Mawu and her consort Lisa form a dual deity, and the vodun are considered their children. Mawu and Lisa live in the sky; Mawu is associated with the moon, and Lisa with the sun. Most of their offspring live on earth. Their children take many forms. Gu, the god of iron, came as a headless body; where the head should be was a great blade. The last-born was Legba, who became Mawu’s pet. Legba acquired other responsibilities as well. Mawu posed a test for her children, to see which of them, if any, could play several musical instruments at the same time: a flute and a drum, a bell and a gong. While playing, they should dance and sing as well. Only Legba could accomplish this feat, and so Mawu made Legba the go-between and messenger of the gods.
Mawu apportioned the earth among her children. To Sagbata, who had come into being as a couple, male and female, she gave rule over the earth. To Sogbo, who was born a hermaphrodite, she gave control of the sky. And she cautioned them not to quarrel, but to work as closely together as the lid of a calabash fits onto the bottom bowl. To Agbe and his consort she assigned the rule of the sea. To each she gave a different language, and Legba is the only one who can speak all languages.
EARTH AND SKY
Sogbo had wished to go down to the earth and rule there, but Mawu denied him. Mawu said that the earth was further from her, and so the elder Sagbata should be sent down. Sogbo grumbled at this show of preference, and so was receptive when Legba came to him with a suggestion that perhaps this would be the occasion for a test of their respective powers.
When Sagbata had departed Mawu’s residence in the skies for his new realm on earth, he took all sorts of wealth: the seeds of useful plants and crops, the tools and skills by which humans shape their world. But he did not have room for two items which therefore remained in the skies: water and fire (fire was eventually stolen and brought down to men). Legba’s suggestion was that Sogbo should withhold the rains which water the earth and see what occurred. Sogbo readily agreed. At the same time, Legba went to Mawu and expressed concern that there might not be enough water in the heavens for the needs of its residents, and Mawu gave him a message for Sogbo, ordering her second child to stop the rains for a time.
When Sagbata descended to earth with all his seeds, he was welcomed by the humans who had been placed there, for his gifts promised to make their lives much easier. But the crops he had brought required rain, and the rain did not fall. Soon the humans began to curse Sagbata for the false hopes he had raised and the change in weather that had come about after his arrival.
After a time, Mawu sent Legba down to earth to see how the eldest was doing. Legba came down and found Sagbata in a miserable state, for the earth was parched and barren and the people were very hostile to him. Legba promised to intercede on his behalf with Mawu, and told Sagbata to watch for a messenger who would soon bring him instructions. Then he returned to Mawu’s house and found the wututu bird. He sent the bird down to Sagbata with the message that all the people on earth should unite and light a great fire, so that the smoke would rise to heaven and signal their distress. The bird flew down to Sagbata and gave him Legba’s instructions. Ever since that time it is honoured as the messenger of Mawu.
Sagbata assembled the people and they built a great fire. All the vegetation on earth was so dry that it quickly ignited, and soon the flames were leaping high into the sky and the smoke of the burning rose out of sight into the heavens.
When he saw this, Legba went rushing to Mawu and told her that the earth was on fire, burning so strongly that it might even set off a fire in heaven. Mawu looked down and saw the flames and the smoke, and she ordered Legba to tell Sogbo to release the rains. Legba went to Sogbo, and Sogbo in turn released the rains which put out the flames and restored fertility to the earth.
After that, Mawu decided that while Sogbo controlled the rains in heaven, the people of earth should have the power to call down rains as well, for the perils of the earth might eventually have an effect above. The wututu bird was sent to live below, among people, to serve as a messenger who would inform the powers of the skies when rain was needed.
