Asafo Banners

asafo company:
urban clan & cult -

clansmen flying colors, banners and
appliques of ritual relics, festivals &
appetites
Union Jack CEOs
Clan, Cult and Culture
misChief & Modernity
on modernity & pax britannica,
on corruption & bankruptcy of
clan rites and customs - the chief as agent
of foreign interest - the erstwhile clan elder
and the clan dispersed.
chief (n.)
c. 1300, "head, leader, captain; the principal or most

important part of anything;" from Old French chief
"leader, ruler, head" of something, "capital city" (10c.,
Modern French chef), from Vulgar Latin *capum, from
Latin caput "head," also "leader, chief person; summit;
capital city" (see capitulum). Meaning "head of a clan" is
from 1570s; later extended to American Indian tribes.
Commander-in-chief attested from 1660s.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=chief
1
Authority disseminated from above; in 1927
the Omanhene Akuamoah Boaten compared the organization to
the "feudal system in England under the Normans."
The Asafo of Kwahu, Ghana:
A mass movement for local reform under colonial rule
Jarle Simensen
The Ashanti is constantly preoccupied with the thought that the ancestors are watching him;
that when he joins them one day, they will demand an account of his life from him. This preoccupation
serves to regulate his daily life and behaviour, while the thought is a very potent
sanction to morality.
Gareth Austin, 'No elders were present':
Commoners and private ownership in Asante, 1807-96
how close the Ashantis conceive the bond to be that

exists between the living and their dead kinsmen".
The Christian Executioner:

Christianity and Chieftaincy as Rivals
The positions of stool occupant (ohene: chief) and abusua panyin
are not always separate and once a chief is enstooled, the post of abusua panyin
sometimes goes to him, but the stool occupant supersedes everyone else.
When a chief is installed ('enstooled'), he is made one with his ancestors, given a new name, and a sheep is
slaughtered over his feet. This blood, a symbol of rebirth, cleanses the person (de adwira no), symbolically separates
him (de atew ne ho) from his former secular person, and makes him sacred (woaye kronkron). This traditional act,
which symbolizes the transition of an ordinary person into a black stool occupant, is said by the Presbyterian Church
to be a 'fetish' rite which defines the incumbent chief as 'unfaithful to Christ'; it thus debars him from attending Holy
Communion.
The Christian Executioner: Christianity and Chieftaincy as Rivals
Michelle Gilbert
No one really knew what had existed in the past. Nor did aspirants
for office have to face well-established rulers, who could have challenged
their novel interpretations of how traditional institutions were
supposed to function and who were their
proper representatives.
Indirect Rule in the Gold Coast:
Competition for Office and the Invention of Tradition
Roger S. Gocking
2
This was especially true in a society which attached
so much importance to corporate pride and company honor.
As John Mensah Sarbah has indicated, service to one's company
was the "most indispensable duty of the citizen."
Donna J. Maier on John Kwadwo Osei-Tutus
The Asafoi (Socio-Military Groups) in the History and
Politics of Accra (Ghana) from the 17th to the 20th Century
Asafo on the other hand, meant the integration of a standing army

with their peculiar belief system, ritual, cults and ceremonies into the migration
socio-political organisation led by clan priest-leaders - Kuutseiatsemei
- under the guidance of the clan gods.
Integration and Adaptation:
A Case Study of La and Osu Asafo Religious Culture
- Abraham Akrong
The Role of Alcohol in the 1905 conflict between

the Anaafo and Ntsin Asafo Companies of Cape Coast
"The Chief, Elders and the Asafo" (Ohen na ne mpanyinfo na Asafo),
was a traditional political or courtly statement which reiterated the pride of place
of the Asafo in the political structure. They constituted the "third estate" without which
no indigenous or traditional form of government was possible or properly constituted.
As the "young men" or commoners, the Asafo formed the majority, the essential and
the most articulate part of the Oman or state.
Kwaku Nti
As a well-organized group, the asafo had its own hierarchical

structures of organization with its own bylaws. Indeed, the asafo was a well-structured
military organization that had its own flag, song, drums, horns, caps, emblems and
its own post, the rallying place of the company, where all its paraphernalia were kept.
This, without a doubt, was the asafo that existed
in pre-western educational era.
The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications
Seth Tweneboah
Several matrilineages together comprise a matriclan (Abusua), the members

of which claim descent from a common remote ancestress, observe taboos against
eating a particular animal, fish, or bird, and practice clan exogamy
in the selection of marriage partners.
Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie
In 1872, a Ga widow, Anna Maria Lutterodt of Osu, decided to sell some of the slaves she had inherited from her
deceased husband, a Danish merchant and plantation owner named George A. Lutterodt. The need for the constant
defense of Ga society and its interests led to the valorization of martial skills and an emphasis on physical training
and fitness. ... The cessation of warfare in colonial Gold Coast would channel Ga martial skills into avenues unique
3
even in the history of the asafo in the Gold Coast.
Bukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra:
Warfare and Citizenship in Precolonial Ga Society
Emmanuel Akyeampong.
in the majority of villages, the person who has power today is the asafuakye,
not the odikro (chief). In some villages, the odikro is not informed what his youngmen
have done or intend to do. This metamorphosis has taken place in the last year or so.
Anshan Li
As a stool occupant, a chief is the earthly representative of

the clan's ancestral spirits, and as such functions as a religious
as well as a political leader.
African Political Systems - 1950-51
James B. Christensen
African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

Democratic Processes - 1950-51
The southern part of the Gold Coast is comprised of approximately
one hundred native states, varying in population from two thousand to
over two hundred thousand. The basic unit in Akan social and political structure
is the matrilineal clan or abusua. These clans, which vary in size from thirty
to several hundred adults, theoretically or actually trace their ancestry back to
a common ancestress. The abusua observes collective responsibility,
owns land in common, and participates as a group in religious ritual.
Anshan Li
Following the Pax Britannica, and the implementation of indirect rule,

the chiefs were accorded more authority than they formerly had, and the role of the commoner
in government was largely overlooked. Many other changes occurred in the social
structure of the Akan from the adoption of Western religious and economic concepts.
Due to his closeness to the omanhene, a clan chief occasionally felt his interests
were more closely allied to the royal elite than to his clansmen and might advise a course
of action not favored by his followers. But the individual Akan was not easily disenfranchised,
and the social structure provided specific opportunities for him to voice dissent.
4
An inquiry into the origin and development of a Ghanaian institution

The political and administrative role of the asafo is seen in the composition of the state councils of maritime towns,
for it includes the heads of various companies (supifo) as well as the supreme head of all companies (tufohen); and,
in places like Cape Coast and Elmina, certain companies are associated with setting in motion the process of electing
and installing a new paramount chief. We have not mentioned the military role of the asafo in our summary of its
contemporary activities because, today, a traditional state (3man) no longer has the power to wage war, either
offensive or defensive, having lost it with the advent of the Pax Britannica, and, therefore, asafo companies can have
no opportunity of participating in a fight involving the whole 3man. In the past, however, fighting on behalf of the
community was the most important function of the asafo. A semblance of the military role of the asafo can still be
seen in an individual unit's occasional involvement in inter-company fights and disputes. The fights now occur only
seldom and are of a comparatively minor nature, but they used to be one of the most characteristic features of the
system.
Ansu K. Datta R. Porter
Asafo and Destoolment

in Colonial Southern Ghana, 1900-1953
Anshan Li
to compare its main functions before and after the establishment of colonial rule. The asafo among the Akan
used to be a military force. In the precolonial period, wars between states were frequent. To obtain greater
mobilization and to provide for an effective supervision in wartime, all the male members in the state, town, or
village were organized into fighting groups.

Moreover, the African soon came to realize that the district commissioner, though theoretically an "advisor," was the
actual ruler. While the primary concern here is with the impact of a foreign political ideology, important agents of
change have been the religious and economic concepts of the white man. they are of paramount interest in
considering the present status of the clans and chief in the social structure.

J. M. Sarbah and Casely Hayford described the military spirit of the asafo and its operation during early times. The
asafo either fought against other states or were responsible for the peace of their own state. The commander of asafo
companies had to be brave and able to provide some ammunition. Though the Pax Britannica rendered the military
function redundant, the military origin of the asafo was always stressed. During annual festivals, the asafo
performed before the chief in order to show their strength and loyalty. The asafo played an important role in the
rituals associated with installation or deposition of a chief. They were also involved in other religious activities. The
asafo was important on account of its religious power to affect people's status in the next world by honoring them at
the funeral. Being responsible for fetching the dead body and carrying it to the town, the asafo also performed at the
funeral, drinking and dancing, accompanied by asafo songs.
5
The asafo also filled a wide range of social functions ranging from cooperative groups providing labor for public
works, to local units called upon in cases of emergency, which formed part of their routine duties.
the asafo their role in the traditional political structure. Having a recognized and effective way to express their
opinion, asafo members had a say not only in the election of the chief, but also in all matters affecting the state.
Without their approval, a candidate could not be elected as chief. The asafo leader was officially recognized as
representative of the commoners; elders would consider any representations he had made to them.
Anshan Li
Without their approval, a candidate could not be elected as chief.

The asafo leader was officially recognized as representative of the commoners;
elders would consider any representations he had made to them.
Anshan Li

Due to his closeness to the omanhene, a clan chief occasionally felt his interests were more closely allied to the royal
elite than to his clansmen and might advise a course of action not favored by his followers. But the individual Akan
was not easily disenfranchised, and the social structure provided specific opportunities for him to voice dissent.
Among the coastal Akan, when the commoners believed their chiefs were not affording them adequate
representation, they could make their wishes known through the officers of the military companies, patrilineal
groupings from which the chiefs were excluded.
Ashanti, it was through the elected leader of the "young men," or mmerante, that the commoners could speak if they
were not in agreement with the omanhene and his advisors. As long as a chief acted in accordance with customary
law with respect to his personal conduct and the duties of his office, he enjoyed the support of the state. However, if
he deviated sufficiently to dissatisfy the people, he ran the risk of "destoolment," or removal from office, with the
alternative choice of abdication. In such a society the support of the people was essential, for without their
cooperation, both religious and financial, the chief could not fulfill his obligations to the stool and the ancestors.
Also, the people need not accept as a chief a man they do not favor. Thus with the power to choose or remove a
chief in the hands of the people, a wise leader did not go counter to their wishes if he wanted to retain his position.

Nevertheless, a pronounced change occurred in the position of the chief. Formerly, the income of a chief was
obtained from stool land worked by slaves, from people who traded for him, from the gifts of subjects, court fines,
market tax, and special assessments. With British control, the chiefs became salaried. All court fines and taxes went
into the treasury for the use of the state. Slavery, declared illegal, reduced the number of people who worked for the
stool. In some aspects the authority of the paramount chiefs was increased, but often they lost prestige and the
respect of their people. This was due in large part to the fact that decisions were made by the chiefs in consultation
with the British, and the latter supported the chiefs in carrying them out. Thus, instead of the people having a voice
in their own government as formerly, they would be told by their chiefs what had been decided for them. While this
considerably increased the influence of the chief in some spheres, it resulted in the loss of popular support for many
of them.
6

An outstanding feature of Akan social structure is the authority and prestige accorded to age. Their proverb, "One
does not pluck the feathers from a fowl before showing it to an elder," meaning that individuals or groups should
never reach a decision or take action without consulting their elders, may be classified as a governing principle of
Akan culture. Wisdom is believed to be a concomitant of age, and young people taking active part in politics against
the advice of their elders has been one of the radical deviations from tradition.
Following the Pax Britannica, the British governed the Gold Coast by "indirect rule." This system, developed in
northern Nigeria by Lord Lugard, utilized the existing political system of the African, and customary law was
allowed to prevail as long as it was not repugnant to British concepts of morality and justice.

Elaborate entertainment of chiefs on occasion was part of the government's policy, a practice that did not escape the
people. This led to the accusation that the chiefs were the "tools of the European," and were accepting bribes to carry
out the wishes of the white man. Even when bribery was not suspected or charged, many of the people felt that since
the chiefs were dependent on the British for recognition of their position, they were too willing to acquiesce in the
demands of the European.
A colonial official pointed out in 1887: The Colonial Government

while destroying the power of the chiefs has left the company organization intact;
and the captains of the companies now arrogate to themselves an independence
and freedom from restraint which formed no part of the original scheme.
Anshan Li
The same belief inspired the demonstration after Welman's enquiry effectively
rejected the asafo's claim to a constitutional role within Accra. Furious at British intervention
in what they regarded as an asafo affair, they asked the Colonial Office how "strangers" could understand
customary procedure better than they, particularly as the Ga had no "rules and regulations" governing destoolment.
The Accra government, they charged, in language bound to alarm Whitehall, was destroying "native institutions."
The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition
to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1924 - 25
Dominic Fortescu
I use the term commoners to designate persons not holding a formalized

political office as chief, lineage elder, and/or member of a traditional council.
7
Jarle Simensen
Youth Participation
in Local and National Development in Ghana: 1620-2013
it is now firmly established that it was common practice as far back
as the 1620s to have youth associations usually called the asafo taking active part
in national development planning. Admittedly, there were more formal arrangements
for youth associations among the southern Akans and especially
among the Fantis of the coastal areas.
Ransford Edward Van Gyampo - Franklin Obeng-Odoom
In peace time the asafo functioned mainly as a collective for sports and entertainment,
and for the mobilization of young men for hunting and communal labor. Authority disseminated
from above; in 1927 the Omanhene Akuamoah Boaten compared the organization to the "feudal system in England
under the Normans." In accordance with the general Akan constitutional model, the Kwahu commoners were
supposed to play the role of sleeping partners in political affairs. Candidates to chiefly office were nominated
by the royal family, elected by the council of elders, and then presented to the people, whose consent
was required to make the election valid.
Jarle Simensen

In British administrative correspondence it appears as an equivalent to young men,
a direct translation of the Twi word mmerante. Commoners were, and are here,
often referred to collectively as asafo.
Jarle Simensen
Youth Participation
8
Every Akan belonged to an asafo group on their fathers side, just as every person belonged to an abusua or
matrilineage, on their mothers side (Owusu, 1970:41). Each asafo group was divided into companies and among the
southern Akans, it was further sub-divided according to age, that is, into senior asafo, (called dontsin) and junior
asafo (called twafo).
Within each asafo group, roles such as taking charge of discipline, ammunition, defense, public works and political
activities were allotted (ibid: 42-43). The position of the leader of the asafo was either elective or hereditary. In the
case of the latter, the leader was required to be approved by the whole group prior to assuming the role.

