ASHANTI EAST OF THE VOLTA

Historical Society of Ghana

ASHANTI EAST OF THE VOLTAAuthor(s): MARION JOHNSONSource: Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol. 8 (1965), pp. 33-59Published by: Historical Society of GhanaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41403568 .

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Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol. VIII, 1965. 33

ASHANTI EAST OF THE VOLTA

MARION JOHNSON

In 1869, in response to an appeal from the Akwamus, an Ashanti army under Adu Bofuo, the Gyaasewahene of Kumasi, invaded the Krepe or inland Ewe country east of the Volta. A pro- longed war followed in which the Krepe forces were ably led by Dompre, the Akim Kotoku chief in arms whose village was at Nsawam. It was in the course of this war that the Ramseyer family and Kuhne of the Basel mission, and Bonnat, a French trader, were taken prisoner at Anum and Ho respectively, and marched to Kumasi.

This is the substance of the accounts of the 1869 war given by contemporary writers such as Ramseyer and Horton, and by historians from Ellis to Ward. All are agreed in regarding the war as an invasion by the Ashantis of territory not previously under their control, and imply that the power of Ashanti before 1869 did not extend east of the Volta. Dr. Mahly of the Basel mission, for example, wrote in 1885 that before the 1869 war the Ashantis 'seem to have been satisfied with the extension of their power in the interior, but in 1869 they undertook a conquering expedition to the east across the Volta'.

It was also believed, retrospectively, that the route from Salaga to the coast had been closed to all traffic by the Ashantis. Governor Strahan, in 1875, wrote to the Secretary of State concerning the people of Salaga. i

Before the late war, their trade with the coast was carried on through Ashantee. All other routes were shut to them, inasmuch as the tribes along these routes were under Ashanti rule, and were allowed to do nothing which could have the effect of diverting trade from Kumasi. Governor Rowe, in 1881, says much the same.2 Coomassie has been a centre through which alone tribes east, north and west of it have been able to obtain the European merchandise imported on this part of the coast. The policy of Ashanti has been one of firm resistance to any effort on the part of these tribes to bring their produce beyond Coomassie, and the Ashantis have thus monopolised the trade with those districts in such articles as they required from the seaboard. These two beliefs cannot both be correct. If the Ashantis were

in a position before 1869 to close the routes from Salaga to the coast through peoples under Ashanti rule, the 1869 war cannot have marked a new policy of expansion across the Volta.

The evidence suggests that both assumptions are incorrect. This evidence is scattered in the writings of more than a dozen travellers - missionary, merchant, civil and military - who passed

1. G. C. Strahan, despatch in West African Possessions . C1402, 1876. 2. S. Rowe, Lonsdale's instructions (enclosure to despatch 264 of 17th October

1881) Ghana National Archives. 4



34 MARION JOHNSON

up and down the Volta and through the countries to the east of the Volta while memories of the war and the pre war period were still vivid. From the writings of these t ravellers, » and from the recorded traditions of lhe peoples living in the area, it is possible to reconstruct the approximate former extent of Ashanti influence east of the Volta south of the latitude of Salaga, and the main lines of trade in that area; eye witness accounts and the traditions of many of the communities involved help to fill out the details of the 1869 war and the revolt in the east which followed the burning of Kumasi by the British in 1874.

THE EXTENT OF ASHANTI RULE

The British official Lonsdale, returning to Accra from Salaga in 1882, passed through Ahenkro on the east bank of the Volta, north of the Oti confluence.1

This is a town established by the Ashantis during the period of their dominion and here were stationed certain of the King's officials whose duty it was to prevent or control the passage of arms and ammunition. Nothing from the coast of this nature was permitted to pass beyond this town unless the Ashantis permitted it. Ahenkro was the capital of the Рае people, whom missionary

travellers in 1877-8 describe as being under the Kwahu, and as 'formerly included with them in the Ashanti kingdom.'

It will be noticed that the purpose of the post at Ahenkro, as related by Lonsdale, was not to close the Volta to traffic, but to prevent or control the passage of arms and ammunition - which would have been unnecessary had the Volta really been closed to traffic. Ahenkro appeal's to have been an Ashanti customs post or Preventive Service station, perhaps similar to the one Kling found still functioning north of Kintampo in 1892, where the chief levied transit tolls on the caravans on behalf of the Asante- hene.5

Another Ashanti official was stationed far away to the north- east at Dadiase in Adele, a few miles west of the present frontier of Ghana. In 1884, David Asante wrote that 'in Adele they understand Tschi better than elsewhere in Obooso; even children of 4-6 speak it fluently. The Governor (Staathalter) of Kumasi in his time resided in Dadiase, and from the many people he brought with him, and who spread out into the whole district, they learned Tschi'6. Dadease was the seat of Lapoda or Jaopura, chief of the eastern Adele and priest of the great shrine of Fruko; the shrine itself was some miles away in the mountains.

In 1890, a German officer, Kling, wrote of this priest that 'Jaopura's fame is widely known; with the King of Ashanti he

3. A list of travellers in chronological order of their journeys is given at the end of this paper under the heading 'Sources'. This is followed by a list of the most useful recorded traditions relating to thp ягоа 4. R. la T. Londsdale, 'Report on Journey to Kumasi and Salaga,' Affairs of the Gold Coast , C3386 of 1882. Also letter to Governor, ibid. 5. Hauptmann E. Kling, Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, 1889; also V er han Aluna p.n dar CÌp.RpU.sr.hnit für Krrtpkii.nrlp Rprlin 18Q0 6. Rev. David Asante, 'A new route to the Niger.' Travels of Asante and Opoku, 1877. Gsog. Gesellschaft zu Bern 1880, Beilag VI.



ASHANTI EAST OF THE VOLTA 35

stands, or rather stood, in high esteem. He visited Rumasi several times and traders from there came in numbers to Adele.'

As material proofs of his connections with Ashanti, Jaopura could show among his insignia as priest and chief 'several huge umbrellas of local workmanship and gay European cotton, a large wonderfully-carved Ashanti stool - the people speak Ashanti - a barrel-shaped drum covered with leopard-skin which, unlike the others is not struck but stroked with the drumstick, which produces a peculiar snarling sound.'7

Another eastern Adele chief, Kodjo of Dutukpeme, who was an avid collector of exotic royal treasures ranging from sun-helmets and European rocking chairs to turbans and Muslim-style decorated leatheor cushions, included in his collection:

a great gay umbrella of about three metres in diameter, and a palanquin elegantly woven from bamboo, an arm- chair with brass ornaments ... a valuable cloth of Ashanti workmanship made up of small pieces of coloured cloth decorated with hand embroidery, whose price in the interior is about 100 marks, but almost double at the coast, a finely carved wooden native stool decorated with cowries ... a filigree gold plate of Ashanti workmanship.»

Ferguson in 1896 wrote 'chief Kojo of Tetepene in this region (Obooso) paid tribute to Ashanti.'9

By contrast, the insignia of the priest of the great shrine of Buruku at Siade in Adjuti, according to the same German officer, included an elephant's tail decorated with cowries; the shrine itself had a curved sword with a fine golden handle, decorated with chiselled work - evidently a state sword of the kind found in Ashanti, and also in D a h о m e y.w Count Zech also found there a balance with goldweights 'as used in Ashanti' and a sword 'as used in Ashanti for executions.'

Ferguson was evidently correct when he wrote 'The King of Kumasi distributed honours and court decorations to the various Kings of his kingdom.'11

David Asante (who took careful note of the linguistic situation, as he was looking for fields where missionary activity could use- fully be carried on in Twi, his mother tongue) reported that the people of Adjuti understood Twi well 'because they had once served the Ashantis'.is He stated that the Kebu or Akabu people, whom the Germans regarded as little better than highway robbers, understood very little Twi; in Kpaleave, he could find no-one to understand him except the priestess and two men who had been in Krachi and Ashanti; but in Kyeapokyi, a few miles away, he was able to make himself understood. Evidently Ashanti influence in Kebu

7. Kling, op. cit . The royal leopard drum now on display at the Cultural Centre, Kumasi, which emits a blood-curdling imitation of a leopard's cough when stroked with the drum-stick, answers this description closely.

8. Kling, op. cit.. 1889. 9. G. E. Ferguson, Report, 1896, in Colonial office, Africa (West) No. 529, p. 199.

10. Kling, op. cit . 1890. 11. G. E. Ferguson, Report, 1894, in Colonial Office, Africa (West) No. 506, p. 253. 12. Rev. David Asante, Diary, 1884, edited by Rev. Christaller, 'Journey to Salaga and Obooso', Geog. Gesellschaft zu Bern, Mitteilungen , 1886. 4A



36 MARION JOHNSON

was slight, or perhaps of relatively short duration, outside Kyeapo- kyi; one tradition records that the Kebu people paid a very small tribute to Ashanti.13

In the western Akposo country of Litime, David Asante found that 'they understood Tschi better, and liked strangers better, than the Akabu people;14 for those who did not understand Twi, the chief's linguist was able to translate his sermons. At Bagolo in Eastern Buem, the people 'completely understood Tschi'. On another occasion, he wrote that 'Twi is understood in the whole of Boem because the Tschi tribe Okwawu Dukoman, although only numbering seven towns, had subjugated the people of Boem and part of Akposo'. The Litime tradition also remembers the domination of Kwahu Dukoman. The Tribu people, between Kwahu Duko- man and Adele, were also subject to the Dukomans, if Krachi tradition is to be believed. i;ï According to a tradition quoted by Corne- vin, they were not much troubled by Ashanti raids, their chief having given a present to the chiefs of the Ashanti armies so that they would not advance further.115 Kwahu Dukoman tradition says that the Akebu and Apeso people were included in their Nifa division, the Ntrubu in the Benkum division, and the Borada (Buem) directly under the king.17

The Kwahu Dukoman people themselves were Twi-speaking and claim to be of Oyoko origin. Although so few in numbers, they seem to have been regarded as allies rather than subjects of Ashanti, and were able to call upon Ashanti help against their rebellious subjects. It seems to have been Ashanti policy to control the non-Twi-speaking peoples as far as possible through the agency of small Twi-speaking groups; another case will be seen further south in Akwamu.

