Ga-Adangbe
The Ga-Dangbe, Ga-Dangme, Ga-Adangme or Ga-Adangbe are an ethnic group in Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The Ga or Gan, and Dangbe or Dangme people are grouped as part of the Ga–Dangme ethnolinguistic group. The Ga-Dangmes live primarily in the Greater Accra region of Ghana.
Ethnic Ga surnames include Nikoi, Amon, Kotey, Ntreh, Kotei, Adei, Adjei, Kutorkor, Okantey, Oblitey, Lartey, Nortey, Aryee, Obodai, Oboshi, Torgbor, Torshii, Lante, Lomo, Lomotey, Tetteh, Ankrah, Tetteyfio, Laryea, Ayitey, Okai, Bortey, Quaye, Quaynor, Ashong, Kotei, Sowah, Odoi, Ablor, Adjetey, Dodoo, Darku and Quartey. Dangme names include Ningos Tettey, Tetteh, Teye, Narh, Narteh, Nartey, Kwei, Kweinor, Kwetey, Dugbatey, Martey, Addotey, Addo, Siaw, Saki, Amanor, Djangba, Kabu, Kabutey, Koranteng, Nortse, and Horminor. The Dawhenya royal family name is Darpoh.
Under their leader King Ayi Kushi Ga people were led from the east across several states before reaching Accra, Ghana. According to oral traditions, the Ga came from the region of Lake Chad and reached Accra in the 16th century. It is also believed that by the 17th century they traveled down the River Niger and crossed the Volta to reach present day Ghana.
King Ayi Kushi is a leader of the Ga-Dangme people, who passed down seven puritan laws that form the basis and philosophy of their culture.
The Ga people were organized into six independent towns.
Each town had a stool, which served as the central object of Ga ritual and war magic. Accra became the most prominent Ga-Dangme town and is now the capital and largest city of Ghana. The Ga people were originally farmers, but today fishing and trading in imported goods are the principal occupations. Trading is generally controlled by women, and a husband has no control over his wife's money. Succession to most offices held by women and inheritance of women's property are by matrilineal descent. Inheritance of other property and succession to male-held public offices are by patrilineal descent. Men of the lineage live together in a men's compound, while women, even after marriage, live with their mothers and children in a women's compound. Each Ga town has a number of different cults and many gods, and there are a number of annual town festivals.
The Dangme people occupy the coastal area of Ghana from Kpone to Ada, on the Volta River and South Atlantic Ocean along the Gulf of Guinea and inland along the Volta River. The Dangme People include the Ada, Kpone, Krobo, Ningo, Osudoku, Prampram, and Shai, all speaking Dangbe of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages. The Dangme People have the largest population among the two related Ga-Dangme People. About 70% of the Greater Accra Regional Land is owned by the Dangmes located in Dangme East and Dangme West Districts of Ghana. Also, in the Eastern Region and Volta Region of Ghana, about 15% of land belongs to the Dangme People. These are mainly in the Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo Districts of the Eastern Region in the Agotime Area of Volta Region and the Dangme Area in the Southern part of Togo.
Culture
Dangme occupations are fishing, trading and farming which is based on the Huza system. This was an early and innovative form of capitalism where an elaborate system of property ownership was established and subsequently shared. In this system a huge tract of land is acquired by a group of people but represented by a prominent member of the group, the group were usually members of an extended family; the land is subdivided among them according to the amount each has paid, and each individual thereafter has complete control of his own section. Negotiations with the seller are carried out by an elected Huzatse, who later acts as the Huza leader and representative. Millet was formerly the staple food, but more common crops now include cassava, yams, corn, plantain, cocoa, and palm oil. Lineage members generally return to the traditional lineage home from the Huza farms several times a year to participate in the festivals of their lineage gods. There are also many annual festivals.The Ga-Dangme are organized into clans based on patrilineal descent; the clans are subdivided into localized patrilineages, the basic units of the Ga-Dangme historical, political, cultural tribal group.
Language
Linguistically, the Ga-Dangbe speak the Kwa languages Ga and Dangme. Dangme is closer to the original Ga–Dangme languages than the Ga language.Arts and culture
The Ga people celebrate the Homowo festival, which literally means "hooting at hunger". This festival originated several centuries ago. It is a food festival celebrated in remembrance of a great famine that afflicted the Ga people. It takes place in August every year and is celebrated by all the Ga clans.The Dangbe people from Ada celebrate the Asafotu festival, which is also called 'Asafotufiam', an annual warrior's festival celebrated by Ada people from the last Thursday of July to the first weekend of August. It commemorates the victories of the warriors in battle and is a memorial for those who fell on the battlefield. To re-enact these historic events, the warriors dress in traditional battle dress and stage a mock battle. This is also a time for male rites of passage, when young men are introduced to warfare. Asafotu also coincides with the harvest cycle, when harvest-specific special customs and ceremonies are performed. These include purification ceremonies. The celebration reaches its climax with a durbar of chiefs, a colourful procession of the Chiefs in palanquins with their retinue. They are accompanied by traditional military groups called 'Asafo Companies' amidst drumming, singing and dancing through the streets and on the durbar grounds. At the durbar, greetings are exchanged between the chiefs, libations are poured and declarations of allegiance are made.
