Ewe people
The Ewe people are a Gbe-speaking ethnic group. The largest population of Ewe people is in Ghana, and the second largest population is in Togo. They speak the Ewe language which belongs to the Gbe family of languages. They are related to other speakers of Gbe languages such as the Fon, Gen, Phla/Phera, Ogu/Gun, Maxi, and the Aja people of Togo and Benin.
Demographics
Ewe people are located primarily in the coastal regions of West Africa: in the region south and east of the Volta River to around the Mono River at the border of Togo and Benin; and in the southwestern part of Nigeria. They are primarily found in the Volta Region in southeastern and Eastern Region in Ghana and southern Togo, The Ewe region is sometimes referred to as the Ewe nation or Eʋedukɔ́ region.They consist of several groups based on their dialect and geographic concentration: the Anlo Ewe, Ʋedome, Tongu or Tɔŋu. The literary language has been the Anlo sub-branch.
History
The Ewe people were formerly known as the Dogbo.The ancient history of the Ewe people is not recorded. They may have migrated from a place vividly recalled in their oral history called Ketu or Amedzofe, a town now in the republic of Benin, in the region that is now the border between Benin and Nigeria; and then, because of invasions and wars in the 17th century, migrated into their current locations. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Ewe people likely had some presence in their current homelands at least as early as the 13th century. This evidence dates their dynamism to a much earlier period than previously believed. However, other evidence also suggests a period of turmoil, particularly when Yoruba warriors of the Oyo Empire ruled the region. Their own oral tradition describes the brutal king Agɔ Akɔli of Notsie, estimated to have ruled in the 17th century. The high-handedness of King Agor Akorli culminated in the escape and dispersal of the Ewe to their present locations.
They share a history with people who speak Gbe languages. All Gbe speaking people regard the Adja as the mother tribe. These speakers occupied the area between Akan land and Yorubaland. Previously, some historians have tried to tie them to both Akan and Yoruba ethnic groups. More recent studies suggest these are distinct ethnic groups who are neither Akan nor Yoruba, though they appear to have both influenced and taken influence from those groups.
The Ewe people had cordial relations with pre-slave trade and pre-colonial era Europeans. However, in 1784, they warred with Danish colonial interests as Denmark attempted to establish coastal forts in the Ewe and Yoruba regions for its officials and merchants. Nestled between powerful slave-trading kingdoms like the Asante, Dahomey and Oyo, the Ewes not only were victims of slave raiding and trade, but also sold their war captives to the Europeans.
After slavery was abolished and the slave trade brought to a halt, the Ewes flourished in their major economic activities of cotton and rice farming, palm oil and copra production and exports. Their region was divided between the colonial powers, initially between the German and British colonies, and after World War I, their territories were divided between the British and a British-French joint protectorate. After World War I, the British Togoland and French Togoland were respectively renamed Trans Volta Togoland and Togo. Trans Volta Togoland later voted in a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to join the newly independent Ghana. French Togoland was renamed the Republic of Togo and gained independence from France on April 27, 1960.
There have been efforts to consolidate the Ewe peoples into one unified country since the colonial period, with many post-colonial leaders occasionally supporting their cause, but ultimately none has been successful.
Religion
Traditional religion
The sophisticated theology of the Ewe people is similar to those of nearby ethnic groups, such as the Fon religion. This traditional Ewe religion is called Vodun. The word is borrowed from the Fon language, and means "spirit". The Ewe religion holds Mawu as the creator God, who created numerous lesser deities that serve as the spiritual vehicles and the powers that influence a person's destiny. This mirrors the Mawu and Lisa theology of the Fon religion, and like them, these are remote from daily affairs of the Ewe people. The lesser deities are believed to have means to grant favors or inflict harm.The Ewe have the concept of Si, which implies a "spiritual marriage" between the deity and the faithful. It is typically referred to as a suffix to a deity. Thus a Fofie-si refers to a faithful who has pledged to deity Fofie, just like a spouse would during a marriage. Ancestral spirits are important part of the Ewe traditional religion, and shared by a clan.
Christianity
Christianity arrived among the Ewe people with the colonial merchants and missionaries. Major missions were established after 1840, by European colonies. German Lutheran missionaries arrived in 1847. Their ideas were accepted in the coastal areas, and Germans named their region Togoland, or Togo meaning 'beyond the sea' in Ewe language. Germans lost their influence in World War I, their Christian missions were forced to leave the Togoland, and thereafter the French and British missionaries became more prominent among the Ewe people.About 89% of the Ewe population, particularly belonging to the coastal urban area, has converted to Christianity. However, they continue to practice the traditional rites and rituals of their ancestral religion.
