Asafo Urban Towns

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asafo company:
urban clan & cult -
trade hubs, coastal towns, community
interest groups and new settlements at a
time of indirect rule
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.
1
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=chief
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how close the Ashantis conceive the bond to be that
exists between the living and their dead kinsmen".
Gareth Austin, 'No elders were present':
Commoners and private ownership in Asante, 1807-96
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.
how close the Ashantis conceive the bond to be that

exists between the living and their dead kinsmen".
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.
The Christian Executioner: Christianity and Chieftaincy as Rivals
Michelle Gilbert
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
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.
Michelle Gilbert
Youth Participation
in Local and National Development in Ghana: 1620-2013
2
it is now firmly established that it was common practice as far back
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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 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.
Asafo and Destoolment
in Colonial Southern Ghana, 1900-1953
Anshan Li
Communion.
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
Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example

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
The company gods are consulted periodically during this time

on such matters as how company members may best be deployed in the hunt,
where the best places are in which to find a deer, and what magical techniques
should be employed to ensure a catch or to hinder the rival company.
Robert W. Wyllie

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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.
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.
An inquiry into the origin and development of a Ghanaian institution
Ansu K. Datta R. Porter
4
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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.
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.
5
Among the coastal Akan, when the commoners believed their chiefs were not affording them adequate
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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.

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.
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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.
The Asafo of Kwahu, Ghana:
A mass movement for local reform under colonial rule
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
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
7
serves to regulate his daily life and behaviour, while the thought is a very potent
|
sanction to morality.

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
It is a Kyenku of no asafo, It comprises the rabble of Kwahu, Commoners of the town and villages headed by
desperados known as asafoakyes the word itself gave [sic] you an idea of their origin Akan and Ga instead of Stool
Captains. They are quite independent of the natural rulers, have their own oaths . . . and their object is mainly to
make laws for their Chiefs and oppose the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883 and the new Native Administration
Ordinance of 1927.
Anshan Li

Robert W. Wyllie
This is especially the case outside the urban area, where
members may still assume corporate responsibility for such things as
the debts or funeral expenses of one of their number. In the town,
the Asafo companies, play a more important role in such
matters than do the matrilineages.
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
Superimposed upon, and interlinked with,

these traditional groupings are still others of a modern variety-trade union,
political party, religious denomination, and so on.
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
8
in the selection of marriage partners.
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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

Jarle Simensen

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
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,
an important political force in the Oman.
Robert W. Wyllie

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."
On the colonial Gold Coast and in post-colonial Ghana, a pre-colonial commoner consciousness, held not by any
single group or class but by the diverse elements of the crowd, provides an important insight into urban protest.
Acting Governor Maxwell was too simplistic when, exasperated, he informed the Colonial Office that the opposition
to town councils had been caused by "certain sections of the Accra populace who have for some years been the
cause of political trouble in Accra and who by prophecies of hardship, enlist the noisy support of the mob to oppose
any scheme of reform."
The Accra Crowd, the Asafo,
and the Opposition to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1924 - 25
Dominic Fortescue
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Asafo and Christianity:
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.
Asafo and Christianity: Conflicts and Prospects
Brigid M. Sackey
Ritual and Social Change:

A Ghanaian Example
A communal ritual of tribal origin is discussed in order to show that its persistence in an urban area is attributable to
its ability to remain congruent with the urban sociocultural system. It is argued that congruity/incongruity operates at
three distinct levels: the cognitive-affective, the structural, and the functional. The ritual, organized on a mass basis,
generates a nonritual superstructure that affords political, commercial, recreational, and other opportunities, thus
reinforcing the ritual in the urban sociocultural system. It is further argued that any ritual has to be conceived of as a
sociocultural subsystem, embracing a culture, a social structure, and the motivations of its participants, and not
simply as a cultural item.
In a previous issue of this journal, Geertz explained the "ritual failure" of a Javanese burial in terms of "an
incongruity between the cultural framework of meaning and the pattern of social interaction, an incongruity due to
the persistence in an urban environment of a religious symbol system adjusted to peasant social structure" . By way
of contrast, and in the hope of further illuminating the problem of ritual continuity and change, ... a Ghanaian tribal
ceremony that persists and flourishes in an urban environment.
Robert W. Wyllie
A Ghanaian Example
The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