The Krobo people, a Dangbe people from Odumase Krobo, also celebrate the Ngmayem festival, an annual harvest festival to celebrate the bounty harvest of their farmers. Ngmayem is celebrated by the Krobo people throughout the last week of October with a visit to their ancestral home the Krobo Mountains. Figures associated with the Krobo traditional area such as the Konor, sub-chiefs, government officials, other traditional authorities and invited guests gather between the last Friday and Saturday of October.
Music and sports
Ga-Dangbe music includes drumming and dancing. One of their traditional music and dance styles is kpanlogo, a modernized traditional dance and music form developed around 1960. Yacub Addy, Obo Addy, and Mustapha Tettey Addy are Ga drummers who have achieved international fame. Music of the Ga-Dangbe people also include Klama, Kpatsa, and the Dipo dance all of the Krobo people.In addition to music, the Ga-Dangbe people are known for their long history and successes in the sport of boxing. The fishing community of Bukom on the outskirts of Accra, is considered a hub of boxing in Ghana and has produced several notable boxers. It is the home of many famous boxing "clubs" and gymnasiums. Notable fighters include former WBC champion, David Kotei aka DK Poison, Alfred Kotey, Joshua "The Hitter" Clottey, and former WBA Welterweight champion boxer Ike "Bazooka" Quartey, and former multi-weight class champion Azumah "Zoom Zoom" Nelson aka Prof.
Rites of passage
For the Shai and Krobo people, Dipo is the formal rite of passage. Originally designed as a formal marriage training for women in their twenties, Dipo has evolved into a pre-marital sexual purification rite that involves teenage girls conducting traditional religious rituals and putting on dance performances for the public. Initiates are partially nude throughout much of the ritual, and adorned with custom-made glass beads, colorful loincloths, and various forms of woven headgear. According to researcher and author Priscilla Akua Boakye, " was a form of vocational training for young women in which they were taught generally how to assume their roles as responsible women." Despite the ritual being designated for older teenaged girls, it is not uncommon for pre-adolescent and even toddler-aged girls to take part.Funerals and "fantasy" coffins
The Ga people are known for their funeral celebrations and processions. The Ga believe that when someone dies, they move to another life. Therefore, since the 1950s, special coffins are often crafted by highly skilled carpenters for funerals. The pioneers of these artistic coffins were master craftsmen, such as Ataa Oko from La, and Seth Kane Kwei from Teshie.The coffins designs can include anything desired by relatives of the deceased. Coffins are usually crafted to reflect an essence of the deceased in forms such as a character trait, an occupation, or a symbol of one's standing in the community. For example, a taxicab driver may be buried in a coffin shaped as a car. Many families spend extensively on coffins because they feel that they have to pay their last respects to the deceased and being buried in a coffin of cultural, symbolic as well as expensive taste is seen as fitting. Prices of coffins can vary depending on what is being ordered. It is not unusual for a single coffin to cost $600. This is expensive for local families considering that many Ga have an income of only $50 a month or less. This means that funerals are often paid for by wealthier members of the family, if such a member exists, with smaller contributions coming from other working members of the family.
Some foreigners are known to have been buried in Ga-styled coffins.
File:Pompidou-Sarg von Kudjoe Affutu 2010. Foto Regula Tschumi.jpg|thumb|left|Pompidou coffin by Kudjoe Affutu, 2010. Photo by Regula Tschumi
The use of these fantasy coffins is rooted in Ga religious beliefs of the afterlife. They believe that death is not the end and that life continues in the next world in the same way it did on Earth. Deceased ancestors are also thought to be much more powerful than the living and able to influence their living descendants. This is why families do everything they can to ensure that a dead person is sympathetic towards them. In funerals, the size and the success of the burial service and the usage of an exclusive coffin reflects the social status of the deceased.
Ga coffins are only seen on the day of the burials when they are buried with the deceased. They often symbolise the dead people's professions, so that the deceased may be thought to continue with their earthly profession in the afterlife. Certain shapes, such as a sword or chair coffin, have royal or priestly symbolism with a magical and religious function. Only people with the appropriate status are allowed to be buried in these types of coffins. Various creatures, such as lions, cockerels, and crabs represent clan totems. Only the heads of the families concerned are permitted to be buried in clan-specific coffins. Many coffin shapes also evoke proverbs, which are interpreted in different ways by the Ga. Design coffins have been used since around the 1950s, especially in rural Ga groups with traditional beliefs, and have now become an integral part of Ga burial culture.
Today, figural coffins are made in several workshops in Togo and Greater Accra. Popular coffinmakers are, for example, Cedi and Eric Adjetey Anang of Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah and Kudjoe Affutu. Most of the figural coffins are used for funerals, only a few are exported for international art exhibitions.