All the peoples so far discussed came to some extent under Ashanti rule, directly or indirectly. With the Ewe-speaking peoples of Krepe the position was different. The small Akwamu people, Twi-speakers who had been subject to the Ashanti from the middle of the eighteenth century, had at one time ruled Anum and Peki, and through Peki a great part of the Krepe people, and also the Ewe-speaking Tongu communities of Duffor, Volo and Fodsoku. In the 1820s, the Akwamu people, still ruling Peki and Anum, had rebelled against Ashanti, and they fought against Ashanti in 1826; the Peki chief fought in the Akwamu force on that occasion.1« In the 1830s, Peki rebelled against Akwamu, who appealed for help, not to Ashanti, but to the Danes.19 From this period, the Peki people succeeded in maintaining their independence, though not without several further conflicts. At some date between 1840 and 1869 the Ashantis recovered their hold over Akwamu, possibly as a result of the departure of the Danes in 1850. The Akwamus appealed to

13. Cornevin. 'Kebu Traditions'. Etudes Dahoméens . iii. 1952. 14. D. Asante, Diary, 1884, ov. cit. 15. J. E. K. Kumah, Krachi Traditions, Library of the Institute of African Studies, Legon. 16. Cornevin, Frodich and Alexandre, Tribu Traditions, Les populations de nord Toao . d. 158. 17. Kwahu Dukoman Tradition. Traditions from the Volta Basin, Institute of

African Studies, Am/20. 18. Weiman, Native States of the Gold Coast, Vol. I, Peki (London, 1924). 19. Guineisk Journalier, 9 April 1836. (Transcript in Furley Collection, Balme

Library, Legon).




Ashanti for help in 1869, and help was sent under Adu Bofuo. British writers have tended to see this as a threat to the British on the coast (this was also Ramseyer's view) ,20 but it seems more probable that the Ashanti policy w a s to re-establish Akwamu control over their non-Twi-speaking neighbours. The Akwamu were nearly persuaded to make a treaty with the British in 1869, but were convinced by the weighty argument of Adu Bofuo and his army of 5,000 men at Akwamu.21 Duffor and Volo on the Volta below Kpong were shelled by Glover on the grounds that they were threatening the navigation of the Volta and giving help and protection to the Ashantis.22 Ashanti influence was also dominant at К e t a on the coast and in the Anlo country behind it.

By contrast with the peoples mentioned earlier, most of the Krepi peoples spoke little Twi; Peki, in closer contact with Akwa- mu, was an exception. David Asante regarded the linguistic situation as reflecting closely the former political relationships. Writing of Ewe villages east of Hohoe, he says that 'in this part of the Ewe country which did not formerly belong to the Ashanti kingdom, the inhabitants do not understand Tschi, except those who fled to Akuapem in the war of 1869'. 23 Even in Kpandu, though it had formerly been a place of importance, Opoku could find in 1877 no- one who could understand Twi, and interpreters were needed in other western Krepe towns.24

Kpandu tradition suggests that the Peki people were raided annually by Ashantis when the river was low, and both Kpandu and Nkonya people claim to have moved away from sites nearer the river to higher and safer sites to avoid such raids. Kpandu and Nkonya traditions record a war in which the Ashanti leader was Yaw Sekyere25; this war was before the Adu Bofuo war, but it is not clear if this was really an independent campaign, or only the beginning of the Adu Bofuo war. Both Kpandu and Nkonya say they made submission and paid tribute in slaves, but met a renewed attack by an alliance headed by Kwadjo Dei of Peki.

Ramseyer refers to Chief Kwesi Domfo (the ninth Nsuman- kwahene of Kumasi) as the chief to which Krepe, or part of it, was assigned.20 The context shows that he was the chief to whom prisoners of war from that area were assigned. It is not clear if he was supposed to exercise any other control over the district; it is fairly clear that no such control was in fact exercised, and that the Krepe country before was the major gap in the control exercised by Ashanti east of the Volta. As Krepe lay across the trade routes, it can easily be understood why the Ashantis were anxious to gain control of it. They had a willing ally in the 1869 war, Tafiefi north of Ho, and were evidently on good terms with the southern part of Nkonya; according to Wurupon tradition, it was the Tepo people

20. Rev. Father Ramseyer and Kuhne, Four years in Ashanti, Engish edition, London 1874.

21. J. A. B. Horton, Letters on the political Condition of the Gold Coast (London 1870).

22. W. Winwood Reade, African Sketch-Book 23. D Asante. 1884, op. cit. 24. Rev. Theophil Opoku, 1877, "An African Pastors preaching Journey through

the lands of the Upper Volta." Evangelisches Missionsmagazin (Basel 1885). 25. Nkonya and Kpandu Traditions VBRP/112; also Gold Coast Review, 1925. 26. Ramsayer and Kuhne, op. cit.



38 MARION JOHNSON

who called in the Ashantis in the course of a quarrel with the Wurupons.27 The same tradition records that the Wurupon chief told a British officer after 1874 that 'he was more or less under Ashanti and as it now appeared that the Ashanti were under the control of the English, he would rather be under the English.' The Ashantis were also able to obtain support, not necessarily willing support, from the small Ewe communities beside the Volta, Wusuta, Averne and Tschome.28

The great shrine of Sia at Wurupong was to some extent a power in its own right, and the trade route which passed through Nkonya was closed annually during the festival of Sia.29

The importance of the Chief Priest of Dente at Krachi was much greater. According to Lonsdale in 1882, his influence 'formerly extended throughout Ashanti, the Buems and Inkonyas also the Kwahus all acknowledge this fetish as supreme. To regain possession of it the Ashantis would risk a great deal, as it was in former times their oracle', and had advised against the 1874 war.30 Dente should probably be regarded as an ally rather than a tributary of Ashanti; its own ties were closest with Juaben, a fact which became of importance after the Kumasi-Juaben split in 1875.

Dente also controlled a large area of Brong country west of the Volta. Krachi was generally regarded as the head of the navi- gable part of the Volta; the Krachi falls made trans-shipment of goods necessary there. It was therefore a good place to control the river traffic; but there is no evidence that such control was ever exercised directly by Ashanti, as distinct from control through the priest of Dente.

The Nchummuru people to the north of Krachi, with their capital at Bagyamso, were directly under Dente; like Krachi they had their closest connections with Juaben. They are described as having paid tribute to Kumasi.;tl

Salaga is well known to have been tributary to Ashanti. It was also the seat of an Ashanti Governor. The Asantehene told Lonsdale in 1881 that Prince Buaki (Boakye Tenten, husband of the Queen Mother and later one of the chief linguists of Kumasi) had once been chief of Salaga, and thus knew 'all the road' to that town.32

'Before the fall of Coomassie. Saharah (Salaga) was in a state of vassalage to Ashantee, sending yearly tribute to Coomassie, and being subject to and completely under the power of the Ashantees', wrote Gouldsbury in 1876.зз He reported that there had been some hundreds of Ashantees resident in Salaga; Opoku refers to them as

27. Nkonya Tradition, VBRP/11. 28. Ramseyer, op. cit; M. M-J. Bonnat, 'La reconnaisance du fleuve Volta', (Diary),

L'explorateur (Paris 1876). 29. R. la T. Lonsdale, 'Report on journey to Kumasi,' Affairs of the Gold Coast , C3386 of 1882: also letter to Governor, ibid. 30. Ibid. 31. Rev. David Asante, 1877, 'Л new route to Niger.' (Travels of Asante and Opoku 1,477 СтРпа I crha 1 i ru liem 1ХЧО limlîiP- Vf 32. R. la T. Lonsdale, 1882, op. cit. 33. Dr. V. S. Gouldsbury, 'Report on journey into the interior of the Gold Coast';

enclosed in despatch, Governor Strahan to Lord Carnavon, 30th April 1876. C.O. 96У110.




•officials, weavers and traders'. An entire quarter of the town had been occupied by Ashanti, and the doors of the Lampour mosque had been made by Ashanti carpenters.34

Captain Glover, who was commissioned in 1873 to raise the 'friendly tribes' in the east against Ashanti, obtained a good deal of reasonably accurate information about the situation on the Volta and in Salaga. He had been warned that 'at Currachee you must consult the fetish, which is powerful, otherwise it would stop your progress. This fetish, is always consulted by the Ashantees, and if it is gained over, then the Ashantis must be destroyed.'35

Glover said of Salaga that 'it paid a great sum yearly in money and also some 600 slaves. They lately felt themselves able to refuse the payment of the tribute in men, and indeed only gave him a very small subsidy in money . . .'36 The missionary Buss was told in 1878 by the 'Crown Prince' of Salaga that 'slaves and money were exacted at will and Salaga alone had to provide a quota of 1,000 slaves, cattle and money'.37 The king's messengers had expressed it in song: 'Every year we had to send 1,000 of our brothers to the Kumasi knife, and to the Kumasi King all our money without grumbling'.

