AKAN SPIRITUALITY/SYMBOLS... e.g, Names etc

[Baba Ahmed]

http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/akanartintro2.html

AKAN CULTURAL SYMBOLS PROJECT

© G. F. Kojo Arthur and Robert Rowe - 1998-2001

Hye anhye - Unburnable

The Akan believe that the universe was created by a Supreme Being, whom they refer to variously as Oboadee (Creator), Nyame (God), Odomankoma (Infinite, Inventor), Ananse Kokuroko (The Great Spider; The Great Designer), etc.

The Akan religious thought is essentially theocentric and theistic, with the Supreme Being, God at the center of it all. From this perspective, the Akan use their cultural symbols to portray their beliefs about God, their attitudes towards God and His creation, and the Akan's relation to God and His Creation.

The Akan also believe that human creativity affects the universe positively or negatively. In essence, the Akan believe the universe is both a natural and social creation. Social creation is in the form of institutions and products human beings have invented. The Akan is required to safeguard the environment of the universe for a continuum of society members consisting of the dead, the living, and the yet-to-be-born.

The Akan claim the Supreme Being created life and death, and death overcame the Supreme Being. However, the Supreme Being, having the antidote to the venom of death, was able to overcome death. This Supreme Being, Nyame or Nyankopon, has eternal life.

The Akan believe the Supreme Being is spiritual in form and is unburnable or indestructible (hye anhye). The Supreme Being puts part of His/Her spiritual form into human beings as the human soul (kra). This soul in the human being never perishes. That is why the Akan say Nipa wu a, na onwuee - When the human being dies, he/she is not dead. This soul reincarnates. When a child is born, the Akan give the child a soul name (kra din) such as Kojo (boy's name) or Adjoa (girl's name) for the child born on Monday because that is the name for day of the week the human soul appears in this physical world.
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[Baba Ahmed]

http://www.marshall.edu/akanart/akaneconomics.html

AKAN ECONOMIC VIEWS
AKAN CULTURAL SYMBOLS PROJECT

The Akan economy was stratified by what Arhin (1983) refers to as "status differentiation." When the economy was integrated into the capitalist world system, the stratification became intesified into social classes as depicted by such adinkra cloth symbols as ebi te yie and mako nyinaa mpatu mmere, and by kente cloth designs such as woenya wo ho a, wonye dehyee.

Kookoo dua - Cocoa Tree

Symbol of economic domination and economic (under)development;
From the expression: UAC nkanea dwann mma yenhunu awam adwadifoo.
Literal translation: The bright UAC lights make it difficult to expose the colluding merchants.

UAC stands for United Africa Company. This Company is a subsidiary of the giant multinational corporation, UNILEVER.

The first street lights in Kumasi were placed in front of the UAC Store in the Adum section of the city. Some people, therefore, claim that the symbol represents this historical event. Some other people also claim the ideograph represents the floodlighted-Kumasi Sports Stadium that UAC presented to Ghana to commemorate Ghana's independence in 1957.

The verbal expression that goes with the ideograph depicts the ubiquitous presence and the dominant influence of the UAC Group of Companies in Ghana.

The UAC presence in Ghana dates back to when Lever Brothers entered the West African market to buy slaves and palm oil for soap manufacture.
In the 1930s and 1940s UAC spearheaded a ring of European trading companies, Association of West African Merchants (AWAM), that controlled the market for imported items and the exporting of agricultural produce, especially palm oil and cocoa. The price fixing rings led to violent protests by Ghanaian farmers. The machinations of these companies gave rise to the word AWAM which has come to mean shady dealings, price fixing, or corruption in many Ghanaian languages.

KOOKOO DUA - COCOA TREE
Symbol of WEALTH, PROSPERITY and CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION
From the expression: Kookoo dua ye sika dua; kookoo see abusua, paepae mogya mu.
Literal translation: Cocoa is a money tree; yet cocoa ruins the family, and divides blood relations

Cocoa was introduced into Ghana in the late nineteenth century as a cash crop. Within a decade or so after its introduction, it became Ghana's number one foreign exchange earner. As a new source of wealth, it has brought in its wake changes in land ownership and tenure, and has contributed to the increasing intensification of social stratification. It has been a source of political upheavals and family disputes over land ownership. It has helped to create a situation of landlessness in some rural areas.

MAKO NYINAA MPATU MMERE

Symbol of UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY and UNEVEN DEVELOPMENTt
From the expression: Mako nyinaa mpatu mmere.

Literal translation: All the peppers on the same tree do not ripen simultaneously.

While there may be some unequal distribution of natural endowment, Akans recognize socially created inequalities. Akans believe in equitable distribution of goods and services. In the past, for example, chiefs redistributed wealth to ensure equitable distribution of goods.

KOFORIDUA FRAWASE

KOFORIDUA FRAWASE - KOFORIDUA FLOWERS
Symbol of URBANIZATION, ECONOMIC PROSPERITY, and CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

From the expression: [u]Koforidua nhwiren, dea mede wo reye!
Literal translation: Koforidua flowers, what use do I have of you!

The ideograph stems from the conspicuous consumption by some rich people during the rapid urbanization of Koforidua following the success of the cocoa industry, and later the diamond mining industry in the Eastern Region of Ghana at the turn of the nineteenth century.

MENSO WO KENTEN - I DO NOT CARRY YOUR BASKET

Symbol of industry, self-reliance and economic self-determination

From the expression: Menso wo kenten.
Also, Me ne m'aware bone, meso kenten hunu kora a na worehwehwe mu.
Literal translation: I do not carry your basket.

Also, Me and my bad marriage, even when I carry an empty basket you search through it.

The symbol implies the economic self-determination of one, especially a woman. Baskets are used to carry food items from the farm to the house, to store things and to decorate rooms. In the past, as part of the naming ceremony, the female child was momentarily covered with a basket to signal to her that she should grow up into an industrious woman whose responsibility would be to collect foodstuff from the farm, carry it home to prepare food for the husband and children