THE ALLADA DYNASTY OF ABOMEY
People came down to earth from the sky at Adja, and Dada Segbo, the king of Adja at that time, appears in many stories about the early days. The rules of nature were not fixed then. Births, for instance, were entirely random. A woman might give birth to a goat; a goat might give birth to a human child. It was a woman from Adja named Hwandjele who changed this by bringing the vodun to humans and creating the medicines and magics which ensured that humans would give birth to humans and goats to goats. Other people brought humans the knowledge of Fa divination, which is called the writing of Mawu.
At this time, or perhaps under different circumstances, a female leopard took the shape of a human and became a wife of the king of Adja. She made him promise not to reveal the truth of her origin to anyone, but he did tell some of his other wives. The leopard-woman, named Agasu, bore him a son whom they named Adjahuto, and then some time later she died. But she promised her children that if ever they got into trouble and had to leave Adja, they should take her remains with them, and she would serve as their personal vodun to protect them.
The king of Adja died, and the people wished Adjahuto to rule over them. But the other wives, now widows, spoke against this and protested that they did not wish to be ruled by the son of a leopard. There was a fight, and Adjahuto killed some people of Adja. It is said that one of those he killed was a friend of his, named Kozoe, who had been induced to betray Adjahuto’s whereabouts. Adjahuto took his mother’s remains and fled from Adja into the bush. There he met a man named Tedo who helped him find a path.
The people from Adja pursued him, but Adjahuto put down his cloth upon the ground and prayed for a river to start flowing and cut off his pursuers; his prayer was fulfilled. Then he activated some of his magic and said a prayer over his spear, wishing that the spear would fall in a place where he would be safe. Then he threw it in the air. He followed its course, asking people if they had seen his spear, and finally he found its landing spot. There he established his town, and there also three vodun cults were established: that of Agasu, that of Tedo, and that of Adjahuto himself, the founder of the line. His wives were known as ‘wives of the leopard’, and his descendants were the kpovi, the children of the leopard.
HWEGBADJA, THE FIRST KING
Among the descendants of Adjahuto were two brothers, Te Agbanli and Dako who later became known as Hwegbadja. Dako was a tremendous troublemaker, and eventually Te Agbanli arranged to have his brother thrown into the river during the night, in the hopes that he would drown or disappear. But a boatman found the child and pulled him out of the water, and raised him for a time as his own.
After six years Dako returned to his father’s house. He revealed himself to his father and told how Te Agbanli had thrown him into the water to be rid of him. It was at this time that he took his new name, Hwegbadja. The father reproached Te Agbanli for having tried to murder his brother, and at Hwegbadja’s request Te Agbanli went into exile, riding backwards on a horse. Eventually he settled in the town now known as Porto Novo.
Hwegbadja moved around, and he is remembered for bringing cloth to people who till then had no woven clothing, but only used skins and leaves. It was Hwegbadja who encountered the great serpent Da and asked him for land on which to build a house; he came back a second time and asked for more land. The third time he came, Da asked if he wanted to build in his belly. At that, Hwegbadja seized Da and cut him in half so that he would indeed build on Da’s belly. This is the origin of the name of the kingdom, Dahomey: the land of Da’s belly.
Hwegbadja did not easily or quickly become king in the area of his new settlement, for Agwa-Gede, the local chief, had power over the earth. His ancestors had come from the sea. When Hwegbadja wished to assert his rule of the earth, Agwa-Gede prayed by his ancestry for the rains to stop falling, and they stopped. When the people acknowledged Agwa-Gede’s authority, the rains fell again. He proved h
is powers with other tokens as well: he pulled up weeds and found peanuts among the roots, and he found cowrie-shells (used as money) under the earth.
Eventually, Agwa-Gede died and Hwegbadja began to rule. He then laid down laws concerning justice and punishment which remained in force until the time of King Behanzin, the last king to rule Dahomey from the royal palace in Abomey, who was sent into exile by the French to the West Indies.
