Akan people
The Akan people are a Kwa group living primarily in Ghana and parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak languages within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family. Subgroups of the Akan people include: the Adanse, Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Akyem, Anyi, Asante, Baoulé, Bono, Chakosi, Fante, Kwahu, Sefwi, Wassa, Ahanta, Denkyira and Nzema, among others. The Akan subgroups all have cultural attributes in common; most notably the tracing of royal matrilineal descent in the inheritance of property, and for succession to high political office. All Akans are considered royals in status, but not all are in royal succession or hold titles.
Origins
Pre-colonial and colonial distortions
According to Jack Goody, the origins of the Akan were distorted during the colonial period by misinterpretations popularized by missionaries, administrators, and early ethnographers. One of the earliest documented attempts to explain Akan origins was made by Thomas Edward Bowdich, an English traveler who visited the Asante Empire in 1817. He argued that there were similarities between Asante political institutions and those of Ancient Egypt and Ethiopia which indicated that the Asante descended from eastern or northeastern African populations. In the early twentieth century, W. T. Balmer, a missionary historian, advanced the view that the Akan originated from the medieval Ghana Empire in the western Sudan. He argued that the decline of ancient Ghana was due to the society losing internal cohesion and was weakened by Islam invasions into the Sahel. J. B. Danquah later adopted and expanded the Ghana migration hypothesis using medieval Arabic descriptions of the ancient kingdom of Ghana and identifying it with the Akan-speaking peoples of the Gold Coast. In his 1944 book, the Akan Doctrine of God, Danquah suggested that the name “Ghana” represented an Arab corruption of “Akane” or “Akana,” and proposed a historical connection between the Akan and ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Eva L. R. Meyerowitz took the Ghana migration and diffusionist theories even further, claiming Akan ruling class and religious institutions originated from Saharan, Libyo-Berber, Egyptian, and Near Eastern sources. The theories were criticized by historians, linguists, and anthropologists, who believed they served practical purposes for missionaries, colonial administrators, and nationalist thinkers who sought moral lessons, political unity, or historical prestige.Critiques of colonial era distortions
An earlier critic of the colonial diffusionist theories was David Tait, who argued that Eva L. R. Meyerowitz’s book of Akan origins relied too heavily on speculative links between names of peoples and places across separated regions. He criticized her attempt to connect the Akan, Guan and Gonja to the Fezzan and the Djenne–Timbuktu area, claiming that many of these links lacked clear evidence. Tait denied to the use of a single Bono tradition about coming from the “great white desert” as the basis for a broad migration theory, especially since similar traditions were not found among other Akan groups. He also rejected the claim that early Bono traditions had been “lost,” arguing that there was no proof such traditions had ever existed. According to Tait, the linguistic comparisons used to support the argument crossed multiple languages and language families without enough methodological control. He believed that the book moved too quickly from collecting traditions to constructing speculative history, without first establishing the texts and their social context.Dennis Michael Warren, an anthropologist who spent extended periods conducting fieldwork in Techiman, Ghana, reexamined Meyerowitz’s interpretations of Bono history and argued that they relied on unsupported evidence. According to his findings, many informants cited by Meyerowitz denied giving her the information associated with them or contradicted her statements when interviewed independently. His work exposed that Timbuktu, Kumbu, Diala, and Diadom were not commonly known in Bono oral tradition and were only recognized by people familiar with Meyerowitz’s ideas, suggesting that the narratives were introduced from herself and not passed down locally. Warren concluded that an accurate reconstruction of Bono Manso history before the Asante conquest of 1722–1723 was not possible using available oral evidence. Warren warned that Meyerowitz’s work had already entered school textbooks and popular histories as established fact and influence local narratives which made it difficult to distinguish authentic oral traditions from foreign fabrications.
Archaeology and methodological criticism
As more fieldwork was conducted in Akan regions, earlier statements associating Akan origins with migrations from different regions were questioned and reassessed.Archaeologist Merrick Posnansky criticized the use of oral traditions recorded by non-specialists, arguing that the material, when interpreted through assumptions, created conflicting accounts of origins and lacked archaeological or historical validation. He mentioned how scholars like J. B. Danquah and Eva Meyerowitz sought historical validated by projecting Near Eastern or Mesopotamian origins onto Akan societies. In 1995, following archaeological research, Peter and Ama Shinnie concluded that there is no evidence to support older theories proposing migrations of the Asante and other Akan peoples from North Africa, the Sahara, or the eastern Mediterranean. They argued the theories reflect outdated assumptions that complex societies in West Africa must have originated elsewhere rather than developing locally. Shinnie’s main argument was that if the Akan had really come from the north, their language would be closely related to the languages spoken north of the forest zone, but Akan instead belongs to the Kwa language family, which, apart from Gonja, is not closely related to the languages of northern Ghana.
Oral Traditions
Oral traditions and archaeological evidence indicate that the Akan trace their origins to the forest and forest–savanna transition zone, with early settlements such of Bono Manso, Begho, Wenchi, Asantemanso and Adansemanso playing central roles in their historical development. The Bono people of Takyiman recount Bonoman one of the first Akan states, with its capital Bono Manso founded by a leader named Asaman, who emerged with his people from a sacred cave known as Amowi near modern day Techiman. According to tradition, God created the Bono before the sky itself, and their land was the birthplace of humankind. The word “Bono” is said to mean “original” or “first.” Oral traditions from the Bono people of Old Wenchi recount that their ancestors first emerged from the ground at Bonoso, led out by a pig-like quadruped called Wankyi, before establishing their settlement at Old Wenchi. The Bono people of the Nyarko, trace their ancestry to the ancestress Efua Nyarko, after whom a quarter of Begho was named.According to Adanse traditions and cosmogony, Adanse was the traditional “Garden of Eden” of all the Akan and is regarded as one of the first of the Akan states, standing at the head of the entire Akan nation. They recount that their land is considered a sacred place of creation and early political formation, regarded as the ancestral homeland from which all the southern Akan trace their origins. It is described as the first among five foundational states, Adanse, Akyem, Assin, Denkyira, and Asante, collectively called Akanman Piesie Anum. Clans such as the Asona, Agona, Oyoko, and Bretuo are believed to have either originated from, settled, or have passed through Adanse. The Asante people trace their roots to Asantemanso, where the matriarch Ankyewa Nyame is said to have descended with sacred regalia, and where the founding clans emerged from the earth. Akyem Kotoku, Akyem Bosome, Assin Atandansu, Assin Apimenin as well as the Asante of Mampong, Dwaben, Kokofu, among others, claim to have migrated at various times from
the Adanse area of the Asante Region. These traditions emphasize sacred geography, clan emergence, and spiritual unity, with the deity Bona acting as guardian of Adanse's early cohesion. The Akwamu identify early capitals at Twifo-Hemang, Asamangkese and later Nyanaoase, located near key trade routes in the southern forests. As their power grew, the capital shifted multiple times, eventually crossing the Volta Gorge.
In the south and west, the Fante people recount a migration from Bono-Tekyiman to the coast, where they encountered the Etsi. Their founding is tied to Mankessim and the rock shrine Nananom Pow, linked to the legendary ancestral trio Obrumankoma, Odapagyan, and Oson. The Aowin claim an early presence in the western forests. Their kingdom dominated regional trade and provided refuge to displaced groups before its decline during wars with Denkyira and Asante. The Sefwi people trace their origins to the Bono and Adansi areas but describe distinct migrations into the western forests in response to 17th–18th century warfare.
The Nzima trace their origins to the formation of the Nzima Kingdom, created by three brothers, Annor Blay Ackah, Bua Kanyili, and Ahmiree II, who united the existing states of Jomoro, Abripiquem, and Ankobra through wealth gained from European trade. Known in European records as Apolonia, this new polity dominated the south-western coast of the Gold Coast throughout the eighteenth century. Further west, the Baoulé people of Côte d'Ivoire trace their ancestry to Akan groups who migrated westward from the Gold Coast in two waves during the early eighteenth century. The first, known as the Alanguié Baoulé, moved from Denkyira after its defeat by the Asante around 1701, while the second, the Assabou group, left Kumasi following a disputed succession after the death of Osei Tutu in 1717.