The Salaga King told Gouldsbury in 1876 that 'the Ashanti often sold into slavery a whole village full of his people, and that no-one's life or property was safe when the Ashantees were in the country'.^ Gouldsbury himself saw the ruins of several large villages in the country through which he passed, and was told the Ashantis had sold all the inhabitants. Very similar complaints were reported from the Brong people west of t h e river.39 Evidently the Ashanti bureaucracy were allowed, or took, a fairly free hand collecting dues from the north-eastern provinces.

The tradition of the weaving village of Bonwire, Ashanti, asserts that when Salaga came under Ashanti control, the Salaga people were set to work growing and spinning cotton for the Bon- wire weavers. 40 The king of Wagadugu, looking back twenty years later, recalled the other side of the picture. 'When Ashanti was in power, the Gonjas and Dagombas dared not break the market regu- lations' at Salaga, he told Ferguson.41

Only very limited information is available as to the eastward extent of Ashanti rule north of the latitude of Salaga. Lonsdale stated in 1882 'in former days the Ashanti power made itself felt even beyond Dagomba as far as Sansanne Mango, a part of the yearly tribute demanded from Dagomba was 1,500 slaves, Gwandi- jowa (Gonja) 1,000 and so on throughout all the countries beyond

34. Rev. D. Asante, 1884, op. cit . L. G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee (Paris 1891). 35. Ashanti War, C982, 1874 Enclosure in No. 150.

36. J. H. Glover, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Societu, London 1874. 37. Rev. Ph. Buss, 1878, Gcog . Gesellschaft zu Bern, 1880, Beilag VI. 38. Gouldsbury, 1876, op. cit. 39. Captain Firminger, Report to Secretary of State, Adm. 1/88 (Enclosure to No.

181, 28th June 1889) Ghana National Archives. Rev. Father Ramseyer, 1884, 'Journey to Atebubu, Krachi and Buem', Geog. Gesellschaft zu Jena , Mitteilungen, 1888.

40. Bonwire Tradition recounted by Nana Okai Ababio in the presence of the Chief Weaver and Elders.

41. G. E. Ferguson, Keport, 1896, in u.u. Africa с west) ino. azy p. ауу.



40 MARION JOHNSON

Abruno (Brong), over which their sway extended'.42 There was an Ashanti official in Yendi, and Lonsdale speaks of the chiefs of Napari and Sokode as the King of Yendi's chiefs.« He found 500 Ashantis still at Yendi, people who 'happened to be there when the severance from Ashanti took place'. When resisting German efforts to make it accept the German flag in the 1890s, Yendi quoted its former allegiance to 'Prempeh', passing by right of conquest to Britain.44

There are a number of references to Ashanti control of 'Serem', a name given to the grassland country to north and north- west of Ashanti as well as to the north-east. Ramseyer recorded the return to Kumasi of an official who had been two years in Serem, bringing gifts including a race-horse;45 the status of the official is not explained. Elsewhere, Ramseyer refers to a chief 'in the vassal state of Serem', who made an image of gold and defied Asantehene's messengers. The consequent barricading of the road cut off the retreat of survivors of 'the affair at Serem', when a number of Ashanti messengers were enticed into an enclosed place and blown up. Ramseyer seems to place this incident at 'Angwa' (southern Dagomba) but it has been suggested that it may be an incident well-remembered at Daboya.46 In that case the image-making chief might well be the chief of Daboya or of one of the southern Gonja divisions.

The priestess of Dente who had been attached to Dompre as 'Councillor' later gave Glover a list of tribes 'all burning to wreak vengeance on the Ashantis'. 'These tribes consist chiefly of the people of Yawdey [Yendi], Sarblargo [Sablagu], Garagan [Kara- ga], Gumbarga [Gambaga], Samserry Margo [Sansanne Mango], Walkergokoo [Wagadugu], Soougoorookoo [Suguruku, near Djou- gou, Dahomey], Kopiahlar [Kopiala, east of Wagadugu], Yandoe [?Gando, east of Sansanne Mango]'. She added that these were 'the only tribes upon whom the Ashantees depend in extremities' and would be only too glad to pay off old scores.47

This information, if correct, would extend Ashanti control, or at least the area where Ashanti power made itself felt, some hundred miles beyond the present Ghana frontiers. Glover believed the priestess's information to be reliable. Ferguson wrote in 1896 that the Oti river was not the limit of Ashanti conquests; 'Kotokoli' he says, was under the sway of Ashanti; it was respected by Mossi, to whom a deputation was sent to court its friendship.4« Dixon, a released slave of Mossi origin, referred to the sending of presents from Ashanti to Wagadugu before 1854, but spoke of Bulega (Bolgatanga) as 'confederate' with Ashanti.4^ It seems

42. Lonsdale, 1882, op. cit. 43. I. Wilks, 'Ashanti government in the 19th Century* in Nineteenth Century West African Kingdoms ed. P. Karberry (International African Institute,

forthcoming). 44. Asst. Inspector Parmeter in Colonial Office, African (West) No. 529. 45. Ramseyer and Kuhne, op. cit . 46. Professor I. Wilks was told the story at Daboya, and it is contained in D.

St. J. Parsons, More Legends of Northern Ghana, (Accra 1960). 47. Ashanti War, C982, enclosure in No. 156. 48. G. E. Ferguson, Report, 1896, op. cit. 49. S. W. Koelle. (Quoting Ďixon) Polvaotha Africana (London 1854).




likely that Ashanti control did not extend much beyond the present frontiers of Ghana, though its treaty relationships may well have spread further.

It is to be hoped that more information on the eastern extent of Ashanti power may become available from Arabic documents from this area.

South of Salaga, the present Ghana frontier seems to mark the approximate limit of Ashanti control - apart from the Krepe country, whose continued independence must have been an offence to any tidy-minded Ashanti bureaucrat.

THE EASTERN TRADE ROUTES BEFORE 1869 The route by canoe up the Volta to Krachi and thence overland

to Salaga was in use for the salt trade in Bowdich's time,50 and there seems no reason to doubt that it continued in regular use, apart from some interruption caused by local wars, until the 1860s. We have already pointed out that Lonsdale's description of Ahenkro assumes some traffic on the river. Twice in the 1850s, missionary travellers had noted sacks of salt, once at Kpong and once in the neighbourhood of Senchi, awaiting transport to the interior.5 1 Occasional references are made to slaves transported down the river for sale at Ada (where, in 1862, Burton found slaves in baracoons awaiting shipment abroad.)52

An article in a mission magazine about the early days of the Basel Mission station at Anum, published in the 1890s but evidently based on missionary papers, seeks to minimise the Volta trade before 1874:

In former times the hinterlands of the Gold and Slave coast were ruled and blocked by the powerful Ashanti, and only an unimportant exchange of goods took place between the inhabitants of the lower and middle Volta. The inland yielded only slaves, while the coast provided almost exclusively salt . . . But the same account reports that the Akwamu formerly

followed the dishonourable calling of river robbery, sometimes plundering trading boats going up and down and levying customs by barring the river'5 з - surely an unprofitable calling unless there was considerable river traffic.

Some of the river traffic in the 1860s was local in character. Cotton was passing down the river from Krepe country in some quantity; it was to engage in and encourage this trade that the mission station at Anum was founded.54 According to Ellis, considerable numbers of Ashantis 'resorted to Ourahai for purposes of trade' before 1869.55 The tradition of Averne Tokor suggests that this trade was in salt. The market at Averne Tokor dealt in slaves, salt, oil, and pottery, and a tradition of Ninapon suggests that

50. E. Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee , (London 1819). 51. Magazin fur die neuste Geschichte der Evangelischen Missions und Bibel

Gesellschafter (Basel) 1853 and 1856. 52. Digest of Basel Mission Correspondence, Ghana National Archives. R. Burton, Evidence in Revort from Select Committee . 1865. 53. Evangelisches Missionsmagazin (Basel) 1893. 54. E. Schrent, Evidence, in Report from Select Committee on the Western coast

of Africa. 1865. 55. A. B. Ellis, Land of Fetish (London 1893). G. A. Henty, March to Kumasi

(London 1874).



42 MARION JOHNSON

this market was already in existence in the 1830s.5 li Some trade must have gone further up-river to account for the importance of Akroso before 1869, and of Ahenkro, and for the development of the transit trade at Krachi. Much of this trade as far north as Krachi was evidently in the hands of Accra and Ada traders.

Henty, quoting 'a gentleman who accompanied (Glover's) expedition' states that Akwamu and Awouna (Anlo) 'are really Ashanti provinces from whence the King of Coomassie has derived nine-tenths of the powder and lead he has been fighting us with, as well as nearly the whole of the salt which he and his people exist upon'.57 It is not clear by what route these goods are supposed to be going to Kumasi - whether overland from Ourahai, Krachi, or Salaga. Bonnat observed from Kumasi that powder and guns could be obtained from Salaga at a very high price, when the road to the coast was closed.58 These may have come up the river, or possibly from further afield.

'The Crakey people are determined above everything to retain for themselves the transit trade which brings them enormous profit', wrote Bonnat at the beginning of 1876;59 this can hardly refer to a trade which was entirely new since 1874. Accra traders were already in Krachi when Bonnat arrived; there were also Salaga traders whose return to Salaga had been prevented by an order of the Dente priest. This does not appear to accord with the idea that trade through Krachi had been stopped for generations. Gouldsbury states categorically: 'heretofore traders were not permitted to pass either up or down through Crackey',00 and this accords with the view that the Krachi people were monopolising the transit trade. Northern traders did not come south of the town, nor coast traders to the north. It is not until after 1876, when Gouldsbury bribed or browbeat the Dente priest into opening the way to all traders, that northern traders begin to appear ir. any numbers south of Krachi; the following year the Bagyamso people were complaining that Acci a traders were smuggling powder which was finding its way to Kumasi. ,и

Although Dente was in a position to exercise considerable control, and to draw considerable profits from the river trade, it was obviously not in the interests of Dente to stop the trade altogether. Nevertheless it seems as if salt and slaves were the main items of trade passing by this route before 1874. Salt in barrels could be rolled around the numerous rapids, slaves could be marched round; any other goods would have to be carried, and it was probably as economical to take them overland.

The land route east of the Volta was certainly in use before 1869. Anum was evidently a commercial centre of some importance before the Basel Mission was established there in 1864; among fellow-prisoners of the Ramseyers were two mulatto merchants of

5(i. Ninapon Traditions. VBRP/9; Averne Traditions, Ewe /v/7. 57. A. B. Ellis, Land of Fetish, (London, 1893), G. A. Henty, op. cit. f>8. M. M-J. Bonnat, Les Achantis cd. J. Gros; L'explorateur, Paris 1875. 59. M. M-J. Bonnat, 'Journey with Robert Bannerrnan of Accra and Ada,' L'explo-

rateur; (Paris 1876). GO. Dr. V. S. Gouldsbury, op. cit . Gl. Rev. Theophil Opoku, op. cit.




Anum, one of whom, Nils Palm, owned house properly in Accra.62 In itself, this might indicate no more than the known cotton trade between Krepe and the coast. There is evidence, however, of at least one trader travelling between Nkonya and Anum in 1869 (a letter of his, dated Anum 1869, was given to Opoku to read in 1877, by the trader's former landlady in Nkonya) .63

This route passed through Anfoe and Kpandu. The latter Bon- nat described as having been, several years before 1875, a very important centre of commerce', and by the end of 1875 it had already recovered from destruction by the Ashantis to the point of having at least one resident trader from Ada, several Ada people in the market with European goods, and enough through trade for Bonnat to hear several complaints from 'natives of the coast' of bad treatment and exactions of strangers. ы There is as yet no men- tion of the Muslim traders who were to be so numerous at Kpandu a few years later. At Anfoe, an interpreter was available who could speak to Robert Bannerman in Ga (but not, apparently, to Bonnat in Twi) .

North of Nkonya, Lonsdale reported the former existence of a direct route to Akroso. The route through Тара is described by Glover's informants ;65 it by-passed the Ashanti customs post at Ahenkro.

North of Krachi, which apparently could not be by-passed, all trade went overland by way of Bagyamso and Krupe to Salaga. There were also cross-routes from Рае, Krachi and Bagyamso to the north-west.

In 1884, David Asante travelled from Salaga to Gokoron through Alfai (just north of Kpandai). He writes: 'Formerly the Hausa took this way to Salaga; but as they had often been attacked by robbers ... or killed by lions, they have now given it up and follow a more northerly route'.'5" From Gokoron, people from Hausaland and north Togo went to Salaga, 'and whoever wants to go through Ewe country to the coast or to Krakye turns south. Here people who do not want to go as far as Salaga sell slaves and ivory to such traders who come here and so save themselves the further road to Salaga'.

Dadiase, seat of an Ashanti Governor, to which Ashanti traders formerly went in numbers, lies about ten miles from Gokoron on the route to the south. Traders may have reached it from Salaga, Krachi, or both. It is difficult to understand why they went there. Cornevin67, who claims to know the routes on foot, states that the normal route from Kumasi passes between the Kebu plateau and Adele, where there is no natural obstacle. 'Adele. . . is a poor dry country, where one would not venture voluntarily,' he states. The evidence of David Asante and of the German officers seems to place it beyond doubt that Ashanti traders did in fact venture there, and in some numbers. In the 1890s, they were purchasing rubber

62. Ramseyer and Kulme, op. cil. (33. Rev. Opoku, op. at. 64. M. M-J. Bonnat, 'Journey with Robert Bannerman of Accra and Ada', op. cit. 65. Ashanti War, C982, 1874 enclosure in No. 156. 66. Rev. David Asante, 1884, op. cit. 67. R. Cornevin, IFAN 1962 part В p.629 ff.



44 MARION JOHNSON

in this region;68 there must have been some equally important attraction to bring them there earlier. Since the natural resources of Adele are very limited, and the population too sparse to make slave-raiding remunerative, the most probable explanation is that Dadiase functioned as a market, in the way Gokoron was functioning in David Asante's time.

Wolf, writing in 1888, refers to the former 'peaceful trading intercourse' between Adele and Fasugu to the north.«' This route, which connected with routes to Sansanne Mango and Yendi, continued southwards to the coast via Kebu and Atakpame, with a branch from Kpaleave to eastern Buem and the Krepe country. Kpaleave was in 1889 'a fairly new village which was built in this place to provide safety against hostile attacks and also to dominate the trade route'.70 If Wolf was right in stating that it had been in conflict with Pereu (Dikpalewu) in Adele for 20 years in 1889, it must have been in existence by 1869. The German station at Bismarkburg was placed there to control this trade route.

All the routes discussed, with the exception of that through Kpaleave and Atakpame, pass through the Krepe country. The main route through Nkonya, Kpandu and Anum normally continued through Akwamu territory, crossing the Volta at Kpong or in the neighbourhood of Senchi. Owing to the long conflict between Peki and Akwamu, various eastern routes were developed to avoid the Akwamu country. In 1853 71 a missionary party travelling to Peki crossed the Volta at Asuchuarey; most later travellers appear to have used Battor as the river crossing, and after the destruction of Anum and Peki this became for a time the regular route. The missionaries at Anum in the 1860s suffered considerably from sporadic attempts by the Akwamus to close or tax the route through their country and down the Volta; at one time they were sending goods to Keta.72 Without controlling Krepe country, however, the Akwamus were never able completely to control the routes.

THE 1869 WAR One version of the origin of the 1869 war connects it with

traders from Akim Kotoku who became involved in a dispute over market tolls at Dodi on the Volta near Anum.™ Dompre, son of the Omanhene of Akim Kotoku, was sent to investigate, and allied himself with the Pekis, old enemies of the Akwamus. This was the occasion of the appeal by the Akwamus for Ashanti help, which was sent under Adu Bofuo.

Ramseyer in Kumasi considered this was only part of a plan of attack on the British Protectorate:

The Akwamus to the east of the Volta had already begged for help from the Ashantis, and as it was thought that this help might, with wise management, be given to them without irritating the English, Adu Bofuo was sent there

68. H. Klose, Togo unter deutsche Flagge (Berlin 1899). 69. Dr. L. Wolf, Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgbieten, 188«. 70. H. E. Kling, op. cit. 1889. 71. Magazin fur die neuste Geschichte der Evangelischen Missionsund Bible

Gesellschaften , (Basel) 1853. 72. Evangelische Missionsmagazin , (Basel,) 1893. 73. Dodi Traditions, VBRP/10.



ASHANTI EAST OP THE VOLTA 45

with an army of 30,000 men. It was not doubted that after gaining a great name by subduing the Krepes, the General might successfully make war upon the Protecto- rate. It is true that Adu Bofuo made many prisoners among the inhabitants of neighbouring towns, but the invasion of Dompre, combined with hunger and sickness so weakened him that he was forced to return home.74 Ramseyer saw the war as a local struggle in the neighbourhood

of Anum, Peki and Ho (though he does refer to a prisoner from 'Aja' (Agu) at the opposite end of the Krepe country) ; he gives no hint of the extension ot the conflict beyond Krepe. This may be due to the fact that all the other war captives he met were from the same district as himself, being those assigned to Chief Kwesi Dom- fo.

Some aspects of the war are known in considerable detail. From Ramseyer we have an account of the taking of Anum, the total destruction of Peki, and the arrival of prisoners in Kumasi from various parts of the Krepe country. From Bonnat and from the Ho tradition we have the story of the fighting at Ho. Bonnat gives an account of the Akwamu-Ashanti camp at Safiefi, and tells of the Anlo ('Aoulan') forces taking part in the fighting.^ The Ho traditions give some account of the overall strategy of the invasion of Krepe country. The invading army first joined the Akwamu army at Akwamu; then one part attacked Anum and Peki (which did not resist), while the other part marched south to meet the Anlos at Battor; the two armies then made a co-ordinated attack on Ho, which was taken after a vigorous defence Д 6

Winwood Reade gives an eye-witness account of the attack on Duffor and Volo; but unfortunately the historian Reindorf, who himself was present at the battle as leader of the Christian contin- gent from Osu, and acted as medical assistant and dresser, does not appear to have left any account of it.77

One incident, the betrayal of the Wusutas, is known in some detail, from Ramseyer, Bonnat, and from traditional sources. The Ramseyers, after they had been taken prisoner at Anum, were marched through a number of ruined villages. Then they arrived at Wusuta,

a thriving village where we even enjoyed the shelter of a roof. . . Carriers then displayed the spoils from Anum which were duly examined and removed by command of the prince to be stored in safety. It afterwards transpired that Adu Bofuo intended to bestow a proof of confidence upon this individual by leaving the booty in his charge; but in 1871 the general, on his return to Kumase, led off the same prince and his people as captives7» According to the tradition of Nframa, the Ashantis played a treacherous trick. They said they had

74. Ramseyer and Kuhne. ov. cit. 75. J. Gros, Voyages , adventures et Captivité de J. Bonnat chez Les Achantis (Paris

1884). 76. J. Speith, introduction to Herold The political past in Western Togo/ in

Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten , 1891, pp. 113 ff. 77. С. С. Remdorf, History of the Gold Coast , 2nd Edition (Basel 1960), introduction. 78. Ramseyer and Kuhne, op. cit .