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THE AKAN-ASHANTI AND THE BAULE OF THE FOREST
West of Togo, the coast of Africa was marked by thick equatorial forest which slowed trade and traffic. There is no record or tradition of states before the period of European contacts through the sea (from the fifteenth century on). The region was certainly inhabited by small groups of hunters and gatherers, speaking languages of the Akan family, but it is after trade in different commodities became established that kingdoms and states begin to appear in the records of the Hausa or of the Portuguese and other European traders and travellers along the coast. The principal locally used commodity was the kola nut; in Mande languages of the empire of Mali, this region is known as worodugu (kola-nut-land), but ivory was also a major export to the north over the centuries. From as early as the fifteenth century, gold was discovered in northern Ghana and became a major trade item; the coast became known to traders as the Gold Coast. The Ashanti kingdom developed to regulate this trade. The Akan-language peoples include the Ashanti, the Fante, the Baule and the Anyi. Ashanti traditions include the stories of Ananse the Spider (see Chapter 19).
ORIGINS
There are many different but related peoples living in the forests that used to cover the countries that are now Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, and they claim different but local origins. Many say that their first ancestors came from beneath the earth at some nearby place which they can point to. Others say they are descended from a spider, Ananse. Others say they came from some other land within the forest zone.
Along the coast, some people say that they came from the sea, led by two giants named Amamfi and Kwegia. After a journey of many days, the people had come to the shore and were emerging when they were seen by a hunter coming out of the forest. He exclaimed in wonder at the sight, and at the sound of his voice all the people who had not yet reached the shore were transformed into rocks, which can still be seen.
Kwegia and his people remained near the shore; they were fishermen. Amamfi and his people moved further inland, and Amamfi invented agriculture for them. He used a huge iron billhook, large enough to require six bars of iron. He also once brought some cannon to Assibu, where Kwegia lived, because he was in the custom of visiting his kinsman and bringing a gift, and that day he happened to have nothing else to bring. It is also said that he invented palm wine, although others say also that the discovery was made by a hunter who saw an elephant punch a hole into a tree-trunk with its tusk. When the hunter brought his new discovery to the king, the king drank so much that he fell down drunk and his followers thought he had been poisoned, and so they killed the hunter.
OSEI TUTU AND THE RISE OF ASHANTI
Many kingdoms succeeded each other in the forest lands. The Denkyira established one of the earlier kingdoms, at the southern end of the trade routes, but the most famous was that of the Ashanti. The Ashanti look back to the lost city of Asantemanso as their origin.
In the town of Akwamu, there was conflict over the succession at the death of a king. His sister, the queen-mother Nkansa, had twin sons. The elder was chosen king. To avoid future conflict, Nkansa left the country with the younger son, Obiri Yeboa, and many followers, and they travelled amid difficulties and hostilities, until the king of Bono granted them some land on which to establish themselves. This became the town of Asantemanso, and soon after Obiri Yeboa had been named king, a Denkyira princess came from the north to take up residence. She had also lost an election, and her sister had been named queen-mother. The town prospered for a time, but then some fifty or sixty years later a bitter dispute arose between the various groups of people involved, and a civil war broke out. Asantemanso was destroyed and its inhabitants were scattered, save for one prince of the family of Obiri Yeboa who remained to watch over the royal graves. The Denkyira soon exerted their power and made the entire region tributary.
Obiri Yeboa’s sister was married to the king of the Ashanti, and for a long time they were childless, until they consulted a celebrated diviner and he found the means to ensure them a son. They named the son Osei Tutu, in honour of the diviner, and he was a fine young man with all the marks of royalty. As a prince, though, he was soon called away from home: he was summoned to the court of the king of Denkyira, in part to serve as a hostage for his parents’ good behaviour. He immersed himself in the Denkyira court, despite his captive status, learning as much as he could about their manner of administration and maintenance of power, and he proved his worth so effectively that he was made a royal sword-bearer.