Society and culture
The Ewe people are a patrilineal people who live in towns, cities and villages that contain lineages. Each lineage is headed by the male elder. The male ancestors of Ewe are revered, and traditionally, families can trace male ancestors. The land owned by an Ewe family is considered an ancestral gift, and they do not sell this gift in any way.Ewe people are notable for their fierce independence, and they have supported a decentralization of power within a village or through a large state. Decisions have been made by a collection of elders, and they have refused political support to wicked kings or leaders, after their experience with the powerful 17th century despot named Agokoli. Despite all their internal conflicts, they come together in times of war and external conflicts. In regional matters, the chief traditional priest has been the primary power. In contemporary times, the Ewes have attempted to connect and build a common culture and language-driven identity across the three countries where they are commonly found.
While the Ewe are patrilineal, women are traditionally the major merchants and traders, both at wholesale and retail level. "They deal in a wide variety of items, many of which are produced by men."
Another notable aspect of Ewe culture, as stated by ethnologists such as Rosenthal and Venkatachalam, is their refusal to blame others, their "deep distress and voluntary acceptance of guilt" for their ancestors' role in the slave trade. They have gone to extraordinary lengths to commemorate former slaves amidst them, and making the ancestors of the slaves to be revered deities as well.
Textiles
The Ewe were known for being more than active farmers and traders, they were also known for their strip weaving. Strip weaving is a textile production technique that uses very small looms in order to produce long and narrow lengths of cloth. This produced robed, blankets, rugs, and ceremonial decorations. Strip weaving was in the interest for nomadic and village families due to how portable and easy it is to dismantile.A key feature of the region is wearing cloths that are blue and white in pattern because of the Ewe getting a majority of their cloth from local Savannah origin, which ends up being the choice of fabric for most strip weavings. This eventually changed in the late 20th century due to the introduction of a new sought out bright colored cotton From Europe and India.
The supremacy of the Ashanti culture in the region ensured that akan culture would be adapted by smaller groups in the same region, which included the Ewe people, This adoption of culture leads to the blue and white patterns used in cloth before the 20th century. The Ewe did not find any relevance in the ruling chieftaincy from the adopted akan culture, due to this the artform in Ewe tranform into more of an individual and client based forms of dress. There was no centralized rule that controlled any ways of dressing, this provided free expression to weavers. Ewe Weavers become one of the major suppliers of cloth to west africa, due to being able to satisfy both private commission and bulk buying of cloth. This also reached beyond west africa and caught the interest of europeans, who at that time were looking at the Ewe in hopes of trading in the supply of cotten due to the disruption of southern states. There ends up being no trade due to the success they had in west africa, they were busy with their own weaving and had the yarns they needed that was obtained locally.
Success for the Ewe weavers was also attributed to the great creative and design flexibility they had, making them quick in producing anythimg that responds to market demands. This demand included the need for great copyists. Due to Ghana being newly independent, a new corprate gift fad was created which increased the demand for Ewe weavers. In the 1960s and 70s the production of cloth was too great for the Ashanti, as well as being culturally unacceptable to the elder Ashanti weavers. The need to uphold traditional standards is why the Ewe were seen as great copyists and looked at for a majority of cloth being sent out of the Ewe region, they could imitate Ashanti strip weave colors and patterns.
Music
While the Ewe are linguistically homogenous, their music differs between regions. The middle and upper Ewe groups developed a diatonic style of singing and use drums that are largely influenced by the akan. The south region was influenced by the pentatonic singing style of the Yoruba.The Ewes have developed a complex culture of music, closely integrated with their traditional religion. This includes Ewe drumming. Ewes believe that if someone is a good drummer, it is because they inherited a spirit of an ancestor who was a good drummer.
Ewe music has many genres. One is Agbekor, which relates to songs and music around war. These cover the range of human emotions associated with the consequences of war, from courage and solidarity inspired by their ancestors, to the invincible success that awaits Ewe warriors, to death and grief of loss.
Cross-rhythm drumming is a part of Ewe musical culture. In general, Ewe drums are constructed like barrels with wooden staves and metal rings, or carved from a single log. They are played with sticks and hands, and often fulfill roles that are traditional to the family. The 'child' or 'baby brother' drum, kagan, usually plays on the off-beats in a repeated pattern that links directly with the bell and shaker ostinatos. The 'mother' drum, kidi, usually has a more active role in the accompaniment. It responds to the larger sogo or 'father' drum. The entire ensemble is led by the atsimevu or 'grandfather' drum, largest of the group.
Lyrical songs are more prevalent in the southern region. In the north, flutes and drums generally take the place of the singer's voice.