These and other questions are dealt with by the author as he describes and explains forms and patterns of
contestation and struggle in Accra political space and public life. He skillfully draws on the lives and careers of
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century asafo leaders, kings, chiefs, intellectuals, and politicians in order to explain
and define the urban and social politics of the asafo company system.
"'Negotiating' the Ga State: War, Space, Polity, and Custom, 1680-c.1800s") the decades between 1730 and the
early 1800s. Following the defeat and collapse of the centralized Ga kingdom in 1677-1680, Ga elites reconstituted a
decentralized, militaristic: Ga state in the Accra coastal towns where competing European trading companies
maintained their trading stations. The elites founded new quarters (akutsei) and these provided "a framework for
organizing and mobilizing the populations socially, politically, and militarily on the basis of patrilineal 'Houses,'
called shiai or weku" (p. 35). the Ga asafo system was a "mature" institution in the eighteenth century. It is
regularly referred to in Danish, Dutch, and English trading company records, especially in the second half of the
century.
"The Politics of Warfare: The Asafo System and the Development of the Ga State in the 19th Century") elaborates
on the theme that the political culture of the Ga polity was closely associated with warfare and that warfare required
the loyalty and services of an organized body of commoners, namely members of the asafoi.
Asafo members were active in public (political) affairs and events-important court trials, major military campaigns
(e.g., against an Asante army in 1826), the poll tax debacle of 1854, and in the 1872 legal dispute over the
citizenship status of slaves belonging to a plantation owner who opposed granting citizenship to any of them. An
asafo company won the case and "conferred" Accra citizenship on the slaves because of their wartime services to the
town. As the author makes clear, at the time of this dispute the companies were "an indispensable and recognized
popular institution in nineteenth century Ga towns" (p. 105). He goes on to say that in the course of the century the
influence of the Ga asafo spread well beyond the Ga towns into Akan- and Ewe-speaking areas.
The companies in general supported the authority of Ga judicial institutions against those of the colonial
government. Together, they championed the "collective interests of the Ga peoples" and defended "what in their
view was the rights of the poor people against any attempt to tax them" (p. 166). This placed them in opposition to
the "intellectuals." But in matters of land litigation the companies split according to the political rivalries among
office-holders in their towns.
9
The Role of Alcohol
in the 1905 conflict between the Anaafo and Ntsin
Asafo Companies of Cape Coast
Later, firearms, spirits and other products of a more technically advanced economy were also introduced. Spirits or
imported alcohol like all other pre-colonial imports remained the preserve of the affluent and well placed. It was also
linked with political power as it frequently manifested on the list of presents to chiefs. Thus the free distribution of
valuable imported rum came to underscore the chiefs' generosity. Cape Coast became the focus of European activity
from the middle of the eighteenth century; and European liquor from the coastal trade (as other externally derived
goods) became a visible mechanism that stamped social differentiation
Kwaku Nti
An inquiry into the origin

and development of a Ghanaian institution
It is not until the turn of the century that the Elmina asafo makes an unmistakable appearance in the records: in
1804, we find the Cape Coast people envious of Elmina because the Dutch made monthly payments to each quarter
of that town for help in time of emergency,
and, a few years later, Meredith could write of Elmina that: 'The inhabitants are divided into parties for their mutual
defence, called companies; each company has its captain; and the whole is under the command of one man. There
were apparently eight companies at that time; the wards, at any rate, were in 1816 referred to as Ankobia
(Ankobeafo), Arjemfoe (Akyemfo), Cudjofoe (Nkodwofo), Panjafoe (Wombirfo), Abesie (Abesefo) Abadie
(Alatabanfo), Enjampan (Anyampafo), and Akranpafoe (Akrampafo); a modern spelling is in parenthesis.

structures of organization with its own bylaws. Indeed, the asafo was a well-structured military organization
that had its own flag, song, drums, horns, caps, emblems and its own post, the rallying place of the company, where
all its paraphernalia were kept. This, without a doubt, was the asafo that existed
for Tradition, Modernity and Religious Human Rights in Ghana
Seth Tweneboah
There is therefore a correlation between the advent of chieftaincy and Asafo war culture. Asafo and chieftaincy were
the two new politico-military institutions necessary for the emerging centralised socio-political organisations which
settlement on the coast imposed on the Ga. The precise relationship between chieftaincy and Asafo war culture
however varies among the different Ga groups. For the Ga chieftaincy meant a new political institution that had to
be integrated into the existing priest-led theocratic government. Asafo on the other hand, meant the integration of a
standing army with their peculiar belief system, ritual, cults and ceremonies into the migration socio-political
organisation led by clan priest-leaders - Kuutseiatsemei - under the guidance of the clan gods.
- Abraham Akrong
The Asafo System in historical perspective

European influence has also resulted in the adoption of certain practices and the use of certain articles and symbols
by asafo companies. The firing of muskets during the funeral procession and burial of a deceased member was
probably copied from the European practice of extending military honours to dead soldiers. And a random selection
10
of emblems used by Cape Coast companies on flags and elsewhere speaks for itself: Bentsir: a grapnel, a lighthouse,
a mirror, a Bible. Anaafo: a pistol, a picture of Queen Victoria, a representation of David and Goliath. Ntsin: a man-
of-war with an anchor, a pack of playing cards, a notebook and pencil, a cock on a compass, a train, a motor car, an
aeroplane, a caterpillar machine. Nkum: a bugle, a telescope, a small hand clock. Brofomba: some builders' tools, an
axe and a spade, some cannons. Akrampa: a Union Jack, a side drum. Amanfor: some sandpaper and a pot of polish,
a keg of gunpowder on top of a flagstaff, a file. And, finally, it is likely that the European presence on the coast, by
weakening the basis of traditional society, indirectly brought the asafo into greater prominence.
Anyone visiting a coastal town in central or western Ghana on an appropriate occasion cannot fail to be impressed
by the place of the organized military bands (asafo) in indigenous society. He is likely to see men, and even women,
marching out in animated processions, singing and dancing, beating drums, and dressed in colourful uniforms. Some
of the marchers will be carrying, if not firing, outdated guns, and there will be flagbearers displaying a variety of
flags embroidered with different motifs. At certain spots in the town, by shady trees and surrounded by tall fences
made of rafia palm, he will see arrangements of festoons in gala decoration; and, in some cases, he will also see
brick-and-mortar structures built in imitation of European forts on the coast or of modern men-of-war.
The Asafohen held consultation with the Supi and gave out orders
to the rank and file. The lesser officers included the kyerema (drummer),
frankaakitanyi (flagbearer), asikanbahen, bombaa (whipper)
and the asafo komfo (priest/ priestess).
Kwaku Nti
"Come and Try" Towards a History of Fante Military Shrines

Doran H. Ross
As has been detailed in multiple anthropological and historical studies, the asafo (sa, war, and fo, people) were the
warrior groups or armies of the traditional Akan states. With their military roles almost fully usurped by the
administration of the Brit ish Gold Coast Colony beginning in 1872, the asafo were forced to redirect their energies.
This they did with considerable success, and they thrive today as potent social and civic organiza tions with
significant political, ritual, and performance roles in most Fante states. Depending on whom you read, there are from
seventeen to twenty-four traditional Fante states (Christensen 1954:14 lists nineteen) with up to fourteen asafo
companies per state.
Euro-African Commerce and Social Chaos:

The young men or mancebos (Portuguese, youth, servant)
were an important group within the Elminan quarters or wards. They formed
the core of the ward military (asafo) forces
the records from the 1650s until the 1720s; this is the existence of a body of men called the manceroes who had a
recognized role, and often considerable influence, in society. Such information as we possess about these men
suggests that they may reasonably be identified with asafo members, or, at least, with the more active elements
within the system.
The young men or mancebos (Portuguese, youth, servant) were an important group within the Elminan quarters
or wards. They formed the core of the ward military (asafo) forces and the wards themselves, and ward and asafo
11
membership by way of a patrilineal principle, although most in Elmina were matrilineal, gave these non-
officeholders a chance to influence politics and realize their political aspirations.
Akan Societies in the Nineteenth and Twentiest Centuries
Kwasi Konadu, City University of New York
Youth Participation
case of the latter, the leader was required to be approved by the whole group prior to assuming the role (Shaloff,
1974; See Ffoulkes, 1908 and Datta and Porter, 1971 for the origins and detailed description of the activities of the
asafo).
Therefore, the asafo organised along democratic lines. The Fantis perfected the asafo relationship to such an extent
that this associational link had assumed an importance equal to that of family ties (Chazan, 1974:165). Further to the
north, in Ashanti, the asafo companies were less advanced, although membership was required and all the youth
participated in their activities (Manoukian, 1971:50).
The Origins of Asafo

The religious foundations of asafo bring us to the debate about the concept of asafo generally, whether it was
indigenous or a borrowed idea from Europeans. The first school of thought which has more supporters than the
second includes Christensen and Aggrey. Christensen argues that in spite of some European influences, "it is felt
that the company system is an outgrowth of the military tradition of the Akan, and not a copy of the European
military pattern."
Which means that we had asafo or our military before the White man brought his soldiers. We still have asafo, and
we shall, perhaps, keep it forever. (English translation mine) This Fante citation contains potent statements that refer
to the indigenous origin, and confidence in the continuity and permanence of asafo. Another pointer to the
indigenous origin of asafo is a 1490 account by Blake of a conflict in Elmina between two groups "which had about
it something of the flavour of an asafo broil."
Since the first Europeans to the coast of Ghana (Gold Coast), eight years earlier in 1482, were prone to deaths from
tropical diseases they must have been more preoccupied with finding solutions to their health and acclimatization
problems rather than building up asafo companies for Africans. There also seems to be validation in Aggrey's
conviction about the antiquity of asafo among the Fante because, himself a safohen and the grandson of the chief of
asafohenfo, he might have been privy to more insider information. Also, my research at Abakrampa revealed that it
was the asafo, under the leadership of the akomfo, that led them to find the path to their present settlement through
fights and conquest. Finally, oral traditions of the various Fante groups suggest the antiquity of asafo; though they
do not concur on one specific place of origin. For example while my mother's asafo the Akyemfo (Number 2
company) of Edina or Elmina, believe that the asafo evolved among the hinterland Fante and spread to the coast,
Datta and Porter name Asebu as precisely the place of origin.
12
Asafo and Christianity: Conflicts and Prospects
Brigid M. Sackey
The members of ahenpa asafo of Abakrampa concur with the theory about the antiquity of asafo. They argued that
the asafo organizations have been in existence since time immemorial, even before they migrated with other Fante
groups from the northern part of Ghana through Tumu, to Takyiman and Mankessim to their present settlement. In
fact, they contend that it was the asafo that solidly protected their founder, Ammfo Otu, through their wanderings,
eliminating evil magic and aggressors on their path, and assisting them in the acquisition of the land they occupy.
According to Aggrey the origin of asafo is akin to Fante cosmogony which is to be found in their mythology. Asafo
is believed to have originated from akom - a ritual dance and performance - in which divine entities including the
abosom are invoked for various purposes such as healing diseases, preventing misfortune, protecting, and defending
the community from foreign aggression.
The first persons who were taught akomfodze i.e. things pertaining to akom by mbowatsia or nkaatsia (dwarfs) was
an obombofo (hunter) and his son.
Aggrey writes: The dwarfs, through the intercession of various deities, were able to empower the priests/priestesses
to victory in many ways. In times of need as well as during war the people would consult the priests/priestesses.
Therefore intimes of distress everybody made it an imperative to partake in this religious practice through which
consolation from the Creator could be derived.
It is evident that religion became a focal point of unity especially in times of war when the stability and life of the
community were threatened. It was through this united action to avert conflicts and to secure the prosperity of the
community that consolidated the people into a united force of asafo with religion or akomfodze as their backbone.
An exhibition of the religious origins of asafo is also seen in the indispensable role that religion plays in their
organization and activities. Every asafo has a priest/ priestess (komfo) whose duty is to propitiate the gods of the
company and provide protective medicine (edur) for the men.
The ahenpa asafo of Abakrampa has its own bosom (deity) which is the asafo okyen (drum) itself called Ekyen
Kweku, with its own komfo. However, since there has not been any successor to the late komfo, the oman komfo
performs for the asafo. Again, the intertwined relationship between the asafo and the oman becomes evident. There
is also the belief that other asafo insignia such as stool and abaa (whip) are themselves abosom and thus can get
people possessed and make them their akomfo. The okomfo always moves with the asekanmba wing of the asafo
who lead and pave the way for the company in all endeavors.
The presence of the priest/ priestess is paramount and indeed a prerequisite in any asafo move since he/she has to
survey the path and counteract any magical medicine planted on the route by an enemy/ opponent. Also, whenever
the need for any ritual arises, be it preventive, propitiatory, fortificatory etc, the okomfo would move ahead of the
whole asafo and perform the required ceremonies before they advance. Another principal religious object of the
asafo is the monument or edifice variously called esiw, iban or posuban18 where the obosom, or okyen and other
asafo insignia are stored. As a religious centre or the shrine the posuban harbours the souls of those living (as
opposed to the souls of the dead which reside in blackened stools) in the Abakrampa community. A most essential
component of the posuban is an iron sword, supe, implanted in akyekyerebon (tortoise shells) on top of the esiw.
The supe protects, detects and neutralizes any evil medicine (edur) that an enemy might attempt to inflict on the
asafo.
Brigid M. Sackey
13
The argument is however, based on the supposition that patrilinealism was foreign to indigenous society, and this
cannot seriously be maintained in view of the other cases of patrilinealism we find among the coastal and interior
Akans. Among the Fante, for instance, there are certain categories of people like the abrafo (executioners) to which
one belongs through the father's line and, more important still, membership of various Fante cults is inherited
patrilineally (egyabosom). Corresponding to the Fante egyabosom are the patrilineal ntoro groupings among the
Asante. To be valid, therefore, the argument would have to be developed into a grand diffusionist theory with the
following line of reasoning:
The Akans were originally exclusively matrilineal. The Europeans brought certain notions of patrilineal succession
with them to the Gold Coast. The coastal Akans borrowed patrilineal ideas from the Europeans, but, instead of using
them to replace the traditional matrilineage (ebusua), they developed them, in their own way, notably through the
asafo system, the abrafo and various patrilineal cults (egyabosom). Later, certain inland Akan people, including the
Asante, copied these ideas, to a varying extent and in various forms, either straight from the Europeans or from the
coastal people. This would be an impressive theory but there is, in fact, no evidence at all that could uphold it. The
temptation to explain the basically patrilineal asafo with reference to European contact probably comes from the fact
that we are not accustomed to seeing a system of double descent in which the same person can be a member of two
different descent groups (matrilineal and patrilineal) for separate purposes.
Yet, a system of this kind exists in a number of societies, including those of the Herero of South-West Africa and the
Yak of Nigeria. If we remember this, we shall realize that there is nothing peculiar about the asafo being patrilineal
in a society whose kinship system is basically matrilineal.
A second argument relating to European influence on the asafo depends on the fact that the importance of the system
gradually diminishes as one moves from the coast into the interior. On the coast, where European influence has been
strong, the asafo system is elaborate in terms of the number of individual companies, the number of offices attached
to them, such things as their flags, emblems and uniforms, and their functions in various fields. In traditional states
away from the coast, where European influence has been less strongly felt, the companies are fewer in number, have
fewer offices, are less elaborate in their paraphernalia, and are generally of more limited significance, especially in
the political field.
Youth Participation
The administration of the Oman is based upon the operation of a number of political units, both traditional and
modern. In the villages, the matrilineage head is generally responsible for settling disputes among members and for
representing them in dealing with members of other matrilineages. In the town, however, these tasks are more often
performed by officers of the Asafo companies.
Robert W. Wyllie
14
the asafo's involvement which moulded the disparate elements of
the Accra crowd into a highly effective opposition movement. Although the asafo
emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns, in rural areas. There, the asafo took
action against corrupt chiefs and attempted to establish its constitutional role in
the process of enstoolment and destoolment and its right to council seats for
commoner representatives.
Dominic Fortescue
a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes

in an urban environment. Analysis of the ceremony, known as Aboakyer
("the catching of an animal"), shows it to be congruent with
the sociocultural system of which it is part
Robert W. Wyllie

the asafo's involvement which moulded the disparate elements of
the Accra crowd into a highly effective opposition movement. Although the asafo
emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns, in rural areas. There, the asafo took
action against corrupt chiefs and attempted to establish its constitutional role in
the process of enstoolment and destoolment and its right to council seats for
commoner representatives.
Dominic Fortescue

Anshan Li
"The Chief, Elders and the Asafo" (Ohen na ne mpanyinfo na Asafo), was a traditional political or courtly statement
which reiterated the pride of place of the Asafo in the political structure. They constituted the "third estate" without
which no indigenous or traditional form of government was possible or properly constituted. As the "young men" or
commoners, the Asafo formed the majority, the essential and the most articulate part of the Oman or state.
Cape Coast in all had seven of these Asafo companies. The Asafo had its own chiefs, elders and other lesser officers.
The Tufuhen was the supreme head of all the Asafo companies in a state or town. He was next in rank after the
Omanhen; and represented the companies on the Oman Council. The Tufuhen was responsible for the general
conduct of all the Asafo companies. The position of the Tufuhen had a stool attached to it and was inherited through
15
the female line of the Kwamina Edu family. It was as such, the preserve of a particular family in the state. The Supi
was the overall head of a particular Asafo company. Under the Supi were Asafohen. Every Asafo had within it sub-
sections; and these were under the Asafohen.They had responsibility for the discipline of their respective groups
within the company. The Asafohen held consultation with the Supi and gave out orders to the rank and file. The
lesser officers included the kyerema (drummer), frankaakitanyi (flagbearer), asikanbahen, bombaa (whipper) and the
asafo komfo (priest/ priestess).
The Role of Alcohol - in the 1905 conflict between the Anaafo and Ntsin
Kwaku Nti
The same belief inspired the demonstration after Welman's enquiry effectively
rejected the asafo's claim to a constitutional role within Accra. Furious at British intervention
in what they regarded as an asafo affair, they asked the Colonial Office how "strangers" could understand
customary procedure better than they, particularly as the Ga had no "rules and regulations" governing destoolment.
The Accra government, they charged, in language bound to alarm Whitehall, was destroying "native institutions."
Dominic Fortescu
In peace time the asafo functioned mainly as a collective for sports and entertainment,
and for the mobilization of young men for hunting and communal labor. Authority disseminated
from above; in 1927 the Omanhene Akuamoah Boaten compared the organization to the "feudal system in England
under the Normans." In accordance with the general Akan constitutional model, the Kwahu commoners were
supposed to play the role of sleeping partners in political affairs. Candidates to chiefly office were nominated
by the royal family, elected by the council of elders, and then presented to the people, whose consent
was required to make the election valid.
Jarle Simensen

Seth Tweneboah

of that town for help in time of emergency, and, a few years later, Meredith could write of Elmina that: 'The
inhabitants are divided into parties for their mutual defence, called companies; each company has its captain; and the
whole is under the command of one man. There were apparently eight companies at that time; the wards, at any rate,
were in 1816 referred to as Ankobia (Ankobeafo), Arjemfoe (Akyemfo), Cudjofoe (Nkodwofo), Panjafoe
16
(Wombirfo), Abesie (Abesefo) Abadie (Alatabanfo), Enjampan (Anyampafo), and Akranpafoe (Akrampafo); a
modern spelling is in parenthesis.
One striking way in which the details of the system revealed for the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
differ from those of the mid-nineteenth century is in the number of companies or wards. In the case of Cape Coast,
we find the names Bentsir, Lower Town (Anaafo), Ntsin and Nkum, applied to wards in 1789 and 1803, being used
for companies in 1859 but with three additions, Brofomba, the Volunteers (Akrarnpa) and Amanfor; and this
increase may have been due in part to wards and companies not coinciding with each other completely and in part to
the creation of new companies.
Brofomba - the company of the artificers or 'builders of the castle'- was in a somewhat similar position. The
Europeans had in their castles a number of African labourers who were often referred to as 'castle slaves', although
they received pay and often had definite rights. These servants had close links with the towns and often resided there
when off duty, most likely living in groups of their own, for some of them had originated in other parts of West
Africa and were without local roots. Many of them had, by the early nineteenth century, learned in the forts such
skills as those of carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, coopers, sawyers, and stonemasons, and could practise them
on their own account in their spare time. In the case of Cape Coast, it is likely that it was members of this group that,
with the growth of British administration in the course of nineteenth century, eventually became sufficiently
numerous and prominent to form a separate company, Brofomba.
The Cape Coast Asafo Company Riot of 1932

Stanley Shaloff
F. W. Applegate in the Eastern Province,
who denounced the asafo system as "democracy gone mad,"
and Harry Scott Newlands in Ashanti, who condemned
it as "mob rule."
Asafo Companies in Akan States

The history, organisation and place of the 'third estate'- the Asafo - in Akan states has been relatively well
documented. Generally, the Asafo in Akan states are localised patrilineal military bands which perform both war-
time and peace-time functions.They are composed of young men who do not hold political office but are nonetheless
influential in the political and social system of the societies in which they exist. Invariably, the Asafo in an Akan
village, town, or state operate within the "framework of competitive coexistence" and this has on occasion
degenerated into open clashes. Even though Asafo companies in Akan states, excluding the Fante states, were not
originally openly assigned political roles and they did not in fact play any such roles except in defence of the realm,
they came to be openly involved in local and, to some extent, national politics during the inter-war period. In this
respect they sometimes acted on their own or in concert with the politically conscious and western educated
Africans, especially lawyers in the coastal towns, to agitate their grievances.

Stanley Shaloff

In British administrative correspondence it appears as an equivalent to young men,
a direct translation of the Twi word mmerante. Commoners were, and are here,
17
often referred to collectively as asafo.
Jarle Simensen

Robert W. Wyllie
Asafo and Christianity:

Conflicts and Prospects
The first persons who were taught akomfodze
i.e. things pertaining to akom by mbowatsia or nkaatsia (dwarfs) was an obombofo (hunter) and his son.
Therefore intimes of distress everybody made it an imperative to partake in this religious practice through which
Brigid M. Sackey

Each Ga town sought to attract settlers, and the asafo organization, borrowed from the coastal Fanti sometime in the
eighteenth century, provided a place for all able-bodied men and women in Ga society. Strangers who fought in
defense of the town, irrespective of how humble their social origins might be, gained a place as citizens of the man.
The leadership in war of the Alata mantse (Ga: king or chief), a stool created by the British for a non-Ga, Wetse
Kojo, led to the primacy of the Alata mantse in English Accra.
18
The nineteenth century, which witnessed several Ga military engagements, reinforced the equation between military
participation and citizenship in Ga society for outsiders and the links between military and political leadership.
Military service in defense of the town was so valued in Ga society that it even transformed the nature of slavery.
The asafo incorporated all able-bodied men, including those of servile origins. Solidarity was crucial if the asafo was
to function as a viable military unit. Thus even slaves who fought in the asafo were guaranteed social incorporation.
Commoners with proven military skills rose to leadership positions in the asafo and in the community. Servitude
was pervasive in Ga society in the mid-nineteenth century with "relatively poor farmers, fishermen, or female
traders often owning one or two slaves." John Parker points to an "unusual degree of solidarity" among the asafo,
slaves and office holders generated by Ga wars of the 1860s.
In 1872, a Ga widow, Anna Maria Lutterodt of Osu, decided to sell some of the slaves she had inherited from her
deceased husband, a Danish merchant and plantation owner named George A. Lutterodt. Osei Tutu recounts that
"After she had sold thirty-three of the slaves the Akomfode [asafo] company of Osu took up the case of the slaves
with the support of their mantsemei (Ga: chiefs), they declared Anna's warrior slaves 'free' and they beat a gong-
gong to that effect."
According to Aiku, an Osu linguist who gave evidence when Anna Lutterodt filed a legal suit, "When [the Osu
people] went to war some years ago all these people [Anna's slaves] helped the war. They were at the war twice [the
Anlo wars of 1866 and 1869]. And that is the reason for beating the gong-gong." The need for the constant defense
of Ga society and its interests led to the valorization of martial skills and an emphasis on physical training and
fitness. This is also evident among the Fanti asafo, and appears to be a common feature even in Western societies
dependent on conscription or a large standing army. The cessation of warfare in colonial Gold Coast would channel
Ga martial skills into avenues unique even in the history of the asafo in the Gold Coast.

Emmanuel Akyeampong.

The ahenpa asafo of Abakrampa has its own bosom (deity) which is the asafo okyen (drum) itself called Ekyen
Kweku, with its own komfo. However, since there has not been any successor to the late komfo, the oman komfo
performs for the asafo. Again, the intertwined relationship between the asafo and the oman becomes evident. There
is also the belief that other asafo insignia such as stool and abaa (whip) are themselves abosom and thus can get
people possessed and make them their akomfo. The okomfo always moves with the asekanmba wing of the asafo
who lead and pave the way for the company in all endeavors.
Brigid M. Sackey
The asafo company therefore took on
the responsibility of guarding their interests and became
the main instrument for mass political action
in the southern Ghana.
19
Anshan Li
A colonial official pointed out in 1887: The Colonial Government

while destroying the power of the chiefs has left the company organization intact;
and the captains of the companies now arrogate to themselves an independence
and freedom from restraint which formed no part of the original scheme.
Anshan Li
The Asafohen held consultation with the Supi and gave out orders
to the rank and file. The lesser officers included the kyerema (drummer),
frankaakitanyi (flagbearer), asikanbahen, bombaa (whipper)
and the asafo komfo (priest/ priestess).
Kwaku Nti
Safohen-lieutenants heading divisions within the Asafo companies. Supi-leader of an Asafo company. Tuafo-literally
"leading body"; one of the two Asafo companies (see also Dentsifo). Tufuhene-commander-in-chief of the Asafo
system; normally a member of Tuafo. Zongos-wards in Winneba occupied by Moslem people. The Effutu are a
Guan-speaking people who share many of the social and political institutions of the neighboring Twi-speaking Akan
tribes.
Robert W. Wyllie
"Come and Try"

Towards a History of Fante Military Shrines
The arts of the traditional military companies of the Fante, called asafo, are best known through the profusion of
applique flags (frankaa) which were discussed most recently on these pages by Kwame Labi (2002), and considered
elsewhere through the enormously popular traveling exhi bition/publication Asafo!: African Flags of the Fante
(Adler and Barnard 1992). The latter project was so popular, in fact, that it has led to asafo flags becoming one of
the most frequently faked of all Ghanaian art forms, right up there in the pantheon of duplicity with Akua'ba.
As has been detailed in multiple anthropological and historical studies, the asafo (sa, war, and fo, people) were the
warrior groups or armies of the traditional Akan states. With their military roles almost fully usurped by the
administration of the Brit ish Gold Coast Colony beginning in 1872, the asafo were forced to redirect their energies.
This they did with considerable success, and they thrive today as potent social and civic organiza tions with
significant political, ritual, and performance roles in most Fante states. Depending on whom you read, there are from
seventeen to twenty-four traditional Fante states (Christensen 1954:14 lists nineteen) with up to fourteen asafo
companies per state.
A posuban may be materially defined by something as simple as a cane-fenced tree and/or a sacred mound or rock
designating a god, typically covered with the shell of a giant marine turtle . It is generally assumed that both the cane
fence and the turtle shell provide protection for the gods,
20
The retired drums of this company, which are considered sacred, are housed on the bottom level, while the active
drums and gongs are stored on the second level. The hand holding a sword at the top of the shrine represents a
common Akan proverb, "Without the thumb, the hand is nothing," which in this instance acknowledges the chief of
the state.
Many of these shrines are in fact somewhat self-documenting, with their identity proclaimed in inscrip tions on
their facades. At the bare mini mum the writing contains the name and number of the company and the town in
which it is located. In addition, it fre quently includes the date it was originally "outdoored" (ceremonially revealed
to the public for the first time), often a date of renovation and, on many shrines, a declaration of the cost of
construction. Company mottoes and the names of important asafo leaders past and present may also be inscribed.
Regardless of scale and configuration, each posuban is multi functional and serves as a locale for at least one of its
respective company's gods and as a site for ritual sacrifices and offer ings. It is also embraced as a locus of company
activities and comes into play during installations of company officers, dur ing funerals of its members, and in the
observation of a variety of festivals. Larger shrines might also serve as storage areas for sacred drums, gongs, flags,
and other asafo regalia, while the
"Come and Try"
Towards a History of Fante Military Shrines
Doran H. Ross
The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

the matrilineal clan or abusua. These clans, which vary in size from thirty

Brigid M. Sackey
Therefore in times of distress everybody made it an imperative to partake in this religious practice through which

At the same time, the entry of the two companies into ritual relationship emphasizes the dualism in Effutu social
structure. It stresses the fundamental cleavage which patrilinearity forces through groupings organized upon the
matrilineal principle and which is a source of strain in the framework of allegiances, duties, rights, and obligations.
Such strains and tensions are manifested most clearly in inheritance disputes and litigations in which the claims of a
man's wife and children often conflict with those of members of his matrilineage.
Robert W. Wyllie
21
a man gets his first gun from his father and inherits the latter's protective charm against dangers in war. The
Fante, however, maintain that the operation of the patrilineal principle in the asafo system is never absolute, so that,
in certain circumstances, a man may join his mother's asafo. Further, it is matrilineal succession that is the rule for
the office of the tufohen, the supreme head of the companies in a state, in such traditional states as Oguaa (Cape
Coast), Anomabo, Abura, Ekumfi and Mankesim; and, likewise, the office of the head of an individual company
(supi) and that of the officer next in rank (safohen) can often be vested in a matrilineage. It therefore seems that,
essentially, the patrilineal principle is more pronounced in the practice of ordinary members joining their fathers'
asafo company than in the mode of succession to higher offices.
with the advent of the Pax Britannica, and, therefore, asafo companies can have no opportunity of participating in a
fight involving the whole 3man. In the past, however, fighting on behalf of the community was the most important
function of the asafo.

Akrampa was the company of the mulattos, not only in Cape Coast, but wherever it appeared. Mulattos had long
been in evidence on the coast and had sometimes risen to prominence, the most notable example being Edward
Barter around 1700, but it seems that, by 1803, they were not yet considered to be one of the constituent parts of
Cape Coast; they did, however, form an important group in the town by that year and were even demanding that the
British accord them greater recognition of their special status, a recognition that they claimed had already been won
by the Elmina mulattos.
numerous and prominent to form a separate company, Brofomba. It seems, then, that both Akrampa and Brofomba
came to be more fully accepted into the town system of Cape Coast in the period between 1803 and 1859. Their
formal recognition-and Amanfor's too-may have come when all the companies of the town were assigned a number
by, it seems, early-nineteenth-century British administrators.
22
coastal people. This would be an impressive theory but there is, in fact, no evidence at all that could uphold it. The
temptation to explain the basically patrilineal asafo with reference to European contact probably comes from the fact
that we are not accustomed to seeing a system of double descent in which the same person can be a member of two
different descent groups (matrilineal and patrilineal) for separate purposes.
Yet, a system of this kind exists in a number of societies, including those of the Herero of South-West Africa and the
Yak of Nigeria. If we remember this, we shall realize that there is nothing peculiar about the asafo being patrilineal
in a society whose kinship system is basically matrilineal.
The argument therefore suggests that European influence on the asafo has been strong, and, indeed, that the whole
system could have emerged as a result of the European impact on coastal societies. We feel that this argument is
valid with reference to strong European influence, but that it certainly does not prove a European origin for the
system as a whole.

The Role of Alcohol in the 1905 conflict between the Anaafo and Ntsin
By and large, the origins of this institution and its development as an organized body has come to be associated with
the Fante. Among the Fante, the Asafo played an important part in the social and political life. All towns and villages
in the Fante area had one or more such Asafo units which were also referred to as "Companies". The Asafo was a
patrilineal organization. A child belonged to the father's company. And being a fundamentally military or para-
military organization, men, and particularly young men, were most prominent. Thus, in some documents and works
the Asafo were referred to as "young men", " mbrantse " or "hotheads". However, women and the elderly men also
formed an important part. The term "young men" was used to distinguish them from the ruling class.
23
The Role of Alcohol in the 1905 conflict between the Anaafo and Ntsin
Kwaku Nti
performed by officers of the Asafo companies.
Robert W. Wyllie

It was through this united action to avert conflicts and to secure

the prosperity of the community that consolidated the people into a united force of asafo
with religion or akomfodze as their backbone. An exhibition of the religious origins of asafo is
seen in the indispensable role that religion plays in their organization and activities. Every asafo
has a priest/ priestess (komfo) whose duty is to propitiate the gods of the company
and provide protective medicine (edur) for the men.
Brigid M. Sackey

There seem to be two schools of thought seeking to explain the origin of the asafo: J. S. Wartemberg and Kwame
Arhin consider that it was in some way connected with the European presence on the Gold Coast, but there are other
writers who suggest an entirely indigenous development.
Wartemberg, a native of Elmina, states that the asafo came into existence as a result of the Fante-Asante wars, when
'the able-bodied men in the towns and villages of Elmina were organized, with the assistance of the Dutch, into
24
military groupings which became known as Asafo companies, for defence of civic interests'. He goes on to say that
the asafo organization originated in Asebu and that it was introduced into Elmina from there; at first, he says, Elmina
had only one company, but later this was split into several units on the basis of localities.
Kwame Arhin thinks that the asafo companies on the coast might have 'had their origins in the "armed retainers"
who ... gathered around certain merchants for protection and security in the uncertain periods of the slave trade', and
that the captains of such companies might have had 'their roots in the centuries of economic relations with the
European traders, in the local merchants who had been able to acquire wealth and built up independent "centres of
power" '. Arhin adds, 'It seems remarkable that the headships of these companies were patrilineally inherited and that
the companies were located in separate quarters of the town, thus cutting across matrilineages, the basis of Akan
social organization.' Exponents of the second school of thought are Ellis, Brown, Christensen, and the co-authors
Annobil and Ekuban. Ellis, a colonial officer writing late in the nineteenth century, held that the asafo 'dates from
very remote times'.
Nearer our own time, the Fante scholar E.J.P. Brown was more explicit, for he believed that the asafo was 'instituted
by the MfantsiAkan tribes'; he did, however, try to show that the Cape Coast companies Brofomba, Akrampa and
Amanfor came into existence as a result of the settlement of Europeans-and of Africans brought in by them-at Cape
Coast; and he implied that there was a similar development at Elmina. Brown was therefore putting forward the
view that, although the asafo was basically an indigenous system, certain parts of it had emerged under the impact of
the European presence on the coast.
The American anthropologist, Christensen, writing in 1954, reached the conclusion that the asafo was 'an outgrowth
of the military tradition of the Akan, and not a copy of the European military pattern'. Essentially the same view is
expressed by Annobil and Ekuban, who state that 'the many wars in which our ancestors took part gave birth to the
institution of asafo'.
Of all these writers, however, only Arhin and, to some extent, Brown, attempt to bring historical evidence to bear on
the question, and they, we feel, do not go far enough-hence the historical investigation that follows.

The Role of Alcohol

Kwaku Nti

At the beginning of this century, John Mensah Sarbah and Arthur Ffoulkes both produced works on the asafo system
which show that, in essentials, it was then much the same as it is today. It had, moreover, apparently not altered
25
much since the middle of the nineteenth century, for Sarbah himself adopted, without modification, a description of
the system at Cape Coast in 1859 to explain its characteristics in his own day.
And Cruickshank's account, written in 1853, confirms that the system was fully developed by that time and indicates
that it was widespread along the coast. The term asafo was, however, apparently not a part of English usage until it
was introduced to a literate public through the works of Reindorf and Sarbah; the former used it with regard to the
Ashanti 'bands', and it was Sarbah who established its modern usage. It is not possible to say how long the term had
been in use among the Fantes themselves, although we have found it translated as 'a soldier' in a word list of 1676.
There is also no doubt that, as with the asafo in later times, the town soldiers did figure prominently in town affairs.
There are some difficulties with regard to the use of the word 'companies' in the later eighteenth century. If we are to
consider each company as being made up of the inhabitants-or for fighting purposes, the younger men-of a particular
ward, as is often the case in later times, it is necessary to explain references we have found to five Cape Coast
companies in 1757 and to ten Anomabo companies in 1782, for Cape Coast had apparently only four wards at that
time and even today Anomabo has only seven. The answer may be that, at Cape Coast, the mulatto volunteers were
considered a company for fighting purposes though having no ward of their own, while the 'Anomabo' companies of
1782 may well have come from different parts of the Fante state of which Anomabo was then, in European eyes, the
most considerable town. Regarding the latter case, the same may have been true in 1777, when 'all the different
companies of soldiers from Annamaboe' were said to be present at Cudjoe's funeral, for, among his other offices,
Cudjoe had held the position of 'captain' over the whole Fante state.
It is possible, however, that, in some cases, the word 'company' was used in the European sense of a body of men
forming part of an army, and in such cases it may have had no direct reference to asafo organization. These
references to the Anomabo or Fante companies suggest that the asafo system was not confined to Cape Coast at this
time, and they are supported by a reference we have found to 'a few of the principal captains of soldiers', evidently
tufohenfo, along the Gold Coast in 1787, being numbered among the most powerful men.
We have not found, in any of the authorities, an explicit statement showing the existence of a company or ward
system in the earlier periods, but certain characteristics of coastal society, persistently referred to in contemporary
accounts, indicate that some clearly recognizable form of the system was in existence by the mid-seventeenth
century. There is, indeed, reason to believe that the system was very much older than this, that it was in existence in
the Portuguese period, if not before, but a failure to find conclusive documentary evidence means that we cannot be
certain. The fact that no author treating the Gold Coast before the nineteenth century seems to have described the
system may be an indication that it was then a less prominent feature of society-at any rate in European eyes-than in
more modern times.

man's wife and children often conflict with those of members of his matrilineage.
26
tufohenfo, along the Gold Coast in 1787, being numbered among the most powerful men. There is, however, a
general lack of information about the extent of the system in this period, less even than for the earlier periods to be
discussed below.
the creation of new companies. The explanation for the omission of Amanfor from the earlier lists may simply be
that that village, lying as it does nearly one mile from the centre of Cape Coast, was not yet considered part of the
town; but the cases of Akrampa and Brofomba require fuller treatment. Akrampa was the company of the mulattos,
not only in Cape Coast, but wherever it appeared. Mulattos had long been in evidence on the coast and had
sometimes risen to prominence, the most notable example being Edward Barter around 1700, but it seems that, by
1803, they were not yet considered to be one of the constituent parts of Cape Coast; they did, however, form an
important group in the town by that year and were even demanding that the British accord them greater recognition
of their special status, a recognition that they claimed had already been won by the Elmina mulattos.


Dominic Fortescue
According to M. J. Field (1940, 168), the Ga copied the system from the Fanti before the beginning of the nineteenth
century. A system of organising the men of a town or coastal city state for military purposes, young men joined their
father's company as soon as they could use a gun. An elaborate hierarchy of military officers led the asafo, and each
company zealously maintained and protected its flags and drums and enthusiastically sang and danced to its
particular songs. The seven quarters of Accra each supported their own companies, organised as age-grades,
commanded by three asafoatsemei, or captains, who answered, in turn, to a sipi and an akwason, who headed all the
companies within a particular quarter. The companies of all quarters came under the akwasontse, the supreme
military commander for the whole of Accra.
27
- Abraham Akrong
a brief summary of the traditional form of government as a background is necessary. The southern part of the
Gold Coast is comprised of approximately one hundred native states, varying in population from two thousand to
over two hundred thousand. The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is the matrilineal clan or abusua.
These clans, which vary in size from thirty to several hundred adults, theoretically or actually trace their ancestry
back to a common ancestress. The abusua observes collective responsibility, owns land in common, and participates
as a group in religious ritual. Each native state, or oman, is composed of a number of these clans and the land they
own. At the head of each native state was the paramount chief, or omanhene, chosen from a clan designated as the
royal family. It was the privilege of this particular abusua to supply the leader of the state. There are several chiefs,
or ohen, in each state, a chief being a person who occupies an ancestral stool. A "stool" in the Gold Coast may be
equated with the European concept of the throne, with the stool of the omanhene being supreme to all others in the
state.

In former times he was, in addition, a military leader. Assisting the paramount chief in affairs of state were the
"queen mother," who was chosen from the royal family, and the chiefs and elders of the state. Since the omanhene
was the military as well as the political and religious head, the clans were further divided into sections or divisions
on the basis of the positions occupied on the battlefield. At the head of each of these divisions was a sectional or
divisional chief who was a close advisor of the paramount chief. Though the chiefs, and particularly the omanhene,
were accorded a great deal of authority under the customary law of the Akan, they were by no means autocrats. A
system of checks and balances was present in the political structure that ensured the commoner a voice in his
government.
their culture has made it necessary for them to be cognizant of, and propitiate, several spirits and deities
simultaneously. To the African, the acceptance of a new deity does not necessarily mean negation of the old. It is
rather to be regarded as added insurance. The African tradition is not one of mutually exclusive gods or deities.
for there is virtually no aspect of Akan culture that is not inextricably linked with, or sanctioned by, either the nature
deities or ancestral spirits. The annual ceremonies, as well as those observed when the need is indicated, are believed
to promote the well-being of the entire state. A number of requests are made concerning fecundity, prosperity, health
and protection, to name a few. To ignore these rituals is believed to result in the visitation of sickness and ill-fortune
on the people.
The paramount chief was required to consult his advisors on all matters of state, and each councilor in turn would
meet with the elders of his own lineage to obtain their opinion. The elders in turn were to voice the wishes of the
people they represented. Major issues would be discussed at a meeting of the entire state, where any person,
28
commoner or chief, could state his views. It was not a matter of voting and letting the majority rule on such
occasions, but rather issues would be discussed until a course of action was agreed upon. Due to his closeness to the
omanhene, a clan chief occasionally felt his interests were more closely allied to the royal elite than to his clansmen
and might advise a course of action not favored by his followers. But the individual Akan was not easily
disenfranchised, and the social structure provided specific opportunities for him to voice dissent.
groupings from which the chiefs were excluded. In Ashanti, it was through the elected leader of the "young men," or
mmerante, that the commoners could speak if they were not in agreement with the omanhene and his advisors. As
long as a chief acted in accordance with customary law with respect to his personal conduct and the duties of his
office, he enjoyed the support of the state. However, if he deviated sufficiently to dissatisfy the people, he ran the
risk of "destoolment," or removal from office, with the alternative choice of abdication.

Due to the political climate at the time, it was virtually impossible to do research among the Africans without
listening to long discourses on political problems from many of the people. Equally significant, however, was a lack
of interest on the part of many Africans. Similarly, since they are vitally affected by recent developments, the subject
of changes in government was discussed at length by the Europeans. Before treating the question of change in the
native political structure resulting from Western political influence, a brief summary of the traditional form of
government as a background is necessary. The southern part of the Gold Coast is comprised of approximately one
hundred native states, varying in population from two thousand to over two hundred thousand.
The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is the matrilineal clan or abusua. These clans, which vary in size
from thirty to several hundred adults, theoretically or actually trace their ancestry back to a common ancestress. The
abusua observes collective responsibility, owns land in common, and participates as a group in religious ritual. Each
native state, or oman, is composed of a number of these clans and the land they own. At the head of each native state
was the paramount chief, or omanhene, chosen from a clan designated as the royal family. It was the privilege of this
particular abusua to supply the leader of the state. There are several chiefs, or ohen, in each state, a chief being a
person who occupies an ancestral stool. A "stool" in the Gold Coast may be equated with the European concept of
the throne, with the stool of the omanhene being supreme to all others in the state.
As a stool occupant, a chief is the earthly representative of the clan's ancestral spirits, and as such functions as a
religious as well as a political leader. In former times he was, in addition, a military leader. Assisting the paramount
chief in affairs of state were the "queen mother," who was chosen from the royal family, and the chiefs and elders of
the state. Since the omanhene was the military as well as the political and religious head, the clans were further
divided into sections or divisions on the basis of the positions occupied on the battlefield.
At the head of each of these divisions was a sectional or divisional chief who was a close advisor of the paramount
chief. Though the chiefs, and particularly the omanhene, were accorded a great deal of authority under the
customary law of the Akan, they were by no means autocrats. A system of checks and balances was present in the
political structure that ensured the commoner a voice in his government. The paramount chief was required to
consult his advisors on all matters of state, and each councilor in turn would meet with the elders of his own lineage
to obtain their opinion. The elders in turn were to voice the wishes of the people they represented. Major issues
would be discussed at a meeting of the entire state, where any person, commoner or chief, could state his views. It
was not a matter of voting and letting the majority rule on such occasions, but rather issues would be discussed until
29
a course of action was agreed upon. Due to his closeness to the omanhene, a clan chief occasionally felt his interests
were more closely allied to the royal elite than to his clansmen and might advise a course of action not favored by
his followers. But the individual Akan was not easily disenfranchised, and the social structure provided specific
opportunities for him to voice dissent.


Robert W. Wyllie

groupings from which the chiefs were excluded. In Ashanti, it was through the elected leader of the "young men," or
mmerante, that the commoners could speak if they were not in agreement with the omanhene and his advisors. As
long as a chief acted in accordance with customary law with respect to his personal conduct and the duties of his
office, he enjoyed the support of the state. However, if he deviated sufficiently to dissatisfy the people, he ran the
risk of "destoolment," or removal from office, with the alternative choice of abdication. In such a society the support
of the people was essential, for without their cooperation, both religious and financial, the chief could not fulfill his
obligations to the stool and the ancestors. Also, the people need not accept as a chief a man they do not favor. Thus
with the power to choose or remove a chief in the hands of the people, a wise leader did not go counter to their
wishes if he wanted to retain his position. An outstanding feature of Akan social structure is the authority and
prestige accorded to age.

on the people.
When the traditional leaders have agreed upon a date, they seek the concurrence of the District Commissioner, who
may veto their decision if some other important event is due to take place on the same date. Once the District
Commissioner's approval has been obtained, the Omanhene imposes a ban upon deer hunting which expires on the
morning of the Aboakyer.
The next step is for the District Commissioner, in consultation with the Omanhene, the Tufuhene, and the two
captains, to prepare lists of colors, regalia and other paraphernalia that may be used exclusively by each company
30
when they compete in a ritual deer hunt on the morning of the Aboakyer. Meticulous care is taken to avoid a
situation in which both companies appear using the same colors or other symbols, since this has been known to
spark off clashes between them during the ceremony. The Omanhene, the Tufuhene and the two captains are then
required to sign a bond agreeing to abide by the lists and to ensure against disturbances of the peace during the
ceremony.


structures of organization with its own bylaws. Indeed, the asafo was a well-structured
military organization that had its own flag, song, drums, horns, caps, emblems and
its own post, the rallying place of the company, where all its paraphernalia were kept.
This, without a doubt, was the asafo that existed
Seth Tweneboah

Robert W. Wyllie
The character of the Aboakyer

The Aboakyer is a seasonal ceremony of the type which Gluckman has termed "factitive," that is, ritual "which
increased the productivity or strength, or purified or protected, or in other ways increased the material well-being of
a group" and which embodied in it "the performance of prescribed actions by members of the congregation in terms
of their secular roles" (1962:23). The ostensible purposes of the Aboakyer are well understood by the principal
actors and general mass of participants, even though individuals are motivated to participate for a variety of reasons.
These puposes are alluded to pointedly and regularly in the course of the ceremony itself. They receive their most
direct expression when the company priest asks for "peace and prosperity to the land" or when those assembled in
the grove ask for water and for fish.
One of the most striking differences to be observed between the religious ceremonies of modern industrial and tribal
societies lies in the degree to which existing social relationships and roles are utilized on these occasions. This kind
of distinction has been clearly expressed by Gluckman (1962:20) who uses the term 'ritualization' to describe the
process, typical of tribal societies, whereby roles and relationships are worked into the rituals. In the Aboakyer we
see this ritualization at work in the way in which the population of the Oman is mobilized for the ceremony through
the integral involvement of the two Asafo companies. This succeeds in bringing together in a common ritual
endeavor members of various groups within the tribe. Absent sons and daughters return "home" for a reunion with
31
kinsmen; educated and uneducated alike take part in the ceremony; and members of different clans join together for
the hunt and the parade. In this way the unity of the tribe is emphasized as the linkages between its various
groupings are made explicit. Attachments to such groupings are submerged in the process of identification with the
Asafo and with the Oman as a whole.

man's wife and children often conflict with those of members of his matrilineage. They are evident also in the
problem of who should properly intervene in the settlement of these and other disputes between relatives, especially
in the town, where a man may shuttle between his Asafo company and his matrilineage in search of an authoritative
decision in his favor. Even in such matters as funeral arrangements, difficulties can arise in establishing the relative
priority of the claims to prominence of immediate offspring, Asafo company, matrilineage, and clan of the deceased.
The ritual participation of the companies, therefore, operates both to cloak social conflicts in a welter of collective
activity directed to a common goal and to exaggerate these conflicts in pitting kinsmen against kinsmen in ritual
contest. The Aboakyer unites a man with his fellows in a joint attempt to bring "peace and prosperity to the land,"
yet sets him against them in "mpiresi." This does not mean, of course, that the Aboakyer is a consciously worked out
arrangement for clarifying and reconciling conflicts arising out of the dualism of double descent, or that it is
believed to be such by those who participate in it. Despite the careful preparations made beforehand to minimize the
risks of intercompany conflict and despite the presence of persons having strong ties to both companies, the people
are well aware of the dangers of conflict inherent in the ceremony. When asked why the companies did not combine
to form one large hunting group on the occasion of the Aboakyer, they normally replied that it would allow no scope
for the expression of mpiresi and that interest in the hunt would probably die as a result.
Within the Oman the Asafo company is the most inclusive association and provides an important vehicle for others
than Effutu to participate in community affairs. Through its incorporation into the ceremony, it offers an opportunity
for people of various tribes, occupations, income groups, and other urban categories and associations to join in an
important communal venture. As the means of ritual mobilization of large numbers of people, the ritualization of the
Asafo cleavage contributes greatly to the creation of a mass ritual of an exciting and spectacular kind. Its mass
character is added to by an influx of thousands of visitors attracted by the spectacle of the hunt and the gaeity of the
festival, visitors whose presence has important repercussions for the community and for the Aboakyer itself.
Safohen-lieutenants heading divisions within the Asafo companies. Supi-leader of an Asafo company. Tuafo-literally
"leading body"; one of the two Asafo companies (see also Dentsifo). Tufuhene-commander-in-chief of the Asafo
system; normally a member of Tuafo. Zongos-wards in Winneba occupied by Moslem people. The Effutu are a
Guan-speaking people who share many of the social and political institutions of the neighboring Twi-speaking Akan
tribes.

Robert W. Wyllie
32
Historically, the Asafo company was a group of adult male warriors charged with the defense of the Oman. With the
disappearance of intertribal warfare, its military purpose was lost and its membership has been widened to include
women as well as men, children as well as adults, and non-Effutu as well as Effutu. The Omanhene and others of
royal lineage are also members of an Asafo company but are expected to take no active part in its affairs. Although it
still retains many of the trappings of a warlike group, the Asafo company is now most active in ceremonial affairs
and is, as we shall see, an important political force in the Oman.
Among the Effutu there are two companies, named Dentsifo ("main body") and Tuafo ("leading body"), each with
its headquarters in Winneba and branches in the villages of the Oman. Recruitment follows the patrilineal principle,
every Effutu at birth becoming a member of his father's company; non-Effutu join the company of their choice or
enter that of their father if he is already a member. While each company contains members of all five matriclans of
the Effutu, we find that members of the same family, household, matrilineage, or clan are rarely all of the same
Asafo company.
At the head of the Asafo system is a commander-in-chief (Tufuhene). Leading each company is a captain (Supi),
aided by lieutenants (Safohen) who command the divisions of the company. There are three divisions in each
company corresponding to clusters of patrilineages; a person joins not merely his father's Asafo company, but also
his father's division of the company. Each division is further subdivided into four sections, three of which are age
groups; the fourth is a more recent innovation and is open only to those who have had some formal schooling of a
Western kind. Offices within a company are succeeded to patrilineally, a man normally entering the office formerly
held by his father or his father's brother. Each company has a priest (Osow) who acts as an intermediary between
members and the company god (Obosom: plural, Abosom). Female members are organized into special dancing
groups, known as Adziwa, that have their own leaders.
Robert W. Wyllie

Stanley Shaloff
F. W. Applegate in the Eastern Province,
who denounced the asafo system as "democracy gone mad,"
and Harry Scott Newlands in Ashanti, who condemned
it as "mob rule."

This was especially true in a society which attached so much importance to corporate pride and company honor. As
John Mensah Sarbah has indicated, service to one's company was the "most indispensable duty of the citizen."
All but one of the seven Cape Coast asafo lived in separate numbered wards of the town, in which were to be found
their respective command posts, flag poles, ritual grounds, and judicial tribunals.
Ironically, Charles Edward Skene, who was responsible for the Central Province, reacted less hostilely than such
outspoken advocates of autocratic rule as F. W. Applegate in the Eastern Province, who denounced the asafo system
as "democracy gone mad," and Harry Scott Newlands in Ashanti, who condemned it as "mob rule."

The history, organisation and place of the 'third estate'- the Asafo - in Akan states has been relatively well
33
time and peace-time functions.They are composed of young men who do not hold political office but are nonetheless
influential in the political and social system of the societies in which they exist. Invariably, the Asafo in an Akan
village, town, or state operate within the "framework of competitive coexistence" and this has on occasion

Politics of Accra (Ghana) from the 17th to the 20th Century.
Written in a lively and engaging style and covering a period of nearly three centuries (ca.1680-ca.1950), it is a richly
detailed social and political history of young men and women, the asafobii, who formed commoner "sociomilitary
groups" (asafoi) in Accra towns. The asafoi were the institutions of the young men and women. How did they
function and in what ways did they change? How were they organized and who belonged to them? What was their
relationship to other religious and secular institutions in Accra/Ga society?
These and other questions are dealt with by the author as he describes and explains forms and patterns of
contestation and struggle in Accra political space and public life. He skillfully draws on the lives and careers of
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century asafo leaders, kings, chiefs, intellectuals, and politicians in order to explain
and define the urban and social politics of the asafo company system.
"'Negotiating' the Ga State: War, Space, Polity, and Custom, 1680-c.1800s") the decades between 1730 and the
early 1800s. Following the defeat and collapse of the centralized Ga kingdom in 1677-1680, Ga elites reconstituted a
decentralized, militaristic: Ga state in the Accra coastal towns where competing European trading companies
maintained their trading stations. The elites founded new quarters (akutsei) and these provided "a framework for
organizing and mobilizing the populations socially, politically, and militarily on the basis of patrilineal 'Houses,'
called shiai or weku" (p. 35). the Ga asafo system was a "mature" institution in the eighteenth century. It is
regularly referred to in Danish, Dutch, and English trading company records, especially in the second half of the
century.
"The Politics of Warfare: The Asafo System and the Development of the Ga State in the 19th Century") elaborates
on the theme that the political culture of the Ga polity was closely associated with warfare and that warfare required
the loyalty and services of an organized body of commoners, namely members of the asafoi.
Asafo members were active in public (political) affairs and events-important court trials, major military campaigns
(e.g., against an Asante army in 1826), the poll tax debacle of 1854, and in the 1872 legal dispute over the
citizenship status of slaves belonging to a plantation owner who opposed granting citizenship to any of them. An
asafo company won the case and "conferred" Accra citizenship on the slaves because of their wartime services to the
town. As the author makes clear, at the time of this dispute the companies were "an indispensable and recognized
popular institution in nineteenth century Ga towns" (p. 105). He goes on to say that in the course of the century the
influence of the Ga asafo spread well beyond the Ga towns into Akan- and Ewe-speaking areas.
The companies in general supported the authority of Ga judicial institutions against those of the colonial
government. Together, they championed the "collective interests of the Ga peoples" and defended "what in their
view was the rights of the poor people against any attempt to tax them" (p. 166). This placed them in opposition to
34
the "intellectuals." But in matters of land litigation the companies split according to the political rivalries among
office-holders in their towns.
From the late 1890s the colonial government began to apply pressure on the kings and office holders to cooperate. It
expected them to rely on the colonial coercive apparatus instead of on the asafoi in enforcing laws, to implement
colonial policy, and to disseminate information. The asafo leaders emerged to oppose the colonial policies and
measures they judged to be against the interests of "the people." Among the consequences of this position was the
political and social turmoil in Ga towns in the first quarter of the twentieth century. In particular asafo led "de-
stoolment" movements, i.e., the removal of office holders from their positions because they were no longer
defending "tradition" (e.g., mass meetings) and the collective interests of the people.
Politics of Accra (Ghana) from the 17th to the 20th Century.

Regarding European influence, we have seen how the Akrampa and Brofomba companies of Cape Coast and
Elmina, and the Amanfor company of Cape Coast, resulted from European-created situations on the coast. The
origin of the Alataban company of Elmina and the Alata company of Mouri is less clear, but since the Fante use the
word 'Alata' for the Yoruba and neighbouring peoples, a reasonable supposition is that these companies developed
from settlements of Yoruba and Benin immigrants who may have arrived in the course of the Benin and Ardra cloth
trade or the slave trade.
Youth Participation
asafo).
35
on the people.
- Abraham Akrong

Robert W. Wyllie

36
During a ceremonial turn-out, the men will be seen marching in military order in units called companies under
officers known as captains. All this, pertaining to the asafo, an institution which is found among all the Akan peoples
of coastal Ghana and some of those further inland, naturally makes one curious about its origin. Is it indigenous to
local society as the latter existed before the arrival of the Europeans? Or did it emerge under the impact of European
influence, which has increasingly been affecting societies on the Guinea coast since the second half of the fifteenth
century?
With regard to the Fante, the asafo system is the system of military bands which are organized in villages, towns and
traditional states, the membership of which is automatic and generally based on patrilineal succession. All towns and
large villages in Fanteland have one or more such asafo units, for which the English word 'company' is commonly
used,
In towns having several companies, the latter are distinguished from each other by the colour of their uniform
and flags, and by their emblems, either embroidered on flags or used separately, as well as by a special appellation
which is drummed as a form of greeting. Since the company system is essentially of a military or para-military
nature, men, and particularly young men, are most prominent in it.
Traditionally, members of a company tended to settle together in the particular part of a town where the company
post, including the abode of its principal god, had been established, and, given hostile relations between the various
companies of the same town, the resulting separation was probably a necessity.
a man gets his first gun from his father and inherits the latter's protective charm against dangers in war. The
Fante, however, maintain that the operation of the patrilineal principle in the asafo system is never absolute, so that,
in certain circumstances, a man may join his mother's asafo. Further, it is matrilineal succession that is the rule for
the office of the tufohen, the supreme head of the companies in a state, in such traditional states as Oguaa (Cape
Coast), Anomabo, Abura, Ekumfi and Mankesim; and, likewise, the office of the head of an individual company
(supi) and that of the officer next in rank (safohen) can often be vested in a matrilineage. It therefore seems that,
essentially, the patrilineal principle is more pronounced in the practice of ordinary members joining their fathers'
asafo company than in the mode of succession to higher offices.
The Role of Alcohol

Kwaku Nti
The Asafo, fundamentally, was a traditional military institution which represented the main means of organized
defense in time of war or attack. Considering its defensive connotation, it is reasonable to suggest that the Asafo idea
is as old as organized warfare.
By and large, the origins of this institution and its development as an organized body has come to be associated with
the Fante. Among the Fante, the Asafo played an important part in the social and political life. All towns and villages
in the Fante area had one or more such Asafo units which were also referred to as "Companies". The Asafo was a
patrilineal organization. A child belonged to the father's company. And being a fundamentally military or para-
military organization, men, and particularly young men, were most prominent. Thus, in some documents and works
the Asafo were referred to as "young men", " mbrantse " or "hotheads". However, women and the elderly men also
formed an important part. The term "young men" was used to distinguish them from the ruling class.
37
Together the main and the lesser officers worked to preserve the honour, pride and the spirit of the Asafo company
and ensured its survival. Besides its military duty, the Asafo had other roles. Politically, the Asafo had a say in the
enstoolment and destoolment processes of chiefs. During enstoolment, it was the Asafo that carried the chief-elect
shoulder-high and paraded him in a procession marked by drumming, singing and the firing of musketry. Because of
this role, the Asafo were very influential in the determination of candidates, even though they were not King makers.
In destoolments, they were entitled to lay complaints against the chief before the council of elders. In the event of
the chief being found guilty and sentenced to deposition, the execution of the order was the responsibility of the
Asafo.
The role of the Asaf in the enstoolment and the destoolment processes thus enhanced their influence over the chief.
Socially, the companies were also expected, in pre colonial times, to engage in police work; that is maintaining
peace and security in the markets and in building and construction works in their quarters. In the colonial era the
Asafo bore the brunt of the several ordinances enacted by the government to enforce public work. In emergencies
they were called upon without prior notice to enter the forest in order to capture a murderer, a highway robber, or to
search for a would-be suicide, or to hunt and kill any wild ravaging animal which had become a menace to the
community. The Asafo parades and turnouts in festivals and other traditional ceremonies added a lot of pomp and
glamour.
The Asafo institution like many others did not escape the impact of the European presence on the Gold Coast, which
spanned the period from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. It underwent a gradual transformation in composition,
leadership and orientation. One other factor which influenced the Asafo was the European trade. The Portuguese,
the French, the English, the Dutch, the Swedes, the Danes and the Brandenburgers came one after the other in search
of gold and slaves. In return they brought beads, metalware and cotton goods. Later, firearms, spirits and other
products of a more technically advanced economy were also introduced. Spirits or imported alcohol like all other
pre-colonial imports remained the preserve of the affluent and well placed. It was also linked with political power as
it frequently manifested on the list of presents to chiefs. Thus the free distribution of valuable imported rum came to
underscore the chiefs' generosity. Cape Coast became the focus of European activity from the middle of the
eighteenth century; and European liquor from the coastal trade (as other externally derived goods) became a visible
mechanism that stamped social differentiation
The Role of Alcohol

Kwaku Nti
38
This was especially true in a society which attached so much importance to corporate pride and company honor. As
John Mensah Sarbah has indicated, service to one's company was the "most indispensable duty of the citizen."
All but one of the seven Cape Coast asafo lived in separate numbered wards of the town, in which were to be found
their respective command posts, flag poles, ritual grounds, and judicial tribunals.
Ironically, Charles Edward Skene, who was responsible for the Central Province, reacted less hostilely than such
outspoken advocates of autocratic rule as F. W. Applegate in the Eastern Province, who denounced the asafo system
as "democracy gone mad," and Harry Scott Newlands in Ashanti, who condemned it as "mob rule."
Traditionally the tufohen was the next most powerful man after the omanhene of the Oguaa (Cape Coast) state, and
thus his position in Fante society was quite responsible. Nevertheless the tufohen remained, as J. E. Casely Hayford
and Mensah Sarbah have emphasized, a subordinate of the omanhene, to whom he was bound by an oath of
allegiance. In the context of colonial rule, the military role of the tufohen was obviously less significant than it had
been in the past. At the same time, the company commanders (supi) and their subordinate captains (safohen) had
been able to arrogate powers to themselves which were not theirs under the original constitutional scheme.
A significant question which concerns us here was the manner in which the tufohen was selected. No stool was
attached to the position, as was apparently the case with the safohen. Moreover, succession for the safohen seems to
have been through the male line, as deceased captains were often replaced by their eldest sons. The point of
contention regarding the tufohen was whether or not eligibility was determined on the basis of merit and popularity
or was exclusively a factor of birth.
The Role of Alcohol

Kwaku Nti
town; but the cases of Akrampa and Brofomba require fuller treatment. Akrampa was the company of the mulattos,
not only in Cape Coast, but wherever it appeared. Mulattos had long been in evidence on the coast and had
sometimes risen to prominence, the most notable example being Edward Barter around 1700, but it seems that, by
1803, they were not yet considered to be one of the constituent parts of Cape Coast; they did, however, form an
39
important group in the town by that year and were even demanding that the British accord them greater recognition
of their special status, a recognition that they claimed had already been won by the Elmina mulattos.
An increase in the Elmina companies was also occurring in the nineteenth century, the eight of 18I5 becoming ten in
later years. E. J. P. Brown draws a distinction between the seven early companies and the three modern ones,
including Akrampafo and Brofomba, 'which, strictly speaking, have no constitutional status in the Asafu system'.
The mulattos (Akrampafo) had, as we have seen, already achieved a status envied by the Cape Coast mulattos in
1803, and, by 1816, Akrampafo ranked as one of the town quarters. The artificers (Brofomba) could not have been
long in following them in this for, by 1811, they were said to have constituted one-tenth of the town's population.
The other modern Elmina company, Mbrawurafo (Maworefo), is, according to Brown, an offshoot of Akyemfo. It
can therefore be said, with some certainty, that at least the Akrampa and Brofomba companies arose out of European
contact with local society. But other companies, and indeed the system itself, clearly existed before the period just
discussed and it is necessary to pursue their history still further.

The southern part of the Gold Coast is comprised of approximately
one hundred native states, varying in population from two thousand to
over two hundred thousand. The basic unit in Akan social and political structure
is the matrilineal clan or abusua. These clans, which vary in size from thirty
Euro-African Commerce and Social Chaos:

Akan Societies in the Nineteenth and Twentiest Centuries
Kwasi Konadu, City University of New York
The young men or mancebos (Portuguese, youth, servant) were an important group within the Elminan quarters
or wards. They formed the core of the ward military (asafo) forces and the wards themselves, and ward and asafo
membership by way of a patrilineal principle, although most in Elmina were matrilineal, gave these non-
officeholders a chance to influence politics and realize their political aspirations.
40
the records from the 1650s until the 1720s; this is the existence of a body of men called the manceroes who had a
recognized role, and often considerable influence, in society. Such information as we possess about these men
suggests that they may reasonably be identified with asafo members, or, at least, with the more active elements
within the system. The word manceroes (or one of its variant forms) is often used in the records alongside or inter-
changeably with 'young men' and so, where we have found the latter term on its own but obviously being used in
this special sense, we have taken it to be a reference to the manceroes. We have also found 'bachelors' used as an
alternative to manceroes. It is likely that the word itself was derived from the Portuguese mancebo, youth, but
mbrantsie, the Fante word for young man, is also a possible source. A very significant similarity between asafo
members and manceroes, which helps in the identifying of one with the other, can be seen in military matters, for the
manceroes apparently constituted the fighting force of their community in time of war as the asafo companies have
done in more modern times.
The asafo, felt J. B. Danquah (1928, 17, 228), safeguarded the peoples' rights and gave them a "definite and popular
voice in the chieftaincy of the town." Destoolment was the commoners' ultimate sanction, and although the asafo's
precise role was questionable, several officials noticed the increased frequency of such actions and the asafo's
extensive involvement. Guggisberg noted: Bands of what are known as "young-men" are springing up everywhere,
dissatisfied with the patriarchal rule of the Chiefs and Councillors, leading to the destoolment of chiefs and local
disturbances among many Native States.
Dominic Fortescue
The asafo led the opposition to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance,

and unlike much asafo protest in rural areas, the Accra asafo remained entirely
independent of the coastal elite of whom they were intensely suspicious,
and for whom they had a considerable dislike.
on the people.
41
Youth Participation
The institution of Western form of governance has led to an obliteration of participatory development contrary to
popular discourses that it is good governance which has gifted Africa with participatory development.
However, it is now firmly established that it was common practice as far back as the 1620s to have youth
associations usually called the asafo taking active part in national development planning (Datta and Porter, 1971).
Admittedly, there were more formal arrangements for youth associations among the southern Akans and especially
among the Fantis of the coastal areas (Chazan, 1974). Although every individual was tied in a vertical relationship to
a hierarchy of chiefs in their political unit, horizontal ties among individuals in different units were established
mostly on clan basis (Finalay et. al., 1968). Within each political entity, the horizontal relationship which balanced
the kin-political ties and linked members together was the asafo or, as they were sometimes calledage associations or
war people. The asafo relationship counteracted, internally, the strength of kinship ties and gave individuals of
different lineages a common interest which assisted in fostering the solidarity of the state. (Chazan, 1974:168).
asafo).
Youth Participation
In the centralized savannah areas too, the asafo or age association never fully developed, although the youth were
co-opted for military and economic duties associated with the obligations of the young adult towards their polity
(ibid). The asafo companies were not part of the decision making about the policies to be formulated for the
traditional community. The elders and the chief formed the government and were jointly responsible for policy
making (Busia, 1968:10). The role of the asafo in the policy process was mainly to implement policies formulated
by the chief in consultation with his council of elders.
The indirect role played by the youth and the nature of the traditional power structure were accepted by the youth
themselves because of the African cultural and traditional values that place a higher premium on respect for the rule,
views and counsel of traditional institutions (Austin, 1964). More importantly, the council of elders, who were the
42
respective clan or family heads, represented and promoted the interest of the various clans or families to which the
youth also belonged in the chiefs palace. The elders in the chiefs palace were so powerful that the chief could not
ignore their advice. In turn, there was a strong sense of participation via representation. The youth felt that they
owned the decisions formulated by the chiefs and their council of elders (Chazan, 1974). Whenever these channels
of participation were either broken or corrupted, the chiefs and their elders stood the risk of losing their positions. In
some cases, the asafo companies disobeyed and openly criticized chiefs and elders and eventually removed some
chiefs from their position (Austin, 1964).
Thus the involvement of the youth, especially the asafo, predated colonialism but colonial influences greatly
transformed youth participation in national development. Colonialism, and in particular the indirect rule system,
unilaterally conferred extra powers on the chieftaincy institution in a way that made chiefs authoritarian. In turn, the
hitherto generally cordial relationship between the chiefs and the youth became strained. The respect accorded the
chiefs by the youth that compelled them to abide by chieftaincy rules and instructions dramatically diminished. This
discord was good for the colonizer as it further created divisions within the potential force for resistance. To the
colonizer, chiefs were mere conduits through which colonial policies were transmitted to the neglect of the youth in
the development process (Boahen, 1979).
Under the colonisers system of indirect rule, the British Governor and his District Commissioners made policies
and the role of chiefs was reduced to implementing them using their people, particularly the commoners or youth.
But the youth who had no formal role in the policy implementation process during the colonial period also did not
co-operate with their chiefs for allowing themselves to be used as a conduit for the transmission of colonial policies.
The colonial administrators, in turn, deliberately sidelined the asafo as the group seemed too radical (Chazan, 1974).
According to Shaloff (1974, p.592), they even called the activities of the asafo democracy gone mad (Shaloff,
1974, p.592).
Youth Participation

Robert W. Wyllie
At present, although inter-company fights are not common, there is often a strong element of rivalry in relations
between various companies of the same town or state; this manifests itself in the way members of one company will
provoke those of another by making oblique references, in songs and proverbs, to the past humiliations of the other
company. The competitive coexistence of companies may, indeed, be considered a basic feature of the modem asafo
system. However, despite the element of rivalry, open or covert, asafo companies of a town or state have become
integrated as a total entity through past co-operation against common enemies and through collective participation in
the installation of a new chief and the funeral of a dead one.
The unity of the total system is symbolized by the office of the tufohen, the supreme head of the entire asafo of a
town or state. The asafo, then, is a system of essentially patrilineal military bands, which are localized in their own
wards and now have mainly peace-time functions. The young men play a prominent part in its various activities. The
43
companies operate within a framework of competitive coexistence which occasionally degenerates into open
clashes, but, despite this, they together constitute a total system, headed in the town or state by the tufohen.
There seem to be two schools of thought seeking to explain the origin of the asafo: J. S. Wartemberg and Kwame
Arhin consider that it was in some way connected with the European presence on the Gold Coast, but there are other
writers who suggest an entirely indigenous development.
Wartemberg, a native of Elmina, states that the asafo came into existence as a result of the Fante-Asante wars, when
'the able-bodied men in the towns and villages of Elmina were organized, with the assistance of the Dutch, into
military groupings which became known as Asafo companies, for defence of civic interests'. He goes on to say that
the asafo organization originated in Asebu and that it was introduced into Elmina from there; at first, he says, Elmina
had only one company, but later this was split into several units on the basis of localities.
Kwame Arhin thinks that the asafo companies on the coast might have 'had their origins in the "armed retainers"
who ... gathered around certain merchants for protection and security in the uncertain periods of the slave trade', and
that the captains of such companies might have had 'their roots in the centuries of economic relations with the
European traders, in the local merchants who had been able to acquire wealth and built up independent "centres of
power" '. Arhin adds, 'It seems remarkable that the headships of these companies were patrilineally inherited and that
the companies were located in separate quarters of the town, thus cutting across matrilineages, the basis of Akan
social organization.' Exponents of the second school of thought are Ellis, Brown, Christensen, and the co-authors
Annobil and Ekuban. Ellis, a colonial officer writing late in the nineteenth century, held that the asafo 'dates from
very remote times'.
Nearer our own time, the Fante scholar E.J.P. Brown was more explicit, for he believed that the asafo was 'instituted
by the MfantsiAkan tribes'; he did, however, try to show that the Cape Coast companies Brofomba, Akrampa and
Amanfor came into existence as a result of the settlement of Europeans-and of Africans brought in by them-at Cape
Coast; and he implied that there was a similar development at Elmina. Brown was therefore putting forward the
view that, although the asafo was basically an indigenous system, certain parts of it had emerged under the impact of
the European presence on the coast.
The American anthropologist, Christensen, writing in 1954, reached the conclusion that the asafo was 'an outgrowth
of the military tradition of the Akan, and not a copy of the European military pattern'. Essentially the same view is
expressed by Annobil and Ekuban, who state that 'the many wars in which our ancestors took part gave birth to the
institution of asafo'.
Of all these writers, however, only Arhin and, to some extent, Brown, attempt to bring historical evidence to bear on
the question, and they, we feel, do not go far enough-hence the historical investigation that follows.

At the beginning of this century, John Mensah Sarbah and Arthur Ffoulkes both produced works on the asafo system
which show that, in essentials, it was then much the same as it is today. It had, moreover, apparently not altered
much since the middle of the nineteenth century, for Sarbah himself adopted, without modification, a description of
the system at Cape Coast in 1859 to explain its characteristics in his own day.
And Cruickshank's account, written in 1853, confirms that the system was fully developed by that time and indicates
that it was widespread along the coast. The term asafo was, however, apparently not a part of English usage until it
was introduced to a literate public through the works of Reindorf and Sarbah; the former used it with regard to the
44
Ashanti 'bands', and it was Sarbah who established its modern usage. It is not possible to say how long the term had
been in use among the Fantes themselves, although we have found it translated as 'a soldier' in a word list of 1676.
Going back to the late eighteenth century, we still have definite information, the records clearly revealing the
existence of a ward system, at any rate for Cape Coast, from the 1770s and 1780s. By that period, there were four
parts to the town, Bentsir, Lower Town (probably Anaafo), Ntsin and Nkum, and, following a serious dispute
between two of them in 1779-80, the familiar pattern of inter-ward strife begins to emerge from the records. It is also
clear that there was a tufohen, or his equivalent, in Cape Coast in the later eighteenth century, for it was said of
Captain Aggrey in 1780 that 'as he is general of the different companies of soldiers belonging to this town, he has
great power and command therein', and he was also referred to as 'captain-general of the town' and 'captain of the
black soldiers of this town'.
What is more, Aggrey's father, Brempon Cudjoe, may have been tufohen before him, for he was the most important
man in the town, and a military leader, without ever being the official ruler. And if, indeed, father and son did follow
each other as tufohen, this is an example of the patrilineal succession we particularly associate with the asafo
system, though not, it is true, normally with the office of tufohen. But to identify Aggrey as the tufohen would imply
that the 'black soldiers' under him were in fact asafo members, and this does indeed seem to have been the case: the
ward system was of such importance that it is difficult to envisage a powerful body of town soldiers other than as an
integral part of it-in the manner of the asafo.
There is also no doubt that, as with the asafo in later times, the town soldiers did figure prominently in town affairs.
There are some difficulties with regard to the use of the word 'companies' in the later eighteenth century. If we are to
consider each company as being made up of the inhabitants-or for fighting purposes, the younger men-of a particular
ward, as is often the case in later times, it is necessary to explain references we have found to five Cape Coast
companies in 1757 and to ten Anomabo companies in 1782, for Cape Coast had apparently only four wards at that
time and even today Anomabo has only seven. The answer may be that, at Cape Coast, the mulatto volunteers were
considered a company for fighting purposes though having no ward of their own, while the 'Anomabo' companies of
1782 may well have come from different parts of the Fante state of which Anomabo was then, in European eyes, the
most considerable town. Regarding the latter case, the same may have been true in 1777, when 'all the different
companies of soldiers from Annamaboe' were said to be present at Cudjoe's funeral, for, among his other offices,
Cudjoe had held the position of 'captain' over the whole Fante state.
tufohenfo, along the Gold Coast in 1787, being numbered among the most powerful men. There is, however, a
general lack of information about the extent of the system in this period, less even than for the earlier periods to be
discussed below.

45
town; but the cases of Akrampa and Brofomba require fuller treatment.

Akrampa was the company of the mulattos, not only in Cape Coast, but wherever it appeared. Mulattos had long
been in evidence on the coast and had sometimes risen to prominence, the most notable example being Edward
Barter around 1700, but it seems that, by 1803, they were not yet considered to be one of the constituent parts of
Cape Coast; they did, however, form an important group in the town by that year and were even demanding that the
British accord them greater recognition of their special status, a recognition that they claimed had already been won
by the Elmina mulattos.
An increase in the Elmina companies was also occurring in the nineteenth century, the eight of 18I5 becoming ten in
later years. E. J. P. Brown draws a distinction between the seven early companies and the three modern ones,
including Akrampafo and Brofomba, 'which, strictly speaking, have no constitutional status in the Asafu system'.
The mulattos (Akrampafo) had, as we have seen, already achieved a status envied by the Cape Coast mulattos in
1803, and, by 1816, Akrampafo ranked as one of the town quarters. The artificers (Brofomba) could not have been
long in following them in this for, by 1811, they were said to have constituted one-tenth of the town's population.
The other modern Elmina company, Mbrawurafo (Maworefo), is, according to Brown, an offshoot of Akyemfo. It
can therefore be said, with some certainty, that at least the Akrampa and Brofomba companies arose out of European
contact with local society. But other companies, and indeed the system itself, clearly existed before the period just
discussed and it is necessary to pursue their history still further.
46
We have not found, in any of the authorities, an explicit statement showing the existence of a company or ward
system in the earlier periods, but certain characteristics of coastal society, persistently referred to in contemporary
accounts, indicate that some clearly recognizable form of the system was in existence by the mid-seventeenth
century. There is, indeed, reason to believe that the system was very much older than this, that it was in existence in
the Portuguese period, if not before, but a failure to find conclusive documentary evidence means that we cannot be
certain. The fact that no author treating the Gold Coast before the nineteenth century seems to have described the
system may be an indication that it was then a less prominent feature of society-at any rate in European eyes-than in
more modern times.
One characteristic of coastal society relevant for our purpose appears strongly in the records from the 1650s until the
1720s; this is the existence of a body of men called the manceroes who had a recognized role, and often considerable
influence, in society. Such information as we possess about these men suggests that they may reasonably be
identified with asafo members, or, at least, with the more active elements within the system. The word manceroes
(or one of its variant forms) is often used in the records alongside or inter-changeably with 'young men' and so,
where we have found the latter term on its own but obviously being used in this special sense, we have taken it to be
a reference to the manceroes. We have also found 'bachelors' used as an alternative to manceroes. It is likely that the
word itself was derived from the Portuguese mancebo, youth, but mbrantsie, the Fante word for young man, is also a
possible source. A very significant similarity between asafo members and manceroes, which helps in the identifying
of one with the other, can be seen in military matters, for the manceroes apparently constituted the fighting force of
their community in time of war as the asafo companies have done in more modern times.
It is true that Barbot writes (about the situation in the later seventeenth century) that, when there was a war, 'all men
fit to bear arms, above the age of 20, repair to the rendezvous. . . leaving at home the decrepit old men, and the
manceroes or youths', which, regarding the manceroes, is the complete reverse of what we would expect to find, but
on the very next page he makes it clear that the manceroes were, in fact, involved in war, for he describes them
deserting their commanders in the field if no booty was to be obtained. He also implies that the manceroes may be
identified with the general body of free soldiers, for the passage in which he describes them deserting for lack of
booty appears to be a repetition of an earlier one in which he says very much the same thing of 'the soldiery'; and he
makes it clear that, after being deserted by the manceroes, a commander would be left with very few men with
whom to continue the war (perhaps only slaves, who are also mentioned in this connection). Other evidence also
makes it clear that the manceroes had a military function.

There is a reference to a captain of Fante leading his manceroes against Asebu in 1653. Some fifty years later,
Director-General Nuyts, writing of Elmina, treats the word manceroes as being synonymous with 'fighting men', and
he describes them going on a military expedition along the coast in more than eighty canoes with flags and banners
flying; and, in 1715, the arming of the 'young men' of Fante preparatory to military action in Eguafo was being
47
discussed. The identifying of manceroes, when at war, with 'the soldiery' has still further implications for our
argument. One important point is that, as 'the soldiery' was made up of every fit adult male in the community, it
follows that every such male was, in fact, a mancero.
This situation is clearly parallel to that of more modern times in which every male in the community is an asafo
member and, through his company, traditionally a part of the community's fighting force. A further point that follows
from the identifying of manceroes with soldiers is that the indigenous name for mancero, at least when used in a
military context, was indeed asafofor that was the indigenous name for soldier (certainly in Efutu in the middle of
the seventeenth century).
Like the asafo in later days, the manceroes sometimes had considerable influence in the governing of their
community and the shaping of events. Writing of 'commonwealths', as distinct from 'monarchies', on the Gold Coast,
and of Axim in particular, in the period around 1680, Barbot states that the manceroes were able to share power with
the caboceiros (elders) of the community, that matters concerning the whole state were dealt with by both bodies of
men, and that in these matters the manceroes 'often had the greatest sway'.

Muller, writing of Efutu shortly before Barbot's time, differs from him regarding the extent of the manceroes'
influence: he observes that, although they had a voice in the affairs of state, their views were not taken seriously;
but, then, it was apparently the Efutu type of monarchy that Barbot was excluding from his discussion. Barbot and
Muller are, in any case, clearly agreed that the manceroes had a recognized position in the state, as is, of course, true
of the asafo in later times: Barbot's account recalls, in particular, the modern practice of town elders calling a
meeting of the whole community (i.e. all the asafo companies) over matters of general importance. Particular
examples of considerable influence being exerted by manceroes or 'young men' in the affairs of their state can be
found in occurrences in Fante in 1653, Amanfor (in Ahanta) in 17I2, at Ankobra and Axim in 17I5" and at Anomabo
in 1752.
Barbot also writes, of the coast in general, that the manceroes had 'erected a judicial body, or society, of themselves
in each village of any consideration', and gives information about their role in the judging of minor offences that
reminds us of the asafo's limited judicial function in modern times. The argument that the manceroes were the asafo,
though perhaps in an earlier form, is also supported by the fact that the expression 'young men' was still being used
in a similar sense in the later eighteenth century when we know that a form of the asafo system was in existence. We
have found no use made of the word manceroes earlier than 1645, but, in connection with the decisive Dutch attack
on Elmina castle in 1637, there is mention of the 'young men' (and then the 'old men') of Elmina being won over to
the Portuguese side, and of the 'youth' of Komenda joining the Dutch.
And it may well be that De Marees, writing in 1602, is referring to manceroes in the following passage, especially as
'bachelors' is a known alternative to manceroes: 'The young Bachelors use to drinke themselves drunke and by night
runne through the streets with their Armes and Assagies, making a great noise with crying and shouting, as if a
Companie of young Devils ran about the streets; and meeting with other Companies, with whom having some
words, they fight together: wherein they are almost readie to kill each other, and many times cannot leave off.'
(Original spelling and punctuation retained.)
48
And if indeed the term is, as seems likely, of Portuguese origin, it would be reasonable to conclude that manceroes
were a feature of sixteenth-century Gold Coast society also. There is also evidence to indicate that the manceroes
were divided into companies (and/or wards) and that rivalry existed between the groups in the manner of the asafo.
We have seen that, in 1602, De Marees spoke of conflicts occurring between 'Companies' of 'bachelors', and the case
of the captain of one quarter of Fante leading his manceroes against Asebu in 1653 appears to be a clear example of
the asafo in action; the quarter itself was, indeed, referred to as Occumsoccum (or Inconsocum) and can therefore be
identified with the present-day Mankesim quarter of Nkusukum, especially as it had interests on the sea coast and
would, on occasions, act independently of the Mankesim ruler (as, in both cases, also applies to the modern quarter).

Apart from this, there are many references to towns being divided into parts and, though the manceroes are not again
mentioned in connection with the matter, it is clear that they (whatever their precise nature) must have been divided
along the lines of the town division. In such situations, asafo-type rivalry was likely to exist. The division of towns
into parts is, in fact, the second of the prominent features of coastal society apparent in the records of the time that
seems relevant for our purpose.
There is mention of quarters or parts of a town being under their own caboceer or captain in the cases of Mankesim,
Axim and Shama, as well as in the special case of Elmina. The divisions based upon the spheres of influence of
different groups of Europeans, as at Komenda, Sekondi and Accra, do not seem to have corresponded to asafo-type
divisions. Elmina was in three parts by 1629. Barbot, echoing Dutch sources, describes the situation there: 'The town
is divided into three distinct parts, as if it were three large villages near one another; each part or ward is governed
by its respective braffo; which braffo or governor is assisted by a caboceiro, and some other inferior officers, who
administer justice, and have charge of the political state: and these, all together, compose the regency of this little
republic, ever since the Portuguese made it independent of the kings of Commendo, and of Fetu, who formerly were
masters of it by equal halves.' The possibility of at least some of the town divisions being asafo-type divisions is
supported by one or two episodes that appear in the records.
One concerning Elmina seems particularly significant; in 1625 it was 'nine hundred negroes-divided into three
companies, each with its own Captain' who routed the Dutch force that was intending to attack the castle, and this
suggests that the three parts of the town mentioned by Barbot and other writers did form companies for military
purposes. And when it is recalled that all the fighting men of the community were probably manceroes, with the
characteristics already described, it seems safe to conclude that the asafo system was in existence in Elmina by
1625.
In 1645, two parts of Kromantse (the two parts according to the source) bore the names Bentsir and Nkum which are
still used by Kromantse asafo companies today, and, what is more, they were in conflict in a distinctly familiar way.
Two years later, the exiled King of Eguafo was trying 'with the help of one of the great Caboseros of Great Comany,
his kinsman, to bribe two Quarters in Great Comany and to turn Tacy out again', and this may well have been a case
of asafo involvement in a struggle for power in a state.59 In 1646, there is an example of emergency action centring
around one of the Elmina quarters: when the Efutus were threatening to harm some of the Elmina women as they
went to collect water, the women were escorted by 'a captain and all chief officers with the men who belong to that
quarter'. And there is a mention of the upper village of Axim being without a Captain in 1706 because the last
Captain had died, leaving no children or others who could make a lawful claim to succeed him. If, indeed, children
were eligible to succeed in such a case, this would be an example of patrilineal succession, which is a feature of the
49
asafo system and not otherwise usual in the coastal societies. This evidence regarding the division of the towns,
taken together with that concerning the manceroes, suggests very strongly to us that the asafo system, with many of
its modern features, was in existence by the 1640sand even by the 1620s if Elmina can be considered typical of
other places.
The present writers have not been able to consult Portuguese archival material, though it may possibly have some
light to throw on the earlier history of the asafo. As it is, only a few scraps of evidence for the Portuguese period can
be produced. We have already pointed out a possible reference to manceroes in De Marees (1602) and indicated that
the word manceroes was itself probably of Portuguese origin; there is also the fact that Barbot, Dapper and other
writers that we have used for the later seventeenth-century undoubtedly drew on earlier works for their information,
so that some of the points they make about coastal society may well be applicable to much earlier times; there are
the statements made by Barbot Claridge and Blake (without giving their authority) that the three-fold division of
Elmina was of early Portuguese or pre- Portuguese origin; and Blake does produce contemporary evidence to show
that 'the Mina Blacks were certainly organized as the friends and allies of the Portuguese by I523'.

A further point which may have some bearing on the development of the asafo system is that, when the Portuguese
arrived, they are said to have found the coast very sparsely populated, and to have proceeded to establish colonies of
Elminas all the way along it. These Elminas may well have settled next to, but separate from, existing communities,
or other groups from inland may have come to settle alongside them, and, in either case, the resulting division into
groups could have been the origin of the ward and company system. Or it could be that the Elminas carried their
own ward system (if indeed they had one, and other coastal towns lacked it, at this time) with them wherever they
went. But if it was not the migration of Elminas, or not only this, that was responsible, it is possible that the asafo
system arose primarily from the migration of different groups of people from the interior to the coastal and
neighbouring areas where they may have settled alongside each other, and next to existing communities, and still
retained their separate identities even when a common government came to be accepted. To summarize the historical
evidence presented above, we may say of the asafo system that: It was clearly in existence by the middle of the
nineteenth century although the name was not used by the writers of the time.
Although we have no real description of the asafo system in the earlier periods, there is evidence to suggest strongly
that it was in existence by at least the middle of the seventeenth century. In particular, it is clear that towns were
divided into parts (some of which bore asafo names), and there are many references to manceroes (and/or 'young
men' or 'bachelors') whose activities were very similar to those of the more active members of the asafo in later
periods, and who may well have operated within the framework of the town division.
There is some reason to believe that the asafo system existed, in one form or another, during the Portuguese period,
if not before, but the direct evidence is rather meagre. Whatever the origin of the system as a whole, individual
companies, incorporating newer elements in coastal towns such as the mulattos and artificers, were gradually
emerging, at least in Cape Coast and Elmina, by the early part of the nineteenth century.

50
The historical evidence is therefore inconclusive on a number of important points, but it does give us a basis of fact
from which we can proceed to examine the various views that have been expressed on asafo origins. The
Wartemberg view, that the system came into being with the assistance of the Dutch in the wake of Fante-Ashanti
wars, can now almost certainly be dismissed, for the earliest Fante-Asante confrontation apparently occurred in
1727, with Elmina only becoming involved during a later period, and we have shown that the asafo system was
probably in existence long before this. Wartemberg's statement that the system was imported from Asebu into
Elmina, from which place it spread to other towns, is, however, consistent (but not regarding the Asebu origin) with
the evidence we have found about the migration of Elminas, even though this migration was said to have occurred in
Portuguese times.
The historical evidence also goes a long way towards disproving Arhin's theory, since the asafo system was
evidently in existence before the general situation envisaged by Arhin, especially regarding the slave trade, had
come into being, and before the time of the particular individuals whose careers he refers to in support of his
argument. This does not however, dispose of all arguments relating to European influence on the origin, structure
and development of the asafo system. We have, in particular, to consider the plausible argument that, as matrilineage
is the basis of Akan social organization, the asafo, in so far as it is patrilineal, must be of European origin.
The argument is however, based on the supposition that patrilinealism was foreign to indigenous society, and this
cannot seriously be maintained in view of the other cases of patrilinealism we find among the coastal and interior
Akans. Among the Fante, for instance, there are certain categories of people like the abrafo (executioners) to which
one belongs through the father's line and, more important still, membership of various Fante cults is inherited
patrilineally (egyabosom). Corresponding to the Fante egyabosom are the patrilineal ntoro groupings among the
Asante. To be valid, therefore, the argument would have to be developed into a grand diffusionist theory with the
following line of reasoning:
coastal people. This would be an impressive theory but there is, in fact, no evidence at all that could uphold it.
The temptation to explain the basically patrilineal asafo with reference to European contact probably comes from the
fact that we are not accustomed to seeing a system of double descent in which the same person can be a member of
two different descent groups (matrilineal and patrilineal) for separate purposes. Yet, a system of this kind exists in a
number of societies, including those of the Herero of South-West Africa and the Yak of Nigeria. If we remember
this, we shall realize that there is nothing peculiar about the asafo being patrilineal in a society whose kinship system
is basically matrilineal.

51
system as a whole.
Assuming that the asafo, with the company system, was a part of the traditional, pre-European, society, any
tendency for inter-company conflicts to occur must have been kept in check by the matrilineage system (through
which members of different companies are united in the same lineage), by common religion, by face-to-face primary
relations that usually characterize a small-scale community, and, above all, by the moral authority of the tufohen and
the paramount chief. But after the arrival of the Europeans, developments undoubtedly occurred that were, in some
respects, out of harmony with the traditional social order: especially in the coastal settlements, open to European
trade as they were, acquisitive and competitive modes of behaviour would develop to disrupt the old equilibrium of
society; and, in such circumstances, individual and group rivalry, sometimes manifesting itself in the type of inter-
company fights to which we have referred, would naturally occur.
The evidence we have been able to gather and the arguments we have been able to marshal about the origin and
development of the asafo system therefore tend to support the views of the second school of thought (comprising
Ellis, Brown, Christensen, and Annobil and Ekuban), that the asafo is indigenous to various Akan peoples. It is clear,
however, that the character and development of the system, particularly on the coast and especially in Fanteland,
have been much influenced by the situations created through contact with Europeans.
There has been some controversy as to the origins of the Asafo, the patrilineal military bands of the coastal Akan,
and especially of the Fante, in Ghana. One view holds that the asafo system is indigenous to Fante society, the other
that its development is in some way connected with the presence of Europeans on the coast from the end of the
fifteenth century onwards. After an examination of the nature of the asafo system and of its patrilinealism, historical
evidence relating to the asafo, the manceroes (young men), and town wards in Fante society is set out in some detail.
It is concluded that the asafo system is probably indigenous in its origins, but that its development, particularly on
52
the coast and among the Fante especially, has been much influenced by situations resulting from contact with
Europeans.


A Case Study of La and Osu Asafo Religious Culture -
Abraham Akrong

on the people.

The Asafo Companies in Akan States

Kofi Baku
The history, organisation and place of the 'third estate' - the Asafo - in Akan states has been relatively well
53
time and peace-time functions. They are composed of young men who do not hold political office but are
nonetheless influential in the political and social system of the societies in which they exist. Invariably, the Asafo in
an Akan village, town, or state operate within the "framework of competitive coexistence" and this has on occasion

Seth Tweneboah

Robert W. Wyllie
Among the Effutu there are two companies, named Dentsifo ("main body") and Tuafo ("leading body"), each with
its headquarters in Winneba and branches in the villages of the Oman. Recruitment follows the patrilineal principle,
every Effutu at birth becoming a member of his father's company; non-Effutu join the company of their choice or
enter that of their father if he is already a member. While each company contains members of all five matriclans of
the Effutu, we find that members of the same family, household, matrilineage, or clan are rarely all of the same
Asafo company.
At the head of the Asafo system is a commander-in-chief (Tufuhene). Leading each company is a captain (Supi),
aided by lieutenants (Safohen) who command the divisions of the company. There are three divisions in each
company corresponding to clusters of patrilineages; a person joins not merely his father's Asafo company, but also
his father's division of the company. Each division is further subdivided into four sections, three of which are age
groups; the fourth is a more recent innovation and is open only to those who have had some formal schooling of a
Western kind. Offices within a company are succeeded to patrilineally, a man normally entering the office formerly
held by his father or his father's brother. Each company has a priest (Osow) who acts as an intermediary between
members and the company god (Obosom: plural, Abosom). Female members are organized into special dancing
groups, known as Adziwa, that have their own leaders.
Superimposed upon, and interlinked with, these traditional groupings are still others of a modern variety-trade
union, political party, religious denomination, and so on. A full discussion of these and the different traditional
structures that operate to some extent among the various migrant groups in the community is beyond the scope of
the present paper. For our purposes it is sufficient to identify these as features of the growing urban layer of life in
the community and as representing areas of social relationships in which men who are "tribesmen" and involved in
the tribal network are required to perform modern urban roles and are, at the same time, "townsmen."

Robert W. Wyllie
54
performed by officers of the Asafo companies. The most important tribal authority is the State Council, which
consists of twelve councilors (Egua Esson) and twelve judges (Kurantsir Akwamu) and is presided over by the
Omankene. Members of the State Council are elected by the Asafo companies-twelve from each company-and are
normally of the senior sections of their companies, sometimes holding Asafo offices. Of those elected to Kurantsir
Akwamu, six must be able to read and write English.
Robert W. Wyllie

Brigid M. Sackey
A paramount factor in the conflict between asafo and Christianity is that both are firmly rooted in resolute religious
convictions which neither group would easily relinquish one for the other. Such has been the relationship also
between indigenous African religions and Christianit generally, and particularly between the mission churches in
Ghana and the asafo. Just as admission into Christian religion demands the total surrender of a person's former
religion, an outright renunciation of asafo membership is a prerequisite for the conversion of an asafo member.
The problematic of the two religions revolves around the concept of "deities" which is double-edged. On the one
hand the belief in deities is a cardinal prohibition of the Christian doctrine, precisely against a tenet of the Ten
Commandments, while on the part of the asafo, the concept of deities or abosom is an integral part of their religious
beliefs. Thus, their religious system is incomplete and meaningless without the abosom. Indeed most of the asafo
regalia including the okyen (drum) and abaa (whip) are regarded as abosom.
The first pertinent question is this: what has the asafo, generally described as a military organization, got to do with
religion? It is generally asserted that among Africans the specifically political is not differentiated from the social,
economic and religious functions.
Superficially, this school of thought seems to suggest that Africans are ignorant about their own ideals and practices,
an idea that impinges on the question of epistemology. Whose source of knowledge about the asafo is more accurate,
the European outsider, the African insideroutsider (researcher) or the insider (here, the ahenpa asafo themselves).
For example, Nana Kwakwa Adanse XI, a former tufohene (overall leader) of the ahenpa asafo of Abakrampa and
presently the odzikro of Oboka village, near Abakrampa, defines asafo in cryptic terms: the "asafo is the oman
(state), and the oman is the asafo; everybody belongs to the asafo as the asafo belongs to everybody."

Conflicts and Prospects
Brigid M. Sackey
This does not imply that Nana Kwakwa is unaware of the difference between asafo and state; rather he is stressing
the intertwined relationship between the two. Similarly, Africans are very much cognizant of the distinctions and
interrelatedness within their various organizations. Thus, for example, among the Akan (which include the Fante)
generally, political life itself is intricately interwoven with religion and the office/ authority of the ohene, the head of
the oman, is firmly rooted in religion because "he sits on the ancestral stool"; and thus, he holds the highest religious
office as well. This religious capacity empowers the ohene also to exercise military, judiciary and legislative control.
In the same way, the asafo, despite its primary role as a military institution has religious obligations; in fact,
according to oral history as will be evident later, the asafo was born out of religion, as indeed Karl Marx rightly
suggests that everything was born out of religion; even the revolution evolved from religion; it was conceived in the
"brain of the monk" [Martin Luther].
55
Ultimately, the belief that the asafo and religion are closely linked is further reinforced in their functions; the asafo
never undertakes any action without resorting to a religious ritual. Before the asafo moves out or returns home a
visit to the shrine is indispensable.
It was through this united action to avert conflicts and to secure

the prosperity of the community that consolidated the people into a united force of asafo
with religion or akomfodze as their backbone. An exhibition of the religious origins of asafo is
seen in the indispensable role that religion plays in their organization and activities. Every asafo
has a priest/ priestess (komfo) whose duty is to propitiate the gods of the company
and provide protective medicine (edur) for the men.

Anshan Li
In Accra, not only was the organization of asafo copied from the Fante, the terms and songs were all Fante. Then
other towns copied from Accra seven-mile radius of the capital town. It had the right to criticize all acts of the
executive and was regarded as representative of the common people.' All these features had political implications.
First, fewer inter-company conflicts occurred in the Eastern Province compared with the Fante, who had a reputation
for fierce fighting between rival asafo companies. Second, the unified character provided a favorable condition
for the involvement of asafo in destoolment. Third, it was easier for them to adapt to the changing situation and meet
the new challenge. But how was this social organization translated into a political force that began to challenge the
chiefs authority? To explain this transformation, we have to compare its main functions before and after the
establishment of colonial rule.
The asafo among the Akan used to be a military force. In the precolonial period, wars between states were frequent.
To obtain greater mobilization and to provide for an effective supervision in wartime, all the male members in the
state, town, or village were organized into fighting groups. J. M. Sarbah and Casely Hayford described the military
spirit of the asafo and its operation during early times. The asafo either fought against other states or were
responsible for the peace of their own state. The commander of asafo companies had to be brave and able to provide
some ammunition. Though the Pax Britannica rendered the military function redundant, the military origin of the
asafo was always stressed. During annual festivals, the asafo performed before the chief in order to show their
strength and loyalty. The asafo played an important role in the rituals associated with installation or deposition of a
chief. They were also involved in other religious activities. The asafo was important on account of its religious
power to affect people's status in the next world by honoring them at the funeral.
The asafo also filled a wide range of social functions ranging from cooperative groups providing labor for public
works, to local units called upon in cases of emergency, which formed part of their routine duties. The asafo also
acted as guardians over the morals of their members' wives. But the most interesting function of the asafo was their
role in the traditional political structure. Having a recognized and effective way to express their opinion, asafo
members had a say not only in the election of the chief, but also in all matters affecting the state. Without their
approval, a candidate could not be elected as chief. The asafo leader was officially recognized as representative of
the commoners; elders would consider any representations he had made to them. Commoners could oppose any
unpopular measures issued by the chief, while the elders could not for fear of being accused of disloyalty, for they
were responsible with the chief for any decision. Asafo leaders had different responsibilities in different areas.
In the ethnographic context, the leaders of various parading youth groups, or Asafo companies, among the Ga of the
James Town area of Accra, use such whistles. They revealed that some whistle sounds are coded messages, which
are understood by the group members. In the past, war captains blew coded whistle sounds for warriors to change
56
their strategy or attack formation, thereby confusing the enemy in the process. However, the association of the
whistle with the shrine features also suggests its reuse in ritual context.
Material Culture and Indigenous Spiritism:
The Katamansu Archaeological "Otutu" (Shrine)
Wazi Apoh and Kodzo Gavua

Anshan Li
Destoolment was widespread in colonial southern Ghana between 1900 and the early 1950s, as a traditional means
to check a chiefs violation of the oath of office. Considering the changes in the position of traditional leaders and the
policy of indirect rule, it is not surprising that the destoolments were mainly launched by the Asafo company, an
indigenous organization that represented the interests of the common people. In this article, the phenomenon will be
studied comprehensively, with emphasis on the mechanism of asafo and its linkage with destoolment. I will argue
that the colonial government destroyed democratic features of traditional chieftaincy and made it less possible for
the commoners to participate in local politics. The asafo company therefore took on the responsibility of guarding
their interests and became the main instrument for mass political action in the southern Ghana.
The asafo company therefore took on

the responsibility of guarding their interests and became
the main instrument for mass political action
in the southern Ghana.
Asafo: Its Features and Functions
Among the Akan people, the warrior organization known as asafo (osa, war, fo, people) is found in almost every
town or village. This system has also been introduced to the Ga, the Krobo, the Guan, and some other ethnic groups.
J. D. De Graft Johnson, a colonial officer who was a Fante himself, once described the system: Asafu is primarily a
warrior organization and is the name given to all male adults banded together for any purpose, particularly war. In its
wider sense it is a socio-politico-miitary organization embracing both men and women, including stool-holders or
persons holding positions.... In its narrower sense the Asafu connotes the third estate, or common people, which
socially goes by the nomenclature of Kwasafu, sometimes also described or referred to, politically, as mbrantsie, or
"young men" to distinguish them from the mpanyinfu, chiefs and elders.
Here Johnson distinguished two kinds of asafo, one in general and one in particular. Our interest however, is in the
second, the asafo in its narrow sense. So far, the studies on the asafo company system suggest that historians have
been more concerned with its origins or its changing impact on local politics, while sociologists and anthropologists
have treated it as a social institution, stressing its patrilineal character complementary to the matrilineage. Since
there are both published and unpublished case studies, we seem to have enough information about the system as a
whole to be able to describe its main features.
Originally a military organization, the asafo company had its own flag, song, drums, horns, caps, emblems and its
own post, the rallying place of the company, where all its paraphernalia were kept. It also had its own fetish,
medicines, and priests. All able-bodied males, except the chief and the elders, were members of the asafo.
Anshan Li
57
system as a whole.


Seth Tweneboah
Originally a military organization, the asafo company had its own flag, song, drums, horns, caps, emblems and its
own post, the rallying place of the company, where all its paraphernalia were kept. It also had its own fetish,
medicines, and priests. All able-bodied males, except the chief and the elders, were members of the asafo. Each
asafo had its own leader. In Fante, the commander of all the asafo companies was called tufuhene (captain-general).
His appointment was originally by popular choice. Other asafo leaders, like captains, as they were usually called,
were also chosen or approved by the members of the company.
The equivalents of the Fanti tufuhene are nkwankwaahene in Asante, akwasontse in Ga, and asafoakye in Akyem.
According to J.C. De Graft Johnson, the appointment of the tufuhene "was originally by popular choice, . . but the
58
office now tends to become hereditary and in one state, at least, the post is held by a hereditary Ohin of a division.'
But in Akyem Abuakwa, the asafoakye, as an appointee of the chief and his elders, was liable to dismissal by them.
"From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, however, there is evidence of asafo asserting the right to choose
their own leaders and merely presenting them to the Chief and his Councillors for confirmation."
However, several generalizations can be made from the available evidence. First, although the contact with
Europeans might have influence upon its formation or adaptation, the asafo company's fundamental characteristics
are indigenous. Second, the history of its introduction and spread is not clear. In addition, chiefs were reluctant to
accept the asafo as an indigenous organization and everyone claimed to have borrowed the asafo from someone
else.' However, it seems to have appeared among the Fante first.'
Most important, the asafo must have undergone some changes through different periods; so it would be better to
interpret its origin from the perspective of a process of adaptation to social change rather than a stagnant traditional
form. Although certain basic features are universal in Akan areas, asafo companies assumed a wide variety of
institutional forms. Since most accounts are about Fante asafo, which seems to be the best known and fully
developed, differences between asafo companies in Fante and other areas should be noted.16 In the Eastern
Province, for example, the asafo seems to have been introduced from the coastal Fante, since it was less elaborated
and developed.'

Abraham Akrong
organisation led by clan priest-leaders - Kuutseiatsemei - under the guidance of the clan gods. The transition from
the migration type clan militia warfare to the new Asafo standing army style in a central state under the chief
required significant socio-political and cultural adjustments and accommodation. The process of adjustments and
accommodation produced different levels of tensions and conflicts, and sometimes new synthesis. For example there
has always been a tension between the political authority of the chief and the sacred political and religions authority
of the priest wolomo.

Abraham Akrong
Asafo on the other hand, meant the integration of a standing army

with their peculiar belief system, ritual, cults and ceremonies into the migration
socio-political organisation led by clan priest-leaders - Kuutseiatsemei
- under the guidance of the clan gods.
- Abraham Akrong
59
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asafo company:

urban clan & cult -

c. 1300, "head, leader, captain; the principal or most

how close the Ashantis conceive the bond to be that

The Christian Executioner:

Asafo on the other hand, meant the integration of a standing army

The Role of Alcohol in the 1905 conflict between

As a well-organized group, the asafo had its own hierarchical

Several matrilineages together comprise a matriclan (Abusua), the members

As a stool occupant, a chief is the earthly representative of

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

Following the Pax Britannica, and the implementation of indirect rule,

An inquiry into the origin and development of a Ghanaian institution

Asafo and Destoolment

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

Asafo and Destoolment

Without their approval, a candidate could not be elected as chief.

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

A colonial official pointed out in 1887: The Colonial Government

I use the term commoners to designate persons not holding a formalized

I use the term commoners to designate persons not holding a formalized

Donna J. Maier on John Kwadwo Osei-Tutus

An inquiry into the origin

As a well-organized group, the asafo had its own hierarchical

The Asafo System in historical perspective

"Come and Try" Towards a History of Fante Military Shrines

Euro-African Commerce and Social Chaos:

The Origins of Asafo

The Asafo System in historical perspective

a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

As a stool occupant, a chief is the earthly representative of

As a well-organized group, the asafo had its own hierarchical

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Cape Coast Asafo Company Riot of 1932

Asafo Companies in Akan States

The Cape Coast Asafo Company Riot of 1932

I use the term commoners to designate persons not holding a formalized

a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes

Asafo and Christianity:

Bukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra:

Bukom and the Social History of Boxing in Accra:

Asafo and Christianity:

A colonial official pointed out in 1887: The Colonial Government

"Come and Try"

The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

Asafo and Christianity: Conflicts and Prospects

Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Asafo System in historical perspective

This was especially true in a society which attached

It was through this united action to avert conflicts and to secure

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Role of Alcohol

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Asafo System in historical perspective

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

As a stool occupant, a chief is the earthly representative of

African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and

African Political Systems - 1950-51

a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes