Abirewa: A religious movement in the gold coast, 1906-8

Journal of Religious History

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 32-52

  Li, Anshan ^a  

^a PEKING UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61049109970     PISSN: 00224227     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9809.1996.tb00691.x     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (129)

1. B. Ward, 'Some Observations on Religious Cults in Ashanti', Africa, Vol. 26, 1956;
2. M. Field, Search for Security, De Kalb, Illinois 1960;
3. H. Debrunner, Witchcraft in Ghana, Accra 1970.
4. J. Goody, 'Anomie in Ashanti?', Africa, Vol. 27, 1957.
5. See also his essay 'Religion, Social Change and the Sociology of Conversion', in Changing Social Structure in Ghana, J. Goody (ed.), London 1975.
6. 'Extract from the Annual Report on Ashanti for 1907'; Sir John Rodger (Governor) to Crewe, 17 August 1908;
7. F. C. Fuller (Asante Chief Commissioner), 'Meeting held on the 6th August 1908 outside the fort at Coomassie'; Rodger to Crewe, 25 August 1908. CO96/471, Public Record Office, London [Hereafter referred to as PRO].
8. A. Ffoulkes, 'Borgya and Abirewa; or, the latest fetish on the Gold Coast', Journal of the African Society, Vol. 13, 1908-9, p. 388.
9. According to McCaskie, 'it is certain that it was widespread throughout Gyaman by 1904'. T. C. McCaskie, 'Anti-witchcraft cults in Asante: An Essay in the Social History of an African People', History in Africa, Vol. 8, 1981, p. 138.
10. The Native Affairs Department reported in 1908 that in Asante 'Northern societies are almost totally free from witchcraft'. C098/17, PRO.
11. See M. McLeod, 'On the Spread of Anti-Witchcraft Cults in Modern Asante', in Changing Social Structure in Ghana, Goody (ed.), p. 112.
12. 'Abirewa a new dangerous religion', report by C. N. Curling (Commissioner of East Province) to the Secretary for Native Affairs, 1 July 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, C096/ 471, PRO.
13. Curling's report, CO96/471, PRO. In some places, one-third of the property of the dead went to his or her family. The most detailed description of this fetish is found in Ffoulkes, 'Borgya and birewa', pp. 387-97. But the meaning of Borgya in his article is quite different from this version.
14. Ffoulkes, 'Borgya and Abirewa', pp. 392-3.
15. Curling to the Secretary for Native Affairs, 1 July 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
16. H. Debrunner, Witchcraft in Ghana, pp. 112-13. This is the most detailed account of those principles.
17. For other versions, see 'Abirewa a new dangerous religion', and 'Palaver held on the 3rd August 1907', in CO96/471, PRO.
18. Fuller to the Colonial Secretary at Accra, 8 August 1907, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
19. Debrunner, Witchcraft in Ghana, p. 113.
20. C. C. Reindorf, The History of the Gold Coast and Asante, Accra 1966 [1895], p. 109;
21. M. J. Field, The Social Organization of the Ga People, London 1940, pp. 74-81;
22. D. J. E. Maier, Priests and Power: The Case of the Dente Shrine in Nineteenth-Century Ghana, Bloomington, Indiana 1983, pp. 37-60, 120-33.
23. 'Palaver held on the 3rd August 1907', CO96/471, PRO.
24. Casely Hayford, Gold Coast Native Institutions, London 1903, p. 101.
25. 'Abirewa a new dangerous religion', CO96/471, PRO.
26. 'Extract of annual report of the Ashanti', CO96/471, PRO.
27. 'Palaver held on the 3rd August 1907'. McCaskie uses this as an example to demonstrate that some office-holders made use of Abirewa to strengthen their authority. But it also shows that the religious power was more efficient than chiefly authority. McCaskie, 'Anti-Witchcraft Cults', pp. 139-40.
28. 'Extract from a letter from the D. C., Winneba (Mr Hart-Davis), to the Governor', in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
29. 'Abirewa a dangerous religion', CO96/471, PRO.
30. T. E. Fell (Western District Commissioner) to Fuller, 26 May and 1 June 1907, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
31. 'Palaver held on the 3rd August 1907.'
32. Amoaku Atta to the Commissioner of Eastern Province, 6 June 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
33. E. C. Eliot (Commissioner of Central Province) to the Secretary for Native Affairs, 8 June 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
34. 'Account of the Abirewa Fetish by the Acting Colonial Secretary', in Rodger to Crewe, August 17 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
35. 'Order in Council, under the Native Customs Ordinance of 1892, at a meeting of the Executive Council held at Government House, Accra, on Friday the 17th day of July, 1908', in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
36. C. H. Armitage (Acting Chief Commissioner of Asante) to Acting Colonial Secretary, 1 June 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
37. 'Account of the Abirewa Fetish by the Acting Colonial Secretary', CO96/471, PRO.
38. Fuller to Acting Colonial Secretary, 22 July 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
39. Fell to Fuller, 5 July 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
40. Fuller to the Acting Colonial Secretary, 15 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO. Fuller betrayed his promise by detaining two of the priests, Nokwobo and Yaw Atoa, as hostages after the meeting.
41. Fuller to the Acting Colonial Secretary, 22 July 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
42. 'Meeting held on the 6th August 1908', CO96/471, PRO.
43. Sir Francis Fuller, A Vanished Dynasty: Ashanti, London 1921, pp. 221-2.
44. Rodger to Crewe, 17, 25 and 29 August 1908; Colonial Reports, Ashanti, 1907-8, CO96/ 471, PRO.
45. M. McLeod, 'On the Spread of Anti-Witchcraft Cults in Modern Asante', pp. 107-17.
46. T. C. McCaskie, 'Anti-Witchcraft Cults in Asante', pp. 138-41.
47. G. Parrinder, West African Religion, London 1969, p. 12.
48. P. Sarpong, Ghana in Retrospect, Tema 1974, p. 44.
49. For other descriptions of Akan religion see A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa, Chicago 1964 [1887], pp. 22-109;
50. J. B. Danquah, The Akan Doctrine of God, London 1968 [1944]).
51. For a case study see J. K. Fynn, "The Nananom Pow of the Fante: Myth and Reality', Sankofa: Legon Journal of Archaeological and Historical Studies, Vol. 2, 1976, pp. 54-9.
52. M. J. Field, Search for Security, p. 36.
53. Debrunner's book is the most comprehensive research on this subject. For a general study of African witches and witchcraft, see Africa, Vol. 8, No. 4, 1935, a special issue on the subject;
54. and M. Gluckman, Custom and Conflict in Africa, Oxford 1970, pp. 81-108.
55. Field, Search for Security, p. 40.
56. Kofi Appiah-Kubi, Man Cures, God Heals: Religion and Medical Practice Among the Akans of Ghana, Princeton, New Jersey 1981, p. 37.
57. Appiah-Kubi, Man Cures, God Heals, p. 2.
58. See also M. Field, Religion and Medicine of the Ga, London 1937, pp. 110-34.
59. For example, the stool was referred to as fetish, or medicine. Field, The Social Organization of the Ga People, p. 73.
60. There are also natural phenomena, such as rivers, hills and forest, which are abodes for abosom. Different people had different classifications of these minor gods. See Ellis, The Tshing-Speaking Peoples, pp. 17-18;
61. Sarpong, Ghana in Retrospect, pp. 14-19.
62. Pieter de Marees, Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea (1602), London 1987, translated by Albeit van Dantzig and Adam Jones, pp. 82-3, 85, 104.
63. A. B. Ellis, The Land of Fetish, London 1883; the title caused great confusion which the author regretted in his The Tshing-Speaking Peoples, p. 176.
64. Lady Hodgson, The Siege of Kumassi, London 1901, pp. 59-69.
65. As late as 1953, during research in Late, a man gave the names of nearly forty fetishes in one quarter alone. See J. K. Ansah, The Centenary History of the Larteh Presbyterian Church 1853-1953, Larteh 1955, p. xiii.
66. Fell to Fuller, 26 May 1907, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
67. Report on the Native Affairs Department for the Year 1908, CO98/17, PRO.
68. D. Brokensha, Social Change at Larteh, pp. 10-15.
69. See also Ansah, The Centenary History of the Larteh Presbyterian Church 1853-1953.
70. Ellis, The Tshi-Speaking Peoples, pp. 136-7.
71. J. Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee London 1966 [1824], pp. 114-17. During the struggle, seventeen of the King's wives and their families were involved, with his eldest sister as the leader. They supported the usurper and caused the King's failure in battle by means of spiritual maleficence.
72. For more sources see McCaskie, 'Anti-witchcraft cults,' pp. 128-9.
73. W. Bosnian, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, London 1967 [1705], pp. 124, 220;
74. T. E. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, London 1966 [1819], p. 163;
75. W. Hutton, A Voyage to Africa, London 1971 [1821], p. 88;
76. T. J. Huchinson, Impressions of Western Africa, London 1858, p. 70.
77. Goody, 'Anomie', p. 362.
78. Reindorf, The History of the Gold Coast, pp. 105-7.
79. B. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, London 1966 [1853], Vol. II, pp. 124-90.
80. Casely Hayford, Gold Coast Native Institutions, p. 101. But his view has been challenged by modern scholars.
81. See his article, 'The Nananom Pow of the Fante: Myth and Reality', pp. 54-9.
82. J. B. Danquah, Gold Coast Akim Laws and Customs and the Akim Abuakwa Constitution, London 1928, p. 23.
83. He did not agree with Casely Hayford's view that fetishism was a national institution, but admitted that the fetish system no doubt existed among all the people in Akanland. Danquah, The Akim Abuakwa Handbook, pp. 83-4.
84. The annual Odwira (Yam Custom) is an example. See Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, pp. 274-80.
85. R. S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti, London 1927, pp. 121-43.
86. Kofi Appiah-Kubi, Man Cures, God Heals, pp. 35-80. This is one of the best studies on this subject.
87. See also H. Fink, Religion, Disease and Healing in Ghana, Munich 1989.
88. For an early example, see J. Beecham, Ashantee and the Gold Coast, London 1968 [1841], pp. 192, 204.
89. For example, the Asante government used to consult Dente in Krachi regarding war policy. Maier, Priest and Power, pp. 38-40.
90. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, pp. 172-6;
91. Beecham, Ashantee and the Gold Coast, pp. 193-222.
92. T. J, Hutchinson, Impressions of Western Africa, p. 70.
93. In Krachi, 'gifts and payments were also sent to Dente for permission to establish branch shrines'; a native king gave no less than £100 to the Dente Bosomfo for a consecrated stone for establishing a branch. Maier, Priests and Power, p. 59;
94. Sunter to Colonial Office, 25 October 1890, CO879/30, PRO.
95. Hutchinson, Impression of West Africa, p. 70.
96. Muller to Basel, 28 March 1884.
97. J. K. Fynn, Asante and its Neighbours 1700-1807, p. 103. Nananom Pow was an important shrine situated at the outskirts of Mankessim. According to Fynn, it was made the abode of gods deliberately by the Borbor Fante for political consideration during the second half of the eighteenth century.
98. See his article 'Nananom Pow of the Fante', pp. 54-9.
99. J. K. Fynn, 'The Nananom Pow of the Fante', p. 57.
100. C. J. Williamson, Akan Religion and the Christian Faith, Accra 1965, pp. 4-5.
101. D. Kemp, Nine Years at the Gold Coast, London 1898, pp. 182-4.
102. The New Testament in Fanti was produced in 1895, and by 1900 it was translated into all the major languages of south Ghana. Ga was the fifth and Twi the seventh African language into which the entire Bible was translated. C. P. Groves, The Planting of Christianity in Africa, 1914-54, London 1958, Vol. IV, pp. 358-9.
103. "The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance' in Great Britain and Ghana: Documents of Ghana History, 1807-1957, G. E. Metcalfe (ed.), Accra 1964, pp. 390-3.
104. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, Vol. II, Ch. XI;
105. Reindorf, The History of the Gold Coast and Asante, p. 234;
106. Fynn, 'Nananom Pow of the Fante', pp. 54-5.
107. Maier, Power and Priests, pp. 37-60.
108. Annual Reports on the Asante Mission, compiled by N. Asare, Kumase, 29 February 1908, Basel Missionary Archives.
109. Quoted from McCaskie, 'Anti-Witchcraft in Asante', p. 140.
110. This uprising of 1900 is better known as the Yaa Asantewa war, since Yaa Asantewa, the queen-mother of Ejisu, was the leader of the uprising.
111. Maxwell to Chamberlain, 22 February 1896, quoted from C. W. Newbury, British Policy Towards West Africa: Selected Documents 1875-1914, Oxford 1971, p. 296.
112. W. Brandford Griffith, Memorandum: Jurisdiction in Ashanti, 9 August 1899, CO96/342, PRO.
113. William Low (Colonial Secretary) to Joseph Chamberlain, 8 March 1901, quoted from Newbury, British Policy Towards West Africa, p. 333.
114. Colonial Reports: Ashanti, 1906, quoted from K. A. Busia, The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti, London 1951, p. 110.
115. Busia, Position of the Chief, p. 110.
116. The Governor's Address to the Legislative Council, 26 September 1904; Minutes of the Legislative Council, 1904. CO98/11, PRO.
117. See Anshan Li, Social Protest in the Gold Coast: A Study of the Eastern Province in the Colonial Period, PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 1993, Chs. III and IV.
118. Busia, The Position of the Chief pp. 105-6.
119. Report on Native Affairs Department 1906-7, CO98/16, PRO; 1908, No. 101, Native Affairs Department Annual Report for 1907, CO99/20; 1909, No. 63. Report on Native Affairs Department for 1908, CO99/21, PRO.
120. Report on Native Affairs Department 1906-7, CO98/16, PRO.
121. See also J. Simensen, Commoners, Chiefs and Colonial Government: British Policy and Local Politics in Akim Abuakwa, Ghana, Under Colonial Rule, PhD thesis, University of Trondheim, 1975, pp. 68-70a.
122. Report on Native Affairs Department 1906-7, CO98/16, PRO; Native Affairs Department Annual Report for 1907, CO99/20; Report on Native Affairs Department for the year 1908, C098/17, PRO.
123. Fuller did once mention the possibility of the linkage. 'It is just possible that the "Young party" will avail themselves of the Abirewa peg, upon which to hang their discontent and that an anti-Government influence will be thus introduced into the cult'. Fuller to the Acting Colonial Secretary, 22 July 1908, in Rodger to Crewe, 17 August 1908, CO96/471, PRO.
124. Report on Native Affairs Department 1906-1907, C098/16, PRO.
125. There is no intention to claim that this is the only valid interpretation. McLeod suggests that there is a close linkage between commoners and the Abirewa movement, while McCaskie argues that even some office-holders made use of the religion. See McLeod, 'On the Spread', p. 109;
126. McCaskie, 'Anti-Witchcraft', p. 139.
127. Clifford to Harcourt, 24 March 1914, CO96/543, PRO. The Gold Coast Nation, 26 March, 2 April, 7 May, 26 November 1914. The latest evidence of Abirewa was in 1921.
128. See Acting Commissioner of Central Province to District Commissioner of Nsuaem, 5 September, 26 September 1921, ADM36/1/8.
129. Native custom and fetish (1 August 1908-2 November, 1948) ADM11/1/1679; 'Fetish 1920-46', ADM36/1/8. Among them, Tigare, which bore a resemblance to Abirewa, was the best known and most widespread.