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THE GOVERNMENT OF FANTE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2013

ROBIN LAW
ROBIN LAW*
Affiliation:
University of Stirling/University of Liverpool
*
Author's email: r.c.c.law@stir.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article reconsiders the political organization of Fante, a leading state of the Gold Coast, during the seventeenth century, mainly on the basis of contemporary European records. It questions the conventional depiction of Fante as lacking any effective central authority, showing that the Brafo (head of state) in fact exercised significant power. However, there were recurrent conflicts, both between the Brafo and other chiefs in the capital, and between the capital and the provinces. These tensions are situated within the context of growing European trade in gold and slaves, and endemic local warfare, which generated new resources that upset the existing balance of power.

Keywords

Ghanastatepoliticsprecolonialtrade
Type
Trade and State Formation
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 31 - 51
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented at the Biennial Conference of the African Studies Association of the UK, University of Leeds, Sept. 2012. Thanks to Tom McCaskie for his comments, and to Natalie Everts for advice on the translation of Dutch texts.

References

1 Nowadays the term ‘Fante’ is used with a wide application, and includes originally distinct communities that were brought under Fante control or influence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this article, it designates the original Fante polity, as it existed c. 1700.

2 Getz, T. R., ‘Mechanisms of slave acquisition and delivery in late eighteenth century Anomabu: reconsidering a cross-section of the Atlantic Slave Trade’, African Economic History, 31 (2003), 75–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Sanders, J., ‘The expansion of the Fante and the emergence of Asante in the eighteenth century’, Journal of African History, 20:3 (1979), 349–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Law, R., ‘Fante expansion reconsidered: seventeenth-century origins’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, new series, 14 (2012), 41–78Google Scholar.

4 Shumway, R., The Fante and the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Rochester, NY, 2011)Google Scholar.

5 Bosman, W., A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705)Google Scholar, 5 and 57. The other ‘commonwealths’ were Axim, Ahanta, and Adom, on the western Gold Coast; the ‘kingdoms’ were Jabi, Eguafo, Fetu, and Asebu to the west of Fante, and Akron, Agona, and Akwamu to the east.

6 On which, see esp. Kimble, D., A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast Nationalism, 1850–1928 (Oxford, 1963), 222–63Google Scholar.

7 The National Archives, London (TNA) Treasury (T)70/30, T. Melvil, Cape Coast Castle (CCC), 14 Mar. 1753.

8 Boahen, A. A., ‘Asante and Fante A. D. 1000–1800’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Espie, I. (eds.), A Thousand Years of West African History: A Handbook for Teachers and Students (Ibadan, Nigeria, 1965), 179Google Scholar; Boahen, A. A., ‘Fante diplomacy in the eighteenth century’, in Ingham, K. (ed.), Foreign Relations of African States, Colston Papers 25 (London, 1974), 27Google Scholar; Kea, R. A., ‘City-state culture on the Gold Coast: Fante city-states in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’, in Hansen, M. H. (ed.), A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State Cultures: An Investigation (Copenhagen, 2000), 519–30Google Scholar. In this article, to avoid confusion, the component districts of Fante are termed ‘provinces’, rather than ‘states’.

9 S. Tenkorang, ‘British slave trading activities on the Gold and Slave Coasts in the eighteenth century and their effect on African society’ (unpublished MA thesis, University of London, 1964), ch. III; Daaku, K. Y., Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast, 1600–1720: A Study of the African Reaction to European Trade (Oxford, 1970)Google Scholar, 169 and 180.

10 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 179.

11 Shumway, Fante, ch. 3.

12 Arhin, K., ‘Diffuse authority among the coastal Fanti’, Ghana Notes and Queries, 9 (1966), 66–70Google Scholar.

13 See, for example, Wilks, I., ‘Ashanti government’, in Forde, C. D. and Kaberry, P. M. (eds.), West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1967), 206–38Google Scholar; Rattray, R. S., Ashanti Law and Constitution (London, 1929), 99, 105Google Scholar. See also Shumway, Fante, 113–14.

14 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 179–80 and 182; Daaku, Trade, 166–7.

15 Sanders, ‘Expansion’, 350 and 362–3.

16 Fynn, J. K., ‘The political system of the Fante of Ghana during the pre-colonial period’, Universitas (University of Ghana, Legon), 9 (1987), 108–20Google Scholar.

17 Shumway observes that it ‘remains largely unknown’: see Shumway, Fante, 31.

18 Kea, R. A., Settlements, Trade, and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast (Baltimore, 1982)Google Scholar.

