Parallels between Akan Culture & Ancient Ghana

(John Carmichael (African Eldorado, 1993 at pages 58 - 59))

Numerous experts have commented on the similarities within the traditions of kingship and cultic practice centering on the mystical nature of gold between imperial Ghana and the Akan peoples of the forest (even the linguistic derivatives from Ghana of Guan and Akan).

 In many cases, this has been taken as confirmation of a diffusion of ideas from the Sudanese grasslands to the forest of West Africa. Some authorities have looked back even further, tracing the origins of the traditions of divine kingship to Pharaonic Egypt.

 Similarities in language such as the word "Ka" for spirit, which in Twi is "Kra", have been noted along with the parallels in ceremonial objects such as the use of funeral masks on royal tombs in Asante and the king's flail, battle axe, crooked sword and fly whisk.

 Extreme positions have been adopted on either side; some denying any influence at all, others seeing similarities in every sphere. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle with a gradual diffusion of Iron Age culture throughout the continent.

 Further confirmation of cultural parallels can be found in the writings of Arabic scholars. Al-Bakri, commenting on the customs of ancient Ghana, was fascinated by the matrilineal tradition of succession: "The Kingdom is inherited only by the son of the King's sister".

Tunkamanin, the king during the time of al-Bakri, was the nephew of the previous King, King Basi.

 The matrilineal succession of ancient Ghana is paralleled exactly within the chieftaincy traditions, which still determine succession among the Twi-speaking peoples of Ghana.

 Al-Bakri, coming from a patrilineal culture, explains: "The King has no doubt that his successor is the son of his sister, while he is not certain that his son is in fact his own, and he does not rely on the genuineness of this relationship". Maternity is certain, paternity is often open to question.

 Al-Bakri's account of the splendour of the court of Ghana, its etiquette and ritual observance is almost indistinguishable from Bowdich's descriptions of the splendours of the Asante court in 1817.

 Both describe pages or messengers with shields and breastplates decorated with gold and the "awesome sounds" of massed drummers and horns of gold.

 Although historians cannot be certain about the authenticity of the ancestral "long march" from ancient Ghana, the parallels in cultural identity indicate a historical legacy, which is more than just coincidence.

Source: African Eldorado - Ghana from Gold Coast to Independence.