46 MARION JOHNSON

acquired great wealth and booty from the Ewe country and therefore required one hundred Wusuta men and women to help them carry their baggage home to Ashan- ti. Our chief Rwasi Torkpo agreed and in order to ensure the safety of the carriers a large number of Wusufas including the chief himself accompanied them to Ashan- ti.™ Bonnat describes their arrival in Rumasi: . . . two thousand individuals, men, women and children and old men; these were the inhabitants of the two villages Tongo and Oussoutrou, in the Crèpe country. They had allied themselves against their country with the Ashantis to whom they had rendered immense ser- vices. The chiefs of the victorious army brought them back in their following, under the pretext of saluting the king, who, they said, wanted to thank them and make them rich presents. The important people of the two villages refused at first; then the promises and the offers of the Ashantis had changed to threats. So the unfortunate people were obliged to leave the banks of the Volta to follow the victors into captivity. They were no better treated than the other prisoners of war; they were left only the appearance of liberty. During the long and pain- ful road they had travelled, several hundreds of them had died of fatigue, misery and hunger.80 The remainder of the story is told by Ramseyer, and rather

more coherently by the Nframa tradition, (which is in close agree- ment with Ramseyer's account) .

Nana Karikari was happy to see his soldiers back home after three years stay in the Ewe country and said he would reward the chief of Wusuta with royal objects made of gold. The Wusuta chief should therefore remain in Rumasi while three hundred of his men should go and fetch gold from an Ashanti village called Rontsiabu. This was good news for our people, for their chief would become the first of Ewe chiefs whose royal objects would be adorned with gold. Everyone was happy to go to Ron- tsiabu. They left Rumasi by night and after crossing a large river they entered Rontsiabu. Then immediately our people were allotted to the inhabitants of Rontsiabu. The Ashanti intention was now clear. Our men had been sold into slavery.81

Ramseyer explains that they were offered to Prince Amantifu of 'Rinshabo' in lieu of payment for gunpowder. He met some of them again in 1884.

The chiefs of Wusuta had of necessity put themselves under Ashanti in the war of 1869. Later they had been taken prisoner by base betrayal and taken to Rumasi.

79. Nframa Traditions, VBRP/9. 80. J. Gros, op. cit. 81. Nframa Traditions op. ext.




After the burning of Kumasi many escaped and fled to their home. I met them again in their single scattered villages.82 This incident, which happens to be very fully documented,

was evidently not the only one of its kind. There is some suggestion of a similar incident in the Buem area, and Ramseyer later describes how Adu Bofuo 'captured a whole tribe by means of the old trick - that he wanted to eat fetish with them' 8з This was in Apollo- nia, far to the west. The Brong, a generation later, still recalled incidents of the same sort.84 If this sort of thing was at all general, it would go far to explain the ferocity of the reaction against the Ashantis after 1874.

The incidents are not easily explained. It is possible that Adu Bofuo, anxious to make as good a showing as possible to offset his great losses in the 1869 war, was not very particular how he obtained his victims; but the authorities in Kumasi can hardly have been ignorant of the deception. It would seem that the Ashan- tis must have had some very cogent reason for wishing to remove the Wusutas from the banks of the Volta. Were they perhaps anti- cipating a British attack up the Volta, which had long been discussed,85 and which very nearly took place?

In addition to the unfortunate Wusutas, their neighbours the Averne people near Nkami and the people of Chôme (Tsome) sided with the Ashantis. (Even Bonnat, usually favourable to the Ashantis, conceded that this was 'by force or fear'). It was presumably for this reason that the captives from Anum and Ho were marched to Chôme before crossing the Volta on their way to Ku- masi. There is no suggestion that the Tafiefi people were forced to side with the Ashantis - they are said to have welcomed them. «6

A number of traditions87 have been preserved of the war in Krepe country. The Kpandus claim to have made a fighting retreat, eventually leaving the whole country to be ravaged by the enemy. Kpandu, according to Bonnat, was completely destroyed by the Ashantis, who dispersed the inhabitants and took away a certain number into captivity. In 1875 he found the town partly recon- structed, with more than 200 houses already occupied and a further 500 under construction - Kpandu before the disaster must have been a large place. Ho tradition concentrates on the fighting around Ho and in Agotime, while Peki tradition concentrates on the successful defence of the Gemmi, near Amadjofe, and its eventual betrayal by the chief of Kpedze.

Lonsdale in 1882 reported of the country between Kpandu and Peki that the people complained that they had not half the population they had before the Ashantis carried away so many of them to Kumasi.88 Many refugees from the Anum and Peki country are

82. Rev. Fr. Ramseyer, 'Journey to Attebubu, Krachi and Buem,' Geog. Gesells- chaft zu Jena , Mitteilungen, 1886.

83. Ramsever and Kühne. or>. cit : Rev. D. Asante, ov . cit. 84. G. E. Ferguson, Memorandum 'Ashanti and the Brong tribes ' 24:11:1893, Ghana National Archives. 85. Ashanti War. С 890, 1874 p. 63 and map. 86. Ho Traditions, ov. cit. 87. Kpandu Traditions; Gold Coast Review, 1925. Ho Traditions, op. cit ; Bonnat, 1875 op. cit . 88. Londsdale, op. cit.



48 MAKION JOHNSON

also known to have settled at Asesieso in Akwapim and near Mayera in the Accra plains. By 1876, many of the Ho and Peki people had returned to their homes; Anum was not rebuilt until about 1880; in 1875, 'Dobson' had to cut his way from the Volta to Peki by way of the ruins of Anum; the king of Peki at this time 'had not forgotten how the Aquamoos and Ashantis had decimated his country'. This is presumably the same episode as Bonnat mentions in the letter to M. Camus.8*) Neither 'Dobson' nor Bonnat mentions the presence of the other on this expedition.

In addition to the destruction of Peki, Anum, Ho and Kpandu, Bonnat mentions villages destroyed in Anfoe, and David Asante, writing of Ewe villages near the present eastern frontier of Ghana, mentions people who fled to Akwapim during this war. Litime traditions speak of the ravaging of the country as far as Agu near Palime, and we have already referred to a prisoner from this area who reached Rumasi. эо it would seem that the Ashantis were following a policy of deliberate devastation which, if not due solely to motives of revenge, suggests a 'scorched earth' policy.

The 1869 war, however, was by no means confined to the Krepe country. Bonnat refers to the Nkonyas ('Nkagnans') as having had

plenty to suffer in the invasion of the Ashantis in 1869. But a great number have profited by the troubles caused as a result of the British expedition [to Kumasi] to return to their country. I know several of them, amongst others an inhabitant of Assabi who was saved from captivity by small pox.si

In 1877, Opoku found Wurupong holding a funeral custom for the heroes who had fallen in war eight years previously.

Lonsdale, writing of the former direct road from Akroso to Nkonya, states that 'the Ashanti, for no other reason than the plea- sure they derived from oppressing everyone they could, closed it, and destroyed the villages along it'. Whatever their reasons - presumably similar to those that underlay the Wusuta incident - the Ashantis left behind a vacant area. Akroso, according to Bonnat 'formerly a very important town', had been 'reduced to a dozen huts by the invasion of the Ashantis'. This was the town which was to have been the residence of Bonnat himself as joint Governor of the Volta from ten miles below Akroso to Yeji.92

Buem 'is one of the many districts depopulated by the Ashantis, and is only now gaining strength,' so Lonsdale was informed in 1882.93 David Asante wrote of Baglo in eastern Buem (close to the present Ghana frontier) 'it could be seen from the remains of former houses still standing that it had been a large town. The Ashantis, they say, destroyed it. At В o r a d a, further north in eastern Buem, part of the town was still situated on a nearby 89. 'G. Dobson', 'The Volta, Gold Coast/ Journal of the Manchester Geogra-

phical Society, 1892; Bonnat, letter to Camus, l'explorateur (Paris, 1876); M. Johnson 'M. Bonnat on the Volta'. Ghana Notes and Queries vol. 10.

90. Litime Traditions, in Cornevin, Histoire de Togo (Paris 1959); Ramseyer and Kuhne, op. cit .

91. Bonnat 1875, op. cit. 92. Treaty with Osei Mensah, in l'explorateur, (Pans) 1876. 93. Lonsdale, op. cit.




mountain in 1884; 'the people, together with those who are back again living down below, hid there from the Ashantis, and still remain there'.94

Buem and western Akposo were engaged in a war of their own with the Kwahu Dukomans; Adu Bofuo was the Ashanti general, but the local commander was Kwame Agyapong, said in one account to have been the Akwamuhene of Juaben.ss The story, as told to David Asante in 1884, was that the Kwahu Dukoman people had subjugated Buem;

the Boem people tried to shake off the rule of the Duko- man people, and the latter called the Ashantis to help to force them into subjection again. The Ashantis were not able to defeat them in battle, but by a trick got some of them into their hands and took them away. As a result the Boem were reduced in numbers. Were these, perhaps the people of the missing villages

between Akroso and Nkonya? If so, the story would be closely parallel to the Wusuta story. Count Zech heard of people returning to Boem after the Ashanti defeat of 1896, who had been taken away and enslaved as children. эт

According to the tradition of Litime (west Akposo), the chief of the Kwahu Dukoman reclaimed all the villages of Litime and put a new tribe in them. In an Ashanti attack against the Litime villages, the men were massacred, the women and children taken to Kumasi, one-third of the population being destroyed. The remainder of the population took refuge in the mountains and paid a small tribute. Ajade tradition claims that the Buem people submitted and paid tribute, and when the Ashantis demanded hostages, the Kwahu Dukoman people told them to attack Ajade. Four hostages whose names are remembered were later redeemed by Akroso.98

There seems no evidence of fighting during the 1869 war in the Krachi and Nchumuru areas, though a priestess of Dente appears to have been attached to Dompre as "Councillor". A war is remembered, probably dateable to the 1830s, in which the Krachi people fought against the Ashantis." If this dating is correct, it would coincide with the previous break between Kumasi and Juaben, when Boaten of Juaben took refuge in Akim. The Brong tradition of the rebellion of 1875 states clearly that it was not until after the 1874 war that Brong under the leadership of Dente, made any move to throw off Ashanti rule.

There does, however, appear to have been some move in Salaga to reduce the amount of tribute paid, if Glover's information was correct.100 Krupi, too, according to Bonnat, had 'preserved from the disaster which the Ashantis inflicted upon it, only 40 to 50 houses in 1876'. This would appear to have been a recent disaster, not to be confused with an earlier Krupi war in the 1830s.

94. D. Asante, op. cit. 95. Kwahu Dukoman and Akroso traditions: op cit. 96. D. Asante, on. cit. 97. Graf Von Zech, Mitteilunaen aus den deutschen Schutzaebieten. 1896. 98. Litime and Ai ode Traditions, op. cit. 99. Ashanti War, С 982, 1874, enclosure to No. 156: Krachi Traditions. 100. J. H. Glover, Proceedings of the Royal Geopgraphical Society , London, 1874.

б



50 MARION JOHNSON

There is no detailed information as to what happened in the mountain country near the present Ghana frontier. Either at this time, or after 1874, a number of dependent communities must have thrown off Ashanti control, or resisted its extension. The 20-year- old dispute between Kebu and Adele reported by the Germans in 1889 would seem to date from about 1869, and the Adjuti probably broke free at the same time. Adele seems to have remained loyal to Ashanti.

The situation was in any case an explosive one. Glover's informants in 1873 were convinced that it would be easy to raise the eastern and northern peoples, including Salaga, against Ashanti. Even before Glover arrived in Accra, a company of Ashantis had been enticed into an enclosed place in 'Serem' and blown up. Ramseyer, in Kumasi, commented:

It was thus evident that the central tribes had thrown off the yoke of Ashanti, of which they had long been weary, and the course which events were taking at the coast became clearer. To our surprise, however, a Moham- medan hung himself in the town, and the affair at Serem was represented as a dispute between Ashanti chiefs.101 This rather obscure passage suggests that Ramseyer was

expecting a northern rising supported by the British; it may also suggest that some sort of censorship was in force in Kumasi, probably to prevent the spread of alarm and despondency, and also to prevent news reaching the coast through Ramseyer's correspondence. Such a censorship might explain Ramseyer's ignorance of the extent of hostilities in 1869.

REAPING THE WHIRLWIND In 1874, British forces entered and burned Kumasi. Goulds-

bury wrote two years later:io2 As soon as the intelligence arrived at Sarahah (Salaga) that the white man had taken Coomassie, and that the Ashantee forces were scattered and broken, the Sarahas seized all the Ashantees in their country (and they were counted by hundreds) , and killed every one of them, thus taking reprisals for the bitter wrongs they had for years helplessly and hopelessly groaned under.

There are several other accounts of this massacre. All these peoples formerly served the Kumasi king, and on the instigation of the Dwabeng King all banded themselves together against their oppressors, and on an appointed day, especially in Salaga, killed many hundreds of Kumasi people who were living among them as officials, weavers and traders. Some of the skulls and bones of the murdered men were still to be seen strewn on the waste land and on the plains, where the corpses had become prey for jackals. It was the Dwabeng king specially, with the priests and elders of Krakye whom he used as his right hand, who instigated those people, Salaga included, to unanimous action.

101. Ramseyer and Kuhne, op. cit. 102. Gouldsbury, op. cit.




This account was written by Opoku in 1877;юз Bonnat, the previous year, had also held the Juabens and the Krachi priest, responsible; he wrote of 'these rogues who had massacred thousands of Ashantis two years earlier', referring apparently to the Juaben refugees at Krachi; and also to 'this rogue of a fetish (priest)

' who was 'the greatest persecutor of the Ashantis, and it is by his orders that they were massacred in the interior'. Bonnat, however, may have been prejudiced; the Juaben chief had had him arrested in Atebubu the previous year, and Bonnat believed that the priest of Dente had reproached the King of Atebubu for not having had Bonnat killed on that occasion.104

David Asante, writing seven years later, but with more knowledge of affairs east of the river, puts the blame on the Buem people.

Without the Boem people, the Nta and Krachi people when they fell away from Ashanti would not have dared to put to death the Ashantis they had taken prisoners; the former [Boems] came and killed the Ashantis in Krakye and Salaga, and confirmed those tribes in their defection.1 05 Some colour is lent to this view by the fact that the Ashanti

prisoners in Yendi were not massacred, and were still there when Lonsdale reached Yendi in 1882. The Buem people had been engaged in a massacre on their own account.

Being more stout-hearted than other tribes in these parts, after the fall of the Ashanti power [the Buem] fell on the Dukoman people and annihilated them. Those who survived gave themselves to the fetishes Fruko and Nayo in Adele, and others to the fetish Odente in Krakye; only a remnant now remain in hidden and miserable huts in their devastated country. This was the story as David Asante heard it in 1884. ios Litime

tradition adds that the peoples of Litime, Kpelle and Daye also associated with this revolt. Krachi tradition adds that the Tribu people who had been subject to Dukoman took refuge at Dadiase in Adele, while the Dukoman survivors themselves went to Siade in Adjuti. They settled at Kwau or Bonkau in Adjuti, where they remained until 1897. 107

The Krepe people were too scattered and broken to make a corresponding attack on Akwamu, though the Anums later recovered land in the Labolabo area. Many of the Peki and Anum people, and members of othei communities from the Krepe country were temporarily settled in Akwapim and in the Accra plains. The Peki chief was still at Sokode near Ho in 1875, while Kpandu was being vigorously rebuilt.108

What happened in the Adele country is obscure. When the Germans arrived in 1888, they found Adele separated from all its neighbours except the Tribu by large expanses of empty country, and with a total population of about three thousand.109 103. Rev. T. Opoku, op. cit. 104. Bonnat, 1875, op. cit. 105. D. Asante, 1884, op. cit 106. Ibid. 107. Krachi Traditions, op. cit. Graf Von. Zech, op. cit. 108. Bonnat, 1875, op. cit. 109. Dr. L. Wolf, op. cit: Dr. R. Buttner, Mitteilungen, 1891.

5A



52 MARION JOHNSON

They had been three times attacked by the Fasugu people in the past ten years, and had standing feuds with other neighbours. It looks as if only their fine strategic position, and the reputation of their great shrines, had saved them from the fate of the Dukomans.

It had long been an axiom of British policy that all peoples under Ashanti rule must necessarily be anxiously awaiting 'liberation'. It does seem as if there was a certain amount of truth in this, so far as the peoples east of the Volta were concerned. Captain Glover was originally commissioned for the purpose of fomenting a rising among the eastern peoples subject to Kumasi, though he himself was certainly thinking in terms of the Moslem peoples further north. Glover's information110 was that once the white men had established themselves at Salaga

the subject tribes who bore most unwillingly the Ashanti yoke, and on whom the King of Ashanti chiefly depends, would rise and join against that power; and that the Houssas and other tribes from the north would come down and join cheerfully in the war. Glover claimed that a deputation from Salaga told him when

he arrived in Accra in 1873 'only come up to us, and the power of Ashanti will be broken'111

Although Glover would doubtless have approved of the general rising, there is no proof that he had any real part in fomenting it. The only hint of any British influence comes from a curious story which was circulating in Bagyamso in 1877. The priest of Dente had given out that the destruction of Kumasi

which these people ascribe to a superhuman power, had taken place as a result of the supernatural influence of Dente on the Queen of England, and so brought about the wonderful liberation of the peoples from the yoke of the terrible enemy. . . He also gave out that the Queen of England had allied herself secretly with Odente, which he explained in the following way "The Grandfather (i.e. Odente) is so closely bound with the Queen of England that a division of the person is impossible and only they themselves can say whether the Queen is the Grandfather or grandfather the Queen.11 2 Meanwhile, Juaben unexpectedly failed to support Kumasi and

made a separate peace with Glover's forces. The Dente priest had gone on to forecast a second complete destruction of the Kumasi kingdom and a restoration of Juaben sovereignty under Asafo Agei. If Juaben and Dente did not think they had been promised British support, they were at least trying to convince their neighbours that they had it.

Kumasi was equally at pains to suggest that the British Government was supporting its efforts to recover the lost provinces; at the same time, Kumasi was trying to suggest to the lost provinces that Ashanti had never been defeated. Lonsdale, who was later to describe similar efforts in Bonduku on the west, wrote in 1882:

Not long after the war of 1873-4, and when the Kratshie

110. Ashanti War, c982, 1874, end. in No. 156. 111. J. H. Glover, Proceedings of R. G. S. op. cit. 112. Rev. Opoku, 1877, op. cit.




people considered themselves free of Ashanti, the King of Ashanti sent messengers with presents to try and in- duce the chief priest of Dente and the Brum and Buem people generally to return to their allegiance. These messengers came and said the King had sent them in an unostentatious and somewhat secret manner, because he wished to show how forebearing he could be in his manner of bringing his refractory vassals to their senses. But that they (the Ashantis) having beaten the English he wanted peace, and to re-establish his kingdom. These messengers were received and ostensibly made much of, and they entered into details of how they had repeatedly got the best of their various encounters with the English troops. That night all the men of the party were killed. These messengers not returning, the king again sent fresh messengers and more presents, these delivered their message, told the same number of untruths, and were treated in the same manner as their predecessors. Since then no Ashanti messengers have been sent to Kratshie.113 A similar incident must have taken place at Bagyamso. Opoku

wrote in 1877: These people are true allies of the Juaben King, and have such bitter hate against the Kumasi people, whose yoke they have thrown off after bearing it so long, that they kill every ambassador who comes from Kumasi, or any one of their own people who smuggles powder into Kumasi territory. - A hint, possibly, that the opposition to Kumasi was not quite

unanimous. In 1877, Opoku met at the Afram river-crossing in Kwahu a great company of men, the son of the Juaben king at their head, who were to bring to the English Governor at Cape Coast gifts of ivory and ostrich feathers. These people were the representatives of various towns in the interior who were in alliance with the Juaben king.114 This is a curious incident, because by 1877 the Juaben king

was a refugee at Cape Coast, and others of his people had taken refuge at Krachi. Opoku is unlikely to have been mistaken about the Juaben King's son, as his guide was himself a Juaben. By this date the seat of the British Governor was Accra, not Cape Coast; the embassy did in fact arrive at Accra; Governor Freeling described them as 'messengers of the king of Salaga'. By the time they reached the coast, the ostrich feathers were in poor condition; the Governor consulted Edmund Bannerman as to what would be suitable return gifts.115

Neither Ashanti nor the rebel provinces really believed that the break-up of the Ashanti empire was permanent. Gouldsbury was convinced that, but for his prompt action in 1876, Kumasi would already have attempted to re-take Salaga, and that the Juaben war 113. Lansdale, op. cit. Rev. David Asante , 1884, Diary , edited by Rev. Christaller,

Mitteilungen , 1886. 114. Rev. Opoku, op. cit. 115. Government Freeling, despatch to S. of S. 28th March 1877, U.N.A.; letter to Bannerman SC/2/63 in Bannerman Papers, G.NA.



54 MARION JOHNSON

had been a first stage in this design. Bonnat, never one to minimise his own importance, claimed that in Ashanti 'everyone re- cognised that his affair at Atebubu had saved Achanty.' He himself clearly expected that Ashanti would return to Salaga and the Volta towns, and tried to convince Gouldsbury of the necessity for this.116 He reported finding the women of Yeji in a temporary encamp- ment on the north bank of the river, sent there in anticipation of an immediate Ashanti invasion. A chief in Krachi territory a few miles south of Krachi itself 'gave away the fear of his tribe for the Ashantis of whom they have killed a great number and from whom they expect vengeance'; while at Nkami he met Krachi messengers who had been sent to try and obtain powder and guns from the Peki chief at Sokode near Ho 'to defend themselves against the Ashantis'. Bonnat even had romantic ideas of playing the peace- maker between Kumasi and Krachi, as he had hoped to do between Kumasi and Juaben in the previous year.

Governor Lees commented that, in view of Bonnat's appoint- ment by the King of Ashanti as Governor of the Upper Volta with his place of residence at Akroso,

it is but natural that Mr. Bonnat should feel disappointed that the tribes of the Upper Volta no longer acknowledge king Mensah's authority, and be much interested in the establishment of the power and prestige of the king.11? In 1882, Lonsdale had very specific instructions to avoid the

appearance of travelling to Atebubu and Salaga under Ashanti escort, or to allow himself to be accompanied by any Ashanti official - instructions which he followed only with some difficulty.118 He was at great pains to explain that it was not his intention to force anyone to return to Ashanti and had to reassure his hearers repeatedly on this point. By this time it seems that the Ashantis were claiming little beyond Atebubu, Salaga and Krachi.

THE AFTERMATH Apart from the violent risings with the consequent fear of

reprisals, which followed upon the burning of Kumasi in 1874, the wars left behind an aftermath of enmity and feuds which lasted a generation and more.

'Dobson' in 1875 found Akwamus unwilling to proceed above Pesse 'on account of their still being unfriendly with Quajodey, King of Krepe, though they had held no communications for four years'.1^ Bonnat reported that the Wusutas, after their betrayal, had 'sworn an implacable hatred' for the Akwamus (whom they evidently held responsible) and 'trembled with rage' at the sight of three Akwamu members of Bonnat's crew; they yielded to his superior force and let him through. A few months later, Goulds- bury went to Wusuta, having heard that they had sworn not to let the Akwamus pass up or down the river (he had perhaps been

116. Bonnat, 1875, op. cit. 117. Governor Lees, comment on a letter from Bonnat in despatch to S. of S. 1876, G.N.A. 118. S. Rowe, Lonsdale's instructions (enclosure to Despatch No. 264 of 17th October

1881) GNA; Lonsdale, 1882, op. cit. 119. 'George Dobson', op. cit .




listening to Bonnat); he was able to persuade the Wusutas not to oppose the free passage of the Akwamus, who were the pilots and boatmen of the river.12"

The Averne people, who had also been forced to serve the Ashantis in the 1869 war, were engaged in feuds arising out of the war, not only with the Anfoe people, with whom they had probably had earlier quarrels, but also with the Nkonyas. Gouldsbury reported in 1876 that the whole of Krepe was in a sad state of anarchy, confusion and insecurity:

one village panyarring the inhabitants of another, the whole country groaning under misrule, and dominated by a predatory and revengeful spirit. I passed through one large village which had been attacked, pillaged and destroyed by the inhabitants of a neighbouring one a few days before I appeared. I pointed out to the several kings and chiefs the impossibility of redressing each individual wrong, many of which grievances occurred years back.121 Tafiefie collaboration was avenged by the massacre of some 45

envoys who had been invited to make lasting peace and friendship with the Pekis. In 1888 this massacre was avenged by a particularly brutal massacre of a whole village, which led in turn to the Tafiefie war.1 22

The cleavage between the two parts of Nkonya, exacerbated rather than initiated by the Tepo people calling in the Ashantis in their quarrel with the Wurupons, has continued up to our own time.

General disruption and anarchy gave opportunities for the escape of slaves taken in war; the aggrieved owners then took the law into their own hands and demanded, or took, replacements. Claims and counterclaims of this origin could persist for years. Bonnat describes such a case in 1876; a similar dispute was still going on some 15 years later between Buem and Adele. Lons- dale met with a somewhat similar case in Peki in 1882.

The same conditions gave plenty of opportunity to the unscru- pulous. In 1875, Bonnat found at Anfoe a group of Hausas posing as Government messengers, whom he had already encountered at Juaben the previous year. Deserters from the Hausa constabulary were believed to be establishing themselves on the river in the 1870s, (though Abu Karimu found none in 1879). In 1882, Lons- dale found the whole route from Krachi to Kpong infested with bogus Government messengers extorting money, inflicting fines, issuing orders. The soldiers in ragged uniforms whom Binger found in Salaga in 1889 were probably also unauthorised.12^ In 1877, Opoku encountered an ex-soldier turned trader who was widely believed in Nkonya and Krepe to be in the habit of selling his carriers as slaves.

One legacy of the wars was the gap between Akroso and Nkon- ya in the main trade route, necessitating a tedious detour through Тара. This gap was filled by Abu Karimu, a former member of the

120. Bonnat, 1875, op. cit.; Gouldsbury, 1876 op. cit. 121. Gouldsbury, 1876, op. cit. 122. Lieuter Herold, The political past in Western Togo' Metteilungen aus den deut-

schen Schutzgebieten, 1891. 123. L. G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee , (Paris 1891).



56 MARION JOHNSON

Hausa constabulary who had gone on a recruiting expedition to Sa- laga in 1879.124 Like many other former members of the force, Abu Karimu had gone into trade on the Salaga-Accra route; he established his village at Kwamikrom, between Nkonya and Akro- so. Firminger believed Mm to be actively engaged in slave trading. He later became disgruntled at his treatment by the British, and took service with the Germans.125

It seems to have been assumed by most of the peoples on the main route east of the Volta that the British, having defeated the Ashantis, would take over their eastern provinces. But the British, though quite willing to browbeat the smaller states, in the interests of keeping trade route open, were unwilling to accept responsibility even when directly asked to do so,126 so long as no other Euro- pean power was showing interest in the area. Apart from keeping the trade routes open, their sole interest was to prevent the Ashan- tis from returning to Salaga.

In the mountain country to the east, the British did not have even this much interest. Here the wars had left a similar aftermath of feuds and conflicts and lawlessness. Adele was cut off from the outside world by long stretches of wild country, beyond which lay communities which had been in dispute with Adele for years. Cara- vans had almost ceased to use the roads, and even in Adele highway robbery was not unknown. David Asante stayed in Pereu with a former highway robber, who had been forced to give up his trade at the instance of his more law-abiding neighbours. The Kebu to the south seem to have taken it up as a national pastime, while the Fasugu people were attacking Adele itself every few years. Feuds with Adjuti and Buem had closed roads to the west, and the destruction of Kwahu Dukoman left another empty area.

It was into this country that the Germans moved in 1888, establishing their 'scientific and research station* at Bismarkburg in eastern Adele. There is no evidence that the Germans realised that they were settling in the only surviving pro-Ashanti country in the area; they seem to have been concerned in the first place to re-open the roads, by persuasion or by force, then to divert as much trade as possible from Accra to Lome. By accident or design, they supported the chief of Kyeapoakyi, the Kebu village which showed greatest signs of Ashanti influence, the one village in Kebu country where Asante had been able to make himself understood in Twi.