19 The earliest substantial collection of Fante traditions is in Brown, E. J. P., Gold Coast and Asianti Reader, Book I (London, 1929), 53–78Google Scholar.

20 Law, R. (ed.), The English in West Africa: The Local Correspondence of the Royal African Company of England, 1681–99, 3 parts (London, 1997, 2001, 2006)Google Scholar. (Cited hereafter as ‘EiWA’.)

21 See Shumway, Fante, 31, expressing doubt whether ‘there was ever a single political leader of the community – who may or may not have been known as the Brafo’.

22 L. F. Rømer, with S. A. Winsnes (trans. and ed.), A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea (1760), (Oxford, 2000), 98 and 201 (presumed to report the situation when Rømer was in Africa from 1739–49); TNA T70/30, ‘A diary or narrative of transactions with the Fantees from the death of Intuffero King of Wassaw’, Aug.–Nov. 1752; TNA T70/1695, ‘Fantee Treaty for excluding the French from making any settlement in the Fantee territories’, CCC, 6 Feb. 1753.

23 Text of treaty, 31 Mar. 1624, in Daaku, Trade, 185; O. Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten (2nd edn, Amsterdam, 1676 [orig. pub. 1668]), 2nd pagination, 80.

24 van Dantzig, A. (ed.), The Dutch and the Guinea Coast 1674–1742: A Collection of Documents from the General State Archive at The Hague (Accra, 1978)Google Scholar, doc. no.88, Attestation of Charles Le Petit, 18 Dec. 1690; Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 57, with amended translation in van Dantzig, A., ‘English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: a comparison of texts’, History in Africa, 2 (1975), 210CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Christaller, J. G., 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), 46Google Scholar.

26 See, for example, Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2nd pagination, 65–6 and 75–6.

27 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 193–4.

28 Deffontaine, Y., Guerre et société au royaume de Fetu (Efutu): des débuts du commerce atlantique à la constitution de la Féderation Fanti: Ghana, Côte de l'or, 1472–1720 (Ibadan, Nigeria, 1993), 68Google Scholar.

29 Rømer, Reliable Account, 97–8 and 201.

30 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 57, with van Dantzig, ‘English Bosman’, 210. See also Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 194, defining a Brafo as one ‘who is to charge first in battle’.

31 For example, in 1693, against Etsi: EiWA, III, no. 950: William Cooper, Egya, 9 Dec. 1693.

32 Fynn, ‘Political system’, 112.

33 Arhin, ‘Diffuse authority’, 70.

34 Boahen, ‘Fante diplomacy’, 27; Fynn, ‘Political system’, 112.

35 Rømer, Reliable Account, 98.

36 EiWA, II, nos. 594 and 700: J. Nightingale, Anomabo, 23 Feb. 1688; W. Cross, Egya, 23 Feb. 1688.

37 National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague/Den Haag (NAN), Nederlandse Bezittingen op de Kust van Guinea (NBKG) 81, Journal of Louijs Dammaert, 28 April, 16 May 1653; EiWA, II, no. 577: J. Nightingale, Anomabo, 9 Dec. 1687.

38 Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2nd pag., 78–9.

39 In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, Europeans sometimes used the term in the plural, ‘the Braffoes’: Shumway, Fante, 123. This is explained, in different accounts, as referring either to members of the family of the Brafo, or to subordinate officials: Meredith, G., An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa, with a Brief History of the African Company (London, 1812), 117Google Scholar; Bowdich, T. E., Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Descriptive Account of that Kingdom (London, 1819), 251Google Scholar. There may also have been confusion with Abura-fo, ‘People of Abura’, which now shared authority with Mankessim.

40 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 177.

41 NAN NBKG 81, Dammaert's Journal, 19 Feb. 1653; Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2nd pag., 78–9.

42 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 57, with van Dantzig, ‘English Bosman’, 210.

43 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 57; TNA T70/30, T. Melvil, CCC, 14 Mar. 1753.

44 Welman, C. W., The Native States of the Gold Coast, Volume II: Ahanta (London, 1930)Google Scholar, 7 and 13.

45 Kea, Settlements, 100–1.

46 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 181; Boahen, ‘Fante diplomacy’, 27.

47 TNA T70/1695, ‘Names of those that took the oath etc.’, CCC, 6 Feb. 1753.

48 EiWA, I, ch. III, passim; EiWA, II, ch. V, passim and esp. no. 375: J. Bloome, Anashan, 9 Apr. 1688; EiWA, III, ch. V, passim.

49 TNA T70/370, Journal, CCC, 19 July 1684; EiWA, II, no. 581: J. Nightingale, Anomabo, 17 Dec. 1687.

50 TNA T70/373, Journal, CCC, Nov. 1689.

51 Brown, Gold Coast I, 60–1.

52 TNA T70/30, T. Melvil, CCC, 11 Mar. 1753.

53 Fynn, J. K., ‘The Nananom Pow of the Fante: myth and reality’, Sankofa, 2 (1976), 54–9Google Scholar; McCaskie, T. C., ‘Nananom Mpow of Mankessim: an essay in Fante history’, in Henige, D. P. and McCaskie, T. C. (eds.), West African Economic and Social History: Studies in Memory of Marion Johnson (Madison, WI, 1990), 133–50Google Scholar; Shumway, R., ‘The Fante shrine of Nananom Mpow and the Atlantic slave trade in southern Ghana’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 44:1 (2011), 27–44Google Scholar.

54 For a nineteenth-century example, see Cruickshank, B., Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, Including an Account of the Native Tribes, and their Intercourse with Europeans, Volume I (London, 1853), 281Google Scholar.

55 TNA T70/30, ‘Diary’, 22 Sept. 1752.

56 Rømer, Reliable Account, 95–8 and 129.

57 TNA T70/30, ‘Diary’, 23 Sept. 1752.

58 Fynn, ‘Nananom Pow’, 56–7; Shumway, ‘Fante shrine’, 35 and 37–9.

59 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 151, 153, and 183–4.

60 EiWA, III, no. 1025: C. Salmon, Egya, 1 Dec. 1697.

61 EiWA, II, nos. 498–9: R. Hassell, Anomabo, 3 and 7 Feb. 1687.

62 TNA T70/30, T. Melvil, CCC, 23 July 1751; Boahen, ‘Fante diplomacy’, 27.

63 Bowdich, Mission, 231 and 263. See also Fynn, ‘Nananom Pow’, 57–8.

64 Sarbah, J. M., Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise on the Constitution and Government of the Fanti, Asanti, and other Akan Tribes of West Africa (London, 1906), 51–2Google Scholar.

65 Brown, Gold Coast I, 77–8; Kea, ‘City-state culture’, 528.

66 Christensen, J. B., ‘The adaptive functions of Fanti priesthood’, in Bascom, W. R. and Herskovits, M. J. (eds.), Continuity and Change in African Cultures (Chicago, 1959), 262Google Scholar.

67 Fynn, ‘Nananom Pow’, 56–7.

68 TNA T70/1695, ‘Fantee Treaty’, referring to ‘Aduafo Braffoe of Fantee’ and ‘Taky priest of Bura Bura Wiga’.

69 Rømer, Reliable Account, 97–8.

70 Henige, D. P., The Chronology of Oral Tradition: Quest for a Chimera (Oxford, 1974), 150–1Google Scholar.

71 Brown, Gold Coast I, 78; Fynn, ‘Political system’, 111–12.

72 TNA T70/29, T. Melvil, CCC, 23 July 1751; TNA T70/1695, ‘Fantee Treaty’. Also see Fynn, ‘Political system’, 113–14; and Shumway, Fante, 103.

73 EiWA, I, no. 277: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 23 June 1682; EiWA, III, no. 659: W. Cross, Anomabo, 13 July 1692; Fynn, ‘Nananom Pow’, 55.

74 EiWA, I, no. 311: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 1 Dec. 1682; EiWA, II, nos. 543 and 550–1: R. Hassell and J. Nightingale, Anomabo, 3 Aug. 1687; J. Walker, Anomabo, 22 and 24 Aug. 1687.

75 Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2nd pag., 81.

76 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 57, with van Dantzig, ‘English Bosman’, 210.

77 EiWA, III, nos. 924 and 930: C. Salmon, Anomabo, 29 Aug. 1698; G. Gore, Anomabo, 5 Feb. 1699.

78 Boahen and Daaku cited John Barbot, as well as Bosman, thus extending the period of Fante weakness to include the 1680s, as well as the 1690s (Barbot having visited the area in 1679–82); but Barbot's remarks are in fact copied from Bosman, rather than reflecting his own experience. Barbot, J., A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, and of Ethipio Inferior, Vulgarly Called Angola… (London, 1732), 175–6Google Scholar.

79 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 179.

80 Daaku, Trade, 185; Porter, R., ‘The Crispe family and the African trade in the seventeenth century’, Journal of African History, 9:1 (1968), 63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

81 EiWA, I, no. 383: J. Cunduitt, Egya, 4 Oct. 1681 (referring back to the time of agent-general Thomas Mellish, 1674–6).