This function brought him often into the inner circle of the royal court. There he met and loved Princess Abena, the king’s sister. This was imprudent, of course, since she was of the ruling family and because she was already married to an elder. Their love affair became known. It became dangerous when she fell pregnant, and people knew clearly who was responsible. Osei Tutu realized he would have to leave the court and flee. He did not stay at home with his parents. To do so would bring death upon them; he knew the king of Denkyira would send soldiers to punish him. He fled beyond their lands, and there he continued to study the ways and knowledge of the different peoples. In particular, he went to Akwammu, which was the town of the diviner who had assisted his parents in the matter of his own birth.
In Akwammu he met a new diviner, a master of occult powers, named Anokye, to whom he was distantly related. The two young men took a liking to each other, and on one occasion Osei Tutu interceded with the king of Akwammu to release Anokye from a punishment. So, when word came to Osei Tutu that his uncle, Obiri Yeboa, had been killed in a war with the Domaa and that he was summoned to assume the throne, it was natural for him to ask Anokye to accompany him. Osei Tutu was made king of the Ashanti, and Anokye became his chief diviner.
Their first challenge was to settle the war that had brought the death of Obiri Yeboa, and with Anokye’s help and some skilful organization, Osei Tutu quickly and victoriously accomplished this. He unified his own kingdom, which had been splitting apart, and then rode the crest of that victory to subdue the neighbouring peoples and to found the great Ashanti state that would rule the forest zone for three hundred years. He established the golden stool of the Ashanti as a symbol of their unity.
Princess Abena gave birth to a son, and the son became the king of Denkyira by the rules of matrilineal succession. He was named Ntim Gyakari, and he was the king who had to face the challenge to Denkyira rule represented by the growing power of the Ashanti under Osei Tutu. Matters came to a head when he sent messengers to demand the annual tribute in gold, and the assembly of the Ashanti unanimously declared that they would give no gold; one Ashanti went so far as to slash a messenger with his sword and cut off an ear. They sent the messengers back, filling the great brass pan of the king of Denkyira not with gold, but with stones. Then, realizing what they had done, they turned to Anokye. He told them to delay the war for a time, while he prepared magical defences for the kingdom. He also asked for volunteers, men who would rush to death, to ensure victory for their people. A number of volunteers came forward, and as a reward for their devotion it was decreed that their descendants could never be executed.
The king of Denkyira also had a diviner, of course, by name Kyenekye, and Kyenekye informed his master of the steps that Anokye was taking. Ntim Gyakari ordered him to do what was necessary to counter Anokye’s magic. The two continued working against each other. At one point, Anokye challenged Kyenekye to undo a knot that he had tied in an elephant’s tusk; Kyenekye’s counter was to challenge Anokye to undo the knot he had tied in the water. In the meantime, the Denkyira armies adva
nced and the Ashanti armies retreated, acting on the instructions of the diviners, and the war dragged on.
The turning point came as the Denkyira approached Kumasi. Anokye predicted that Kyenekye would never reach Kumasi, and he was proved correct: the Adansi, a people against whom Ntim Gyakari had waged war in the recent past, plotted and arranged for the murder of Kyenekye. News of his death so emboldened the Ashanti army that they attacked the Denkyira and put them to flight; a nobleman found Ntim Gyakari playing warri (also known as mankala) with a concubine and killed him. They brought to Osei Tutu the golden bracelet which Ntim Gyakari had worn, and the brass pan in which he collected the tribute, and which they had filled with stones.
Osei Tutu died in battle some time later, but he had established the Ashanti kingdom. He was the first Asantehene, the supreme chief of the Ashanti people.
QUEEN POKOU AND THE BAULE
Following the death of Osei Tutu, there was a power struggle to determine the succession. The principal rival claimants were nephews of Osei Tutu: Opoku Ware, who eventually became the ruler, and one Daken, whose sister was Pokou. After Opoku Ware was chosen, Queen Pokou of Assabu decided that she should lead her people out of the Ashanti lands, because she feared the reprisals of the new Asantehene.
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