As they moved westwards towards the Volta, the Germans quite naturally found themselves supporting the elements which were opposed to the British^; equally naturally, these tended to be the pro-Ashanti elements - those who were more interested in trade than in local independence from Ashanti. In Kete and Kpandu, Hausa traders were supported against priests and chiefs; in Nkonya, Wurubito (Ahenkro) was supported against Wurupong; in the Salaga civil war which began in 1892, a rival claimant was supported and established at. Kete Krachi; Abu Karimu was persuaded that he had a grievance against the British. The scattered remnants 124. Lonsdale, 1882, op. cit. 125. H. Klose, 1895, op. cit.; Nkonya Traditions, op. cit. Capt. Firminger, Report to S. of S., Adm. 1/88 (Enclosure to No. 181. 28th June 1889. GNA.) 126. West African Possessions. С 1402. 1876. 127. H. Klose, 1895, op. cit.; Krachi Traditions, op. cit. Kpandu Traditions, op. cit.; Nkonya Traditions, G. Von Zech, 1895, op. cit.




of the Kwahu Dukoman were re-established at the instance of the German administration; and in Adjuti, the priest of Siare was deposed and the chief of Pawa, an Ashanti village, made chief of Adjuti.

Whether or not it had been the German intention to re-establish Ashanti influence in Togoland, Klose in 1895 found the mountain country full of Ashanti traders; he was inclined to regard this as one of the machinations of the British against the Germans:

the trade of the Ashantis has extended far. All trade connections which were started in times of domination have been carefully kept up by the Ashanti tradesmen and have been strongly supported by the English Government. For this reason large amounts of rubber, livestock and other products go from our hinterland into the Ashanti land, to the loss of our colonies and tradesmen who have settled on the coast. i2« But this does not seem to have been the general German view.

A re-examination of German policy in relation to a possible Ashanti connection might be interesting. Why, for instance was Kling so satisfied with his expedition to Kintampo in 1892, and apparently so pleased to find the slave trade flourishing there 'which considerably exceeded that of Salaga'?129

A number of other questions remain to be answered. What, in the first place, was Ashanti doing east of the Volta, and particularly in the mountain country to the east? Was the motive simply to control the trade routes, and prevent the by-passing of the Volta customs posts? Or was Ashanti building up a defence barrier against the powerful and growing state of Dahomey beyond the mountains? Dahomey had attacked and destroyed Atakpame in the 1840s. Was Dahomey extending its influence into the mountain country, or did Ashanti think it was doing so? Were there any connections between the Krepes and Dahomey? Such a possibility would account for the 'scorched earth' policy. Or was Ashanti at pains to secure the mountain shrines which were probably of considerably political as well as religious importance?

Whatever the reasons for Ashanti policy east of the Volta, it eventually failed. Why? Was it too far from Kumasi for adequate control over officials and generals, or was the collapse of the empire east of the Volta only a reflection of the internal strains of the Ashanli state? That the lost provinces were never recovered is due, it is fairly clear, to the internal disputes of Ashanti after 1874.

One thing is perfectly clear. The burning of Kumasi, though it may have made little difference to political relations north and west of the Pra, was of enormous importance east of the Volta. Within a generation, most people had forgotten that the Ashantis had ever ruled the country east of the Volta, and the trade routes were dominated by Muslims from the north. The Germans occupied the no-man's-land between Ashanti and Dahomey, which themselves later became subject to the British and the French respectively.

It was the European powers who reaped the aftermath.

128. Klose, 1895, op. cit . ízy. luing, i»yu, op. cw.



58 MARION JOHNSON

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ibis paper would not have been begun without the encourage-

ment of Professor Ivor Wilks; it could never have been finished without his suggestions and advice, though I am sure he does not share all its conclusions.

Jack Goody's paper on Salaga in 1876, which I had not seen when this paper was written, makes use of some of the same material. His conclusions on the status of Salaga before 1874 appear to be much the same as mine.

Dr. Debrunner's book, A Church between Colonial Powers (London 1965) appeared after this paper was written. Two maps in this book, and the latter part of chapter 2 add material to the account of the 1869 war and the rising in Buem against Kwahu Dukoman given in this paper.

Sources This paper is based mainly upon the accounts of travellers who passed

through this area between 1869 and 1896, and upon published traditions of peoples in the area. Travellers 1. 1869 Rev. Fr. Ramseyer, Basel Missionary (with Kuhne). Ramseyer and Kuhne, Four Years in Ashanti (English edition. London 1874). 2. 1869 M. M-J. Bonnat, French trader. J. Gros, Voyages, aventures et captivité de

J. Bonnat chez les Achantis, (Paris 1884). 3. 1875 M. M-J Bonnat (Journey with Robert Bannerman of Accra and Ada). 'La raconnaisance du fleuve Volta* 'diarv) L' explorateur (Paris 1876). 4. 1875 ' George Dobson', English trader, agent of de Cardi (probably nom de

plume of Mr. Sprackett). G. Dobson, 'The River Volta, Gold Coasť Journal of the Manchester Geographical Societu. 1892.

5. 1876 Dr. V. S Gouldsbury, British official 'Report on journey into the interior of the Gold Coasť enclosed in despatch, Governor Strahan to Lord Carnarvon, 30 April 1876 (C.O. 96.119 No. 5162/S, Public Records Office, London).

6. 1877 Rev. David Asante , African minister of the Basel Mission. G. Beck, 'A new route to the Niger' (Travels of Asante and Opoku, 1877, and Buss 1878) Geog. Gesellschaft zu Bern 1880, Beilag VI.

7. 1877 Rev . Theophil Opoku, African pastor, Basel Mission. 'An African Pastor, s preaching journey through the lands of the upper Volta' Evangelisches Missionsmagazin (Basel 1885). 8. 1878 Rev. Ph Busst Basel missionary, see no. 6. 9. 1882 R. la T. Lonsdale , British official 'Report on journey to Kumasi and Salaga' Affairs of lhe Gold Coast , C3386 of 1882 also Letter to Governor, ibid.

10. 1884 Rev. David Asante, Diary, edited by Rev. Christaller. Journey to Salaga and Obooso' Geog. Gesellchaft zu Bern. Mitteilungen, 1886. il. 1884 Dr. b. Mahly, Basel Mission doctor. Geographie und Ethnographie der Gold Küste (Basel. 1S85). 12. 1884 Rev. Fr. Ramseyer, 'Journey to Atebubu, Krachi and Buem' Geog. Gesellschaft zu Jena . Mitteilungen . 1888. 13. 1885 Dr. G. A. Krause Оргтяп nhilnlntnet "Miti oìlnrt nom ICQR 14. 1886 Capt. Firminger, British Officer. Report to Secretary of State, Ädmin. 1/88. (enclosure to No. 181. 28 June 1889). Ghana National Arrhivps. 15. 1888 Dr. L. Wolf. German staff -surgeon. Mitteilungen aus den deutschen.

Schutzgebieten , 1888. 16. 1888 Hauptmann von Francois, German officer. Ibid. 1889. 17. 18 89 Dr. L. Wolf. Ibid , 1889. 18. 1889 Hauptmann von Francois. Ibid. 1890. 19. 1889 Hauptmann E. Klina. German officer. Ibid . 1889. 20. 1890 Hauptmann E. Kling. Ibid , 1890. Also Verhandlungen de Gesellschaft fur ürdekunde . Berlin. 1890. 21. 1891 Dr. R. Buttner , German officer. Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten. 1891. 22. 1895 Heinrich Klose. German official. Toan unter dputsrhe Fiannt> mprlin i«qq' 23. 1894 G. E. Ferguson African Official of (British) Gold Coast Government. Report. 1894, in Colonial Office. African fWest) No. 506. п. 25Я. 24. 1895 Graf von Zech, German officer. Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutz- gebieten, 1896. 2o. 1896 G. E. Ferguson , Report, 1896, in Colonial Office, African (West) no. 529, p. 199.




Traditions 26. Dodi Traditions from the Volta Basin, in the Library of the

Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana» Legon. VBRP/10.

27. Ninapon ibid , VBRP/9. 28. Averne ibid , Ewe/V/7. 29. Wusuta ibid , VBRP/5. 30. Nframa ibid , VBRP/9. 31. Kwahu Dukoman ibid , AM/20. 32. Krachi ibid, J. E. K. Kumah, unaccessioned. 33. Basa, ibid. 34. Akr oso ibid. 35. Ajade, ibid. 36. Siade, ibid. 37. Nkonya ibid. 38. Kpandu ibid, VBRP/11 also Gold Coast Review 1925. 39. Tribu Gold Coast Review 1925. 40. Litime Cornevin, Froelich and Alexandre, Les populations de

nord Togo, pp. 158 ff. 41. Kebu Cornevin, Histoire de Togo (Pans 1959). 42. Ho J. Speith, introduction to Herold The political past in

western Togo; in Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutz- gebieten 1891, pp. 113 ff.

13. Feki Weiman, Native States of the Gold Coast ; Vol . 1; The Peki (London 1924); see also 42.

44. Brong (Tradition of rebellion) enclosed in (9), collected by Lonsdale's interpreter Graves.

45. Bonwire, Ashanti Tradition recounted by Nana Okai Ababio m the presence of the Chief Weaver and Elders. Further traditions relating to Buem and inland Ewe states have been published in H. Debrunner A Church between Colonial Powers (London 1965) since this paper was written.



ASHANTI EAST OF THE VOLTA

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