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Village settlement among the Fante: a study of the Anomabo paramountcy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

James Sanders
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Extract

This article examines the growth of the Anomabo settlement pattern. Two main perspectives are used: one geographical, in which the number and configuration of villages are investigated; the other historical, in which village origins are examined, largely through the use of oral evidence collected from local informants. A discussion of Anomabo's geography begins the study.

Résumé

Création de villages chez les Fante: une étude de la suprémacie d'Anomabo

Cet article examine le modèle de peuplement de la suprémacie d'Anomabo dans la région Fante du Ghana du Sud. Il analyse le nombre et la configuration des villages dans les régions traditionnelles Anomabo ainsi que l'histoire de chaque village qui furent assemblées par l'auteur en 1977. Fondé sur l'évidence tirée des listes de chefs et des listes du service civile de la colonie de la Côte d'Or, il y est avancé que le siège de la suprémacie d'Anomabo maintient une grandeur raisonnablement constante pendant près d'une siècle, et que la distribution spatiale régulière des villages a été l'une des caractéristiques de la région traditionnelle pendant une longueur de temps similaire. II y est suggéré que la stabilité du modèle de peuplement d'Anomabo est liée au statut en déclin de la ville après 1860 en tant que port international et marché de poissons, d'esclaves et d'huile de noix de coco.

Une investigation sur les origines des villages Anomabo, qui dépend de sources à la fois archivistiques et non archivistiques, démontre que ces villages retracent leurs origines aux: Etsi et Asebu qui peuplaient la région côtière antérieurement aux Fante; Fante qui émigrèrent vers l'intérieur des terres de la ville d'Anomabo; Fante qui émigrèrent vers la région côtière de Mankessim sans s'être au préalable installés à Anomabo; et Fante qui émigrèrent directement vers les régions côtières en provenance de territoires au delà de Makessim. L'installation Fante dans la région d'Anomabo fut influehcée par les luttes, le commerce, la construction de routes et la quête pour la terre. Bien que quelques villages ont clairement plus d'un siècle, beaucoup d'autres semblent avoir été fondés au dix-neuvième siècle par les habitants de la ville côtière d'Anomabo en quête de nouvelles terres arables.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , April 1985 , pp. 174 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1985

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References

Notes

1 This study began as a working paper presented to the faculty seminar in history at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana on 9 May 1977. I would like to express my appreciation to the members of that seminar, and especially to Francis Agbodeka, former head of the History Department, for encouraging my research among the Fante. I would also like to thank Ivor Wilks for his comments on an earlier version of the article.

2 Field Texts, Pomadze, 27 January 1977. The Field Texts here referred to appear in Sanders, J., ‘The Political Development of the Fante in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: a Study of a West African Merchant’ (Ph.D. thesis, Northwestern University, 1980).Google Scholar

3 Field Texts, Halmkrom, 27 January 1977.

4 See Sanders, ‘The Political Development of the Fame’, 208–9.

5 Dickson, Kwamina B., A Historical Geography of Ghana (London, 1969), 222.Google Scholar

6 Bowdich, Thomas E., Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819), 15–17.Google Scholar

7 Missionen, Katholische, Nachrichten aus den Missionen, No. 2 (February 1883), 43.Google Scholar

8 ‘Land und Volk von Akem’, Globus, XXX, 11 (1876), 157.Google Scholar

9 Ibid.

10 ‘See Sanders, ‘The Political Development of the Fame’, 211–15.

11 Field Texts, Tuafo, 21 January 1977.

12 Ibid.

13 Field Texts, Dwindwinabazi, 17 January 1977.

14 Field Texts, Obontser, 30 January 1977.

15 Inhabitants of the Sunkwa district did, however, meet traders from the coast at the Etsi market town of Daadaagua (meaning ‘daily market’). See Field Texts, Nsandzi, 23 January 1977; Halmkrom, 27 January 1977; and Obontser, 30 January 1977. The village of Daadaagua survived well into the nineteenth century. See Boyle, F., Through Fanteeland to Coomassie (London, 1874), 399.Google Scholar The page cited here is part of an appendix entitled ‘Roads from Cape Coast to River Prah’. It is derived from Ghartey's, R. J.Guide for Strangers travelling to Coomassie, the capital city of Ashantee, a work published at Cape Coast in 1864.Google Scholar See also Rev. Christaller, J. G., A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Chwee, Twi), with a Grammatical Introduction and Appendices on the Geography of the Gold Coast and other Subjects (Basel, 1881), 651.Google Scholar

16 Field Texts, Halmkrom, 27 January 1977.

17 “Field Texts, Nsandzi, 23 January 1977.

18 Ibid.

19 Field Texts, Dwindwinabazi, 17 January 1977.

20 National Archives of Ghana (hereafter NAG), Cape Coast, Ace. No. 554/64: Traditional History of Various Tribes, ‘Anomabo’.

21 See Sanders, J., ‘The expansion of the Fante and the emergence of Asante in the eighteenth century’, Journal of African History, 20, 3 (1979), 352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 According to Amonu IV, Apotua Dakyim was ‘put in a place called Agilfah [i.e. Egyirfua] and was removed thence to Abonu’. See NAG, Cape Coast, Ace. No. 682/1964: Cudjoe Bura and Amonoo IV versus Ampimah, dd. 3 September 1891. Village traditions agree that Apotua Dakyim first settled at Egyirfua. Field Texts, Aboenu, 13 March 1977.

23 Public Record Office (hereafter PRO), T. 70/1532: R. Brew to Capt. T. Eagles, dd. Castle Brew, 10 November 1774. Brew states in this letter that smallpox had claimed many lives, ‘and amongst them your old friend and my old servant John Currantee; he has died worth a great deal of money, and is a great loss to this Town’.

24 General State Archives, The Hague, Ministrie van Kolonien, No. 3965, Gouvernments Journal: Journal van den Fabriek en Magazyn Meester J. Simons, gehouden op deszelfs Missie naar den Koning van Assiantyn te Koemasie, entry for 28 December 1831.

25 Field Texts, Amisakrom, 20 February 1977.

26 Field Texts, Akoansow, 27 February 1977.

27 “Field Texts, Kobena Ansa, 20 February 1977.

28 NAG, Cape Coast, Adm. 23/1/388: Asebu–Anamabu Land Dispute, Enquiry held at Assebu on the 17th February 1920, by Captain W. Hinson, District Commissioner, Saltpond, and Captain J. H. West, Acting District Commissioner, Cape Coast, p. 5.

29 NAG, Cape Coast, Adm. 23/1/388: Asebu – Anomabo Land Dispute, letter of Amonoo V, dd. ‘Ahinfie’, Anamabu, 20 February 1920.

30 NAG, Cape Coast, Adm. 23/1/607: Asebu Lands – Dispute Concerning. File C.P. 589/1926, Account of a Meeting held at Abakrampa, 23 February 1947.

31 Field Texts, Anomabo, 26 March 1977.

32 Field Texts, Prewusi, 3 February 1977.

33 NAG, Cape Coast, Ace. No. 554/64: Traditional History of Various Tribes, ‘Anamabo’, p. 5.

34 A. Dantzig, van (comp. and trans.), Dutch Documents relating to the Gold and Slave Coast (Coast of Guinea), 1680–1740, 1 (Legon, 1971), 90. This is a reference to WIC 125: Minutes of the Director General and Council, Elmina, 6 July 1708, letter from Sir Dalby Thomas, dd. 25 June 1708.Google Scholar

35 NAG, Cape Coast, Ace. No. 54/1964: Traditional History of Various Tribes, ‘Some Important Characters in Fanti History’.

36 Field Texts, Anomabo, 30 May 1977.

37 Under letter (g) of Secretariat of Native Affairs form No. 6, completed at the installation of Adontenhen Kweku Amonu III in 1926, it was recorded that the candidate had been selected from ‘Kwagyakwa's house’. See NAG, Cape Coast, Adm. 23/1/790: SNA form No. 6, included with a letter from Amonu VII to the District Commissioner at Saltpond, dd. Ahinfie, Anomabo, 11 September 1927.

38 PRO, CO. 96/45: Memorial of the Kings Chiefs and Captains of the Gold Coast West Africa whose names are here unto affixed – dd. Cape Coast, 19 April 1859; and CO. 96/72: Letter to the Acting Governor and Administrator of the Gold Coast, Cape Coast, from various chiefs, dd. Anomaboe, 21 November 1866.

39 For reign dates of the Amanhen of Anomabo see Sanders, , ‘The Political Development of the Fame’, 280–1. Field Texts, Daman, 27 January 1977.Google Scholar

40 Field Texts, Daman, 27 January 1977.

41 NAG, Cape Coast, Adm. 23/1/193: Acting Commissioner, Central Province, to SNA, dd. 10 May 1917.

42 Field Texts, Obuadze, 31 January 1977.

43 Ibid.

44 Field Texts, Taiyir, 21 January 1977; Nyanfueku Ekroful, 25 March 1977; Ogokrom, 31 January 1977.

45 Field Texts, Ogokrom, 30 January 1977.

46 Ibid.

47 PRO, CO. 267/58: Deposition relating to Sam Brew from Katoa, Captain to Sam Brew, dd. 28 February 1823, in despatch from Sir Charles MacCarthy to Earl Bathurst, dd. Cape Coast Castle, 17 May 1823.