82 Ibid.I, nos. 256–8: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 13, 16 and 20 Jan. 1682.

83 Ibid.I, nos. 182 and 508: A. Richards, Anashan, 5 May 1682; S. Starland and A. Richards, Anashan, 4 May 1682.

84 EiWA, II, nos. 454–5: J. Walker, Anomabo, 10 Oct. 1686; R. Hassell, Anomabo, 14 Oct. 1686.

85 EiWA, III, no. 629: J. Gregory, Anomabo, 29 Dec. 1691.

86 EiWA, II, nos. 498–9: R. Hassell, Anomabo, 3 and 7 Feb. 1687.

87 EiWA, III, nos. 836 and 1017: J. Rootsey, Anomabo, 27 Oct. 1695; J. Brown, Egya, 14 Mar. 1696.

88 This paragraph summarizes a mass of detailed information in EiWA, I, chs. III–V; Ibid.II, chs. V–VII; Ibid.III, chs. V–IX.

89 See, for example, details of Christmas payments in EiWA, I, no. 247: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 29 Oct. 1681; Ibid.III, no. 591: S. Heartsease, Anashan, 17 Jan.1699.

90 See Shumway, Fante, 118, Table 3.1.

91 EiWA, I, no. 324: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 10 Mar. 1683; Ibid.II, no. 669: R. Elwes, Egya, 25 June 1687.

92 Dapper, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2nd pag., 81.

93 NAN NBKG 81, Dammaert's Journal, 3, 4 and 6 Oct., 1 Dec. 1653, 24 May 1654; Kea, Settlements, 117.

94 R. Porter, ‘European activity on the Gold Coast, 1620–1667’ (unpublished D.Litt. et Phil. thesis, University of South Africa, 1974), 590.

95 ‘Diary of Jacob Ruychaver, 24 Oct. 1645’, in K. Ratelband (ed.), Vijf Dagregisters van het Kasteel São Jorge da Mina (Elmina) aan de Goudkust (1645–1647) ('s-Gravenhage, The Netherlands, 1953), 83; Datta, A. K. and Porter, R., ‘The asafo system in historical perspective: an inquiry into the origin and development of a Ghanaian institution’, Journal of African History, 12:2 (1971), 292Google Scholar.

96 EiWA, I, no. 287: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 6 Aug. 1682.

97 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 56, with van Dantzig, ‘English Bosman’, 210. The English translation refers to ‘perpetual civil divisions’, but this is not warranted by the original Dutch text. Van Dantzig argues that the latter implies that the Fante were not divided: against this, see Law, ‘Fante expansion’, 43–4.

98 EiWA, III, no. 1113: W. Cooper, Winneba, 16 May 1695.

99 Bosman, New and Accurate Description, 35, with van Dantzig, ‘English Bosman’, 202; Chief Merchants, CCC, n.d. [= 25 Feb. 1697], in C. Davenant, ‘Reflections upon the constitution and management of the African trade’, in Sir C. Whitworth (ed.), The Political and Commercial Works of that Celebrated Writer Charles D'Avenant, L. L. D.Volume V (London, 1771), 198–9; EiWA, III, nos. 871–2, 875, and 877: J. Brown, Anomabo, 15 and 16 June, 12 July, 3 Sept. 1697; TNA T70/374, Journal, CCC, 31 Aug., 11, 29 and 30 Sept. 1697. See also Law, R., ‘The Komenda Wars, 1694–1700: a revised narrative’, History in Africa, 34 (2007), 153–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100 The RAC paid the Captain of Abura ‘to fight the Braffoe of Fantine’, but there is no explicit record of actual fighting: TNA T70/374, Journal, CCC, 29 Sept. 1697.

101 EiWA, III, nos. 878–9, 885–6, and 1026–7: R. Sheldon, Anomabo, 9 Nov. (2 letters), 18 and 31 Dec. 1697; C. Salmon, Egya, 14 Dec. 1697 and 18 Jan. 1698.

102 Ibid.III, nos. 881, 883, 1025, 1030, and 1039: C. Salmon, Anomabo, 5 Dec. 1697; R. Sheldon, Anomabo, 11 Dec. 1697; C. Salmon, Egya, 1 Dec. 1697, 29 Jan., and 21 Apr. 1698.

103 Ibid.III, nos. 903–4, 910, and 1039: K. Hutson, Anomabo, 27 and 28 April, 10 May 1698; C. Salmon, Egya, 21 Apr. 1698. For the Captain of Kwaman, see also Ibid.III, no. 929, G. Gore, Anomabo, 5 Feb. 1699.

104 Ibid.III, nos. 927 and 1040: G. Gore, Anomabo, 21 Jan. 1699; C. Salmon, Egya, 10 Jan. 1699; Law, ‘Komenda Wars’, 164–5.

105 EiWA, III, nos. 929, 931, and 1042: G. Gore, Anomabo, 5 and 7 Feb. 1699; C. Salmon, Egya, n.d. [Feb. 1699]. The Brafo attacked a party of traders: according to different reports, his motive was either to prevent them from taking goods to ransom the Captain of Kwaman from Denkyira, or to recover a debt.

106 EiWA, II, no. 593: J. Nightingale, Anomabo, 18 Feb. 1688. But the suggestion of Shumway, Fante, 183, n. 105, that Eggin's claim to the Brafo title represented a means for the Anomabo leaders of ‘advancing their own independence’ seems unwarranted.

107 EiWA, III, no. 818: W. Ronan, Anomabo, 2 Aug. 1695.

108 Meredith, An Account, 115, 117, and 134; Robertson, G. A., Notes on Africa: Particularly those Parts which are Situated between Cape Verd and the River Congo… (London, 1819), 153Google Scholar.

109 EiWA, I, no. 383: J. Cunduitt, Egya, 4 Oct. 1681; EiWA, I, no. 257: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 16 Jan. 1682.

110 Ibid.I, no. 242: R. Thelwall, Anomabo, 21 Oct. 1681.

111 EiWA, III, nos. 836 and 1017; J. Rootsey, Anomabo, 27 Oct. 1695; J. Brown, Egya, 14 Mar. 1696.

112 Chief Merchants, CCC, n.d., in Davenant, ‘Reflections’, 198–9; TNA T70/374, Journal, CCC, 30 Mar. 1698.

113 Kea, Settlements, 30; Kea, ‘City-state culture’, 519.

114 EiWA, III, no. 924: C. Salmon, Anomabo, 29 Aug. 1698.

115 Ibid.III, no. 1028: C. Salmon, Egya, 12 Jan. 1698.

116 Boahen, ‘Asante’, 180–2; Daaku, Trade, 169.

117 NAN NBKG 82, J. van Visbeek, Kormantin, 20 Aug. 1715, quoted in K. Affrifah, The Akyem Factor in Ghana's History, 1700–1875 (Accra, 2000), 29.

118 Boahen, ‘Fante diplomacy’, 37–8.

119 TNA T70/30, ‘Diary’, 20 Sept., 19 Oct. 1752.

120 TNA T70/1695, ‘Fantee Treaty’, lists ‘Acrampa’ with this title; although he is not explicitly connected to Abura, the latter's capital town was later called ‘Abakrampa’ (= ‘palm-tree [abe] of Akrampa’). Likewise, in the later Fanti Confederation, the competing claims to leadership of the kings of Mankessim and Abura were eventually resolved by making the former ‘King-President’ and the latter ‘General Chief Marshal of the Fanti Nation’. See Kimble, Political History, 258.

121 TNA T70/30, ‘Diary’, 20 Sept. 1752; T. Melvil, CCC, 11 Mar. 1753.

122 For example, in Fetu: Deffontaine, Guerre et société, 61–2.

123 G. Chouin, Eguafo: un royaume africain ‘au coeur françois’ (1637–1688): mutations socio-économiques et olitique européene d'un état de la Côte de l'Or (Paris, 1998), 65–73 and 138–40; Law, ‘Komenda Wars’, 138–40, 149–50, and 164–70.

124 Compare the argument of Shumway, Fante, chap. 4, that a ‘new form of [decentralized] government’ emerged ‘by the 1730s’. Her detailed analysis concerns mainly the destruction of kingship in neighbouring states by Fante's expansionist wars, rather than developments internal to Fante itself; but she does also cite these executions as an episode in the ‘reorganization’: Ibid. 138–9.

125 Compare the critical role played by the transfer of allegiance of various groups in Asante's overthrow of Denkyira in 1701: McCaskie, T. C., ‘Denkyira in the making of Asante, c. 1660–1720’, Journal of African History, 48:1 (2007), 1–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

126 For ‘unallocated resources’ as a potential source of political change, see Lloyd, P. C., The Political Development of Yoruba Kingdoms in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (London, 1971)Google Scholar, ch. 1.

127 Shumway, Fante, 40–2.

128 Ibid. 42–7; Law, ‘Fante expansion’, 71–2.

129 Kea, Settlements, 11.