The bitter acrimony between the chief and the educated and influential youth was not limited to the Kwahu area
alone. Many of the traditional leaders felt challenged by the presence of the asafo group of youth. As early as 1913,
for instance, tension had already mounted between the chiefs and elders of the Akim Abuakwa and the Asafo group.
In this and other areas, the chief, seeing his sacred authority, the basis of his power in the society confronted,
resorted to the use of traditional sanctions that in turn, widened the friction and animosity between him and his
people. Many of these educated asafo groups and individuals, in some cases, were made to face the traditional
sanctions of the land. In some cases, this created an ambivalent situation not only to the chief but even to the
colonial government. It has already been established in this discussion that the presence of the colonial powers
created a dual form of authority: the ethnopolitical leaders of the land and colonial administration. It has also been
10
demonstrated that the activities of the colonizers undercut the authority of chief to the extent that his people with
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time became only nominal subjects.
the chief was an indispensable ally in the mobilization of the people, any attempt to destabilize his (the chiefs)
authority also had the ripple effect of affecting the smooth administration and organization of the colony. Thus,
should the modern youth succeed in organizing destoolment against any unpopular chief, it would undercut the dual
system of authority.

for Tradition, Modernity and Religious Human Rights in Ghana
Seth Tweneboah

Since colonial rule put an end to inter-state wars, the asafo transformed
its main function from a military one to a "public works department" and acted as
a task force in particular situations. Although the duties were always important,
they now gradually became the major role of the asafo. Resistance did exist,
especially against public work. Agbodeka points out: The refusal of the Gold Coast
people to permit alien nterference in their affairs caused the British one particular difficulty,
among others, that of obtaining labour, even paid labor, for public works. To solve
this problem, the government issued several ordinances.
Anshan Li
In some cases, as among the gerontocratic Ga people of the
southeastern part of the colony, the position of chieftainship was virtually
created by the government. Traditionally, the affairs of the Ga had been
under the control of a council of elders, but the British elevated
a priest to the position of paramount chief.
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.
It is a Kyenku of no asafo, It comprises the rabble of Kwahu, Commoners of the town and villages headed by
desperados known as asafoakyes the word itself gave [sic] you an idea of their origin Akan and Ga instead of Stool
Captains. They are quite independent of the natural rulers, have their own oaths . . . and their object is mainly to
make laws for their Chiefs and oppose the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883 and the new Native Administration
Ordinance of 1927.
Anshan Li
11
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Communion.
Michelle Gilbert
The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

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

Robert W. Wyllie

Dominic Fortescue
The asafo was the institutional expression of such horizontal cleavages on the Gold Coast. Once an individual
became a chief or an elder he ceased to be a member of his asafo company. Most males allied "their interests with
the asafo rather than with the chiefs, for the latter are at all times associated with the interests of the omanhan and
the royal elite." At meetings of state, commoners grouped according to asafo membership, rather than to lineage or
division.
J. C. de Graft Johnson (1932, 308) described the system in the Fanti states as encompassing the "common people,
which socially goes by the nomenclature of kwasafu ... or 'young-men' to distinguish them from the mpanyinfu,
chiefs and elders." The akwasontse, a commoner who had as supreme military commander in pre-colonial days sat
by right on the council, continued to do so, but now as the legitimate representative of commoner interests.
As A. W. Cardinall (1931, 71), an experienced Gold Coast official put it, "The power and position of the asafu can
hardly be disregarded or minimised ... it constitutes the Third Estate without whose assistance, no native government
is possible" Membership of a company and the akwasontse's position allowed the individual to make his wishes
known concerning matters of state, and the akwasontse and asafoatsemei had a well-defined role in the enstoolment
of Ga chiefs (Field 1940, 159)
Dominic Fortescue

12
the impact of modernity at the time challenged not only ordinary citizens but also the status of the chief. The
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seeming lack of education among most of the chiefs alienated them from their young and educated subjects. As the
years went by, the disparity between the two (the chiefs and the educated youth) kept widening. The apparent lack of
education among the chiefs, according to Kimble, for example, was responsible for the rise of several young and
educated men who rose up to institute destoolment charges against the chiefs.
an ambivalent situation not only to the chief but even to the colonial government. It has already been established
in this discussion that the presence of the colonial powers created a dual form of authority: the ethnopolitical leaders
of the land and colonial administration. It has also been demonstrated that the activities of the colonizers undercut
the authority of chief to the extent that his people with time became only nominal subjects.
By delimiting and circumscribing the powers of the chief, the individual rights as a free citizen of the land were
greatly enhanced. This, among others, as has been argued, promoted several resistances against the chief especially
from the youth. What was problematic to the colonial government was that since the chief was an indispensable ally
in the mobilization of the people, any attempt to destabilize his (the chiefs) authority also had the ripple effect of
affecting the smooth administration and organization of the colony. Thus, should the modern youth succeed in
organizing destoolment against any unpopular chief, it would undercut the dual system of authority.
Seth Tweneboah

and the Opposition to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1924 25
It was precisely the "absence of prominent men" in the protest
and "their unpopularity" which the British feared left the public "prey to any
plausible agitator with claim to a knowledge of leadership"
(West Africa 25 October 1924, 1157).
When the asafo did organise against the colonial government

itself in rural areas, educated urban nationalists, frequently members
of the Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, usually provided the leadership.
We have never been encouraged to plant and produce sugar or tobacco.

We have oil palms but we have not been shown how to make soap, oil etc ...
More should be done to develop the natural resources of the country....
We have not been shown how to make chocolate so that we
can fix our own price.
The asafo, wrote its captains, "are fighting for their primordial rights."
British observers recognised the asafo's role but strongly disapproved, fearing
that the affair was "being used to drive home the unsound principle that government
by the people means blind obedience by their 'ruler' to the will of a mass meeting"
In rural areas, the asafo formed an important base

from which Nkrumah won mass support. There are tantalising glimpses,
too, of the asafo and commoner ideology in urban areas.
13
The asafo led the opposition to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, and unlike
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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.
Dominic Fortescue

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
An extraordinary fact has come to light. . . . 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. Birim District (Kwahu). This shows that
there were different opinions regarding the asafo's activities among the colonial officials, which may throw some
light on the fact that the government never adopted a strong measure to prohibit its existence.
Anshan Li

In Accra, the division between commoners and chiefs in
pre-colonial times, and commoners and chiefs and the educated elite
under colonialism, was striking,

Dominic Fortescue
A Kwahu correspondent to the Gold Coast Leader complained that

"all the present chiefs hold their posts mechanically, fearing the populace and
expecting every moment a destoolment, so that aristocracy is giving way
to democracy." Addow, "Notes on Kwahu."
Jarle Simensen
Asafos (who are known as the "young men" of Kwahu) have formed themselves
into an organised body and have members in nearly every town in this district. Its policy
seems to be a consistent opposition to established authority. The "opposition to established
authority" was characterized by an increasing number of destoolments. The asafo risings
in 1915-1918 in Akyem Abuakwa shared the same feature.
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Anshan Li
The introduction of modern ways of doing things modeled in the western culture made it possible for the chiefs
subjects to defy his authority and also made the citizens appear only as nominal subjects of the chief. Evidence of
this is seen in the transformation of asafo group as a warrior organization to a resistant movement the core agents
for collective political resistance in the Akanland.
The Sacred Nature
of the Akan Chief and its Implications
Collusion, Collaboration/Cooperation and Conflict:
How Indigenous Gold Coast Merchants Shaped State Formation
in the Gold Coast, 1850-1950
the small Gold Coast elite to which the merchants belonged were crucial agents that supported the construction of
the colonial structures, but that once it was erected, they got pushed out to its periphery. The period from the 1850s,
then, was marked by their struggles for re-entry; failing which they launched a series of attacks on the colonial
administration. To do this, however, they needed to portray themselves as agents and representatives of the Gold
Coast population, necessitating a variety of alliances. By the late 1940s, the decline of colonial authority was
underway and a political class had arisen, eclipsing these earlier actors. However, the structure of the state, and what
courses of actions were politically possible or permissible had already been shaped by the actions of the merchants
and the various actors they allied with (Meredith 2006).
Kofi Takyi Asante

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.
Danquah analyzed the function as well as the legitimacy of destoolment: This, as a formidable weapon in the hands
of the people when properly manipulated, is a certain and sure safeguard of the democratic element in Akan State
Constitution in that the knowledge of the existence of the right and of the people's readiness to exercise it on any
necessary occasion acts as a check on the ruling princes reminding them perpetually that first and last the supreme
interest or political ideal before them is the good and welfare of the governed and of the State as a whole. Once
incorporated into the framework of colonial government, the chiefs status underwent several changes. Now loyalty
to and cooperation with the government became the essential requirement for newly elected chiefs.
Regarding a destoolment that occurred at Bekwai, the commissioner in charge of the investigation reported: In the
case of Bekwai, for instance, the "youngmen," that is to say the lower classes, those who were not Elders,
complained that they were not consulted in the choice of the Headchief, that they did not respect him in Bekwai
itself, or when he visited the villages, and to a man they refused to serve him. The Elders remarked that "One cannot
be a chief without subjects. If we support the Headchief we shall be alone. The whole of the youngmen refuse to
serve the Headchief and we support them.
Anshan Li
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
15
in the selection of marriage partners.
|
Robert W. Wyllie
The omanhene, who was finally destooled in 1932 by the asafo, described the condition in Kwahu when he asked
Ofori Atta I, the paramount chief of Akyem Abuakwa, for help in his political difflculties: Kwahu asafo is something
entirely different from all other asafos in all Akan, Twi and Fanti States of the Gold Coast.... The asafo in Kwahu is a
thing quite different from the old constitutional asafos, It is a Kyenku of no asafo, It comprises the rabble of Kwahu,
Commoners of the town and villages headed by desperados known as asafoakyes the word itself gave [sic] you an
idea of their origin Akan and Ga instead of Stool Captains. They are quite independent of the natural rulers, have
their own oaths . . . and their object is mainly to make laws for their Chiefs and oppose the Native Jurisdiction
Ordinance of 1883 and the new Native Administration Ordinance of 1927.
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 Fante, the tufuhene was the next authoritative
person after the ohene, or chief. The tufuhene could become a regent, or even a chief himself.
Anshan Li
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.
Seth Tweneboah

Dominic Fortescue

at the Rodger Club, an alliance proved impossible. According to Welman,

"the sensitiveness of some of the half-educated and un-educated among the asafoatsemei
appears to have been jarred by the sight of these superior people reading their Petition together and laughing" (Gold
Coast 1926b, 5-8).
16
The asafo, objecting principally to the financial burdens of municipal government, rejected the Ga Mantse's
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suggestions for involving the ARPS in the protest (West Africa 18 October 1924). When Tackie did eventually bring
the two groups together at the Rodger Club, an alliance proved impossible. According to Welman, "the sensitiveness
of some of the half-educated and un-educated among the asafoatsemei appears to have been jarred by the sight of
these superior people reading their Petition together and laughing" (Gold Coast 1926b, 5-8). Indeed, by 1925 the
asafoatsemei were convinced that the writs served on two of their number the previous autumn were, "only a Plank
in the Scheme carefully worked out and backed by the Local branch of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society and
the Intellegentsia."
Dominic Fortescue
We are the people:

Ghanaian chiefs and the politics of contestation.
Natural Rulers and the National Psyche
Beyond the colonial inheritance and the provisions of the current constitution, the question has been frequently
asked: How come that in a secular and centralized state such as Ghana, chiefs continue to refer to their kingdoms,
their lands and their subjects without any reaction from government? The answer to this question lies in the
national psyche.

Dominic Fortescue
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 basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

the matrilineal clan or abusua. These clans, which vary in size from thirty
17
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Robert W. Wyllie
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
At both village and national levels the company system was headed by stool-holding subchiefs or elders who in
times of war became generals, or asafohemfo (sing., asafohene), of the omanhene. 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
The matrilineage (Nniani), consisting of a number of persons tracing descent through seven or eight generations to a
common ancestress, does not form a localized unit but still retains a fairly strong sense of collective identity. This is
especially the case outside the urban area, where members may still assume corporate responsibility for such things
as the debts or funeral expenses of one of their number. In the town, the Asafo companies, which will be discussed
later, play a more important role in such matters than do the matrilineages. 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.
Robert W. Wyllie
The Role of Alcohol

in the 1905 conflict between the Anaafo and Ntsin
Asafo Companies of Cape Coast
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.
18
Even after the British replaced such forces with European and
|
West Indian troops later in the century, the asafos officers continued to have
important roles in recruiting porters to carry munitions for campaigns in the interior.
The result was an enhancement of the asafos leaders' importance - especially its
commander-in-chief, the tufuhen - relative to the chiefs, who often
acquired obstructionist reputations.
Roger S. Gocking

a petition to the Governor, urging that every educated African,
whether he be a lawyer, doctor, surveyor, engineer, or any other professional man,
should be made to realize that he was still bound by traditional loyalties.
... It does seem to us that education in the proper sense of the word implies a contempt
of the existing authority. It was absurd for an educated man to refuse to go
before his natural court of justice because the president or councilors
were not equally educated: we beg to sound a warning.
Seth Tweneboah
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
It must, again, be added that owing to their important role as defenders of the society, the views and opinions of the
asafo members were taken into serious consideration at the council of elders or any town or village meeting. They
had a strong influence in the selection and destoolment of a chief. The leader of the asafo group, for instance, was an
ex-officio member of the town counselors a representative of the commoners of the society.
Although by the early twentieth century the asafo had become a very powerful organization with the introduction of
modern life, the hitherto warrior group, the movement for commoners, was transformed into a strong critic of the
sacred chiefs authority and person. The century can aptly be described as struggling period for the Akan chieftaincy
institution. Within the first half of the century, virtually every colonial officer was said to have experienced or
witnessed cases of destoolment.
Seth Tweneboah

19
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Robert W. Wyllie
The company gods are consulted periodically during this time

on such matters as how company members may best be deployed in the hunt,
where the best places are in which to find a deer, and what magical techniques
should be employed to ensure a catch or to hinder the rival company.


A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie
Although the asafo emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns,

three of four studies of it analyze the asafo 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
the formation of asafo group, whose founders were mostly of the educated
youth. by 1915 the youngmen of Kwahu decided to make use of the traditional form
of organization as an outlet for their economic grievances, and founded their own Asafo
Seth Tweneboah
20
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Anshan Li

Seth Tweneboah
the impact of modernity at the time challenged not only ordinary citizens but also the status of the chief. The
seeming lack of education among most of the chiefs alienated them from their young and educated subjects. As the
years went by, the disparity between the two (the chiefs and the educated youth) kept widening. The apparent lack of
education among the chiefs, according to Kimble, for example, was responsible for the rise of several young and
educated men who rose up to institute destoolment charges against the chiefs.

Dominic Fortescue
Although the asafo emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns, three of four studies of it analyze the asafo 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. Those involved
were often the literate and moderately wealthy beneficiaries of the cocoa boom, angered by their political impotