as to assert its independence of or even its seniority to its parent town
84. see too ibid. 107: Nyinahin, 6 Jan. 1964.
85. MRO, Kumase, CRB 30, Asantehene's tribunal, Ampunyasehene Kojo Dakwa Ababio v. Manso Nkwantahene and Measehene, commenced 15 May 1939, Testimony of Abanyaso odekuro Yaw Afful, Kumase, 27 June 1939
86. at ibid., Testimony of Manso Nkwanta Linguist Kojo Abayie, Kumase, 16 May 1939, it is said that this case was about 'the ownership of Subina and Kwatrem lands that were serving Denkyera before Osei Tutu defeated Jakari [Ntim Gyakari]'.
87. For the most detailed account, NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, under 'War with Mpankrono'; 'War with Sepe'; 'War with Komire'; 'War with Takwa and Breman'; 'War with Domaa Kusi'; 'The surrender of Kyereme Sikafo'; 'War with Busufo Banka'; 'War with Adanse'; 'Wars with Tafo'; 'War with Kwakye Dopowa'; 'Wars with Kaase'; 'War with Amakom'; 'War with Wonoo'. See too Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 96, 101, 103-4, 110-12.
88. M. Fortes papers (Cambridge University), History file 3, 'History notes of certain towns in the Bekwai District - Ashanti', Mpatuom, n.d. (but 1930s).
89. Ibid.
90. Ibid., Notes on the history of Wirempe-Mim, n.d. (but 1930s); compare IAS AS 129: Manso Mim, 21 Aug. 1964.
91. For Denkyira flight south of the Ofin, PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/834, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', enclosing Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II to Kingston, Dunkwaon-Ofin, 20 Mar. 1946. For details of Asante involvement south of the Ofin, Daaku, Trade, 165-81
92. Van Dantzig, Les hollandais, 124-88, 253-6
93. L. W. Yarak, Asante and the Dutch 1744-1873 (Oxford, 1990), 117-32
94. Wilks, 'What manner of persons were these?', especially 246-55.
95. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'The building of Bekwai'; compare R. S. Rattray, Ashanti Law and Constitution (Oxford, 1929), 148-9.
96. M. Fortes papers, 'History notes of certain towns in the Bekwai District - Ashanti', 'Status of Denyase in Asanteman', 22 Aug. 1940.
97. These first settlers were joined by refugee Dwaben royals in the nineteenth century, giving rise to long and still contentious disputes about the relationship between Dadease and Kokofu. See ibid., 'Notes on history of Dadease', 19 Dec. 1938; NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'The building of Dadiease'; PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/1324, 'Kokofu-Dadease affairs'; MRO, Kumase, 183/35, 'Dadiase native affairs, 17 April 1950 to 18 August 1954'.
98. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'The building of Manso'; IAS AS 122: Okyerekurom, Mar. 1964; 150: Domi Keniago, 24 Feb. 1965.
99. M. Fortes papers, 'History notes of certain towns in the Bekwai District - Ashanti', 'Notes on the history of Wirempe-Mim', n.d. (but 1930s-1940s); IAS AS 129: Manso Mim, 21 Aug. 1964.
100. PRAAD, Accra, ADM 11/824, 'Tribal histories: Denkyira', enclosing Denkyirahene Owusu Bore II to Kingston, Dunkwa-on-Ofin, 20 Mar. 1946.
101. Van Dantzig, The Dutch and the Guinea Coast, 209.
102. NMP, Kumase, 'History of Ashanti', ch. 4, 'Opoku Ware Katakyie' and 'War with Sahwi'; IAS AS 268: The Abirimoro War, n.d. For Ebiri Moro, C.-H. Perrot, 'Le raid d'Ebiri Moro contre Kumasi, la capitale Ashanti (1718)', Cultures et Développement, 16 (1984), 537-52
103. P. Valsecchi, I Signori di Appolonia: Poteri e formazione dello stato in Africa occidentale fra xvi e xviii secolo (Rome, 2002), 233-53.
104. NMP, Kumase, Papers of the Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I (1888-1931), Nkawiehene Kwabena Kufuor to Agyeman Prempeh, Kumase, 1 May 1925.
105. Ibid., 'History of Ashanti', ch. 3, 'War with Dankyira'; for context and discussion see T. C. McCaskie, 'Custom, tradition and law in precolonial Asante', in E. Adriaan B. van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal and W. Zips (eds.), Sovereignty, Legitimacy, and Power in West African Societies: Perspectives from Legal Anthropology (Hamburg, 1998), 25-47.
106. Adu Boahen et al. (eds.), History of Ashanti Kings, 179, 184, 191.
107. Discussion of Kwabena Kufuor is much condensed from T. C. McCaskie, 'Apagyafie, Asante and the Kufuor government of Ghana' (draft); I am grateful to Paul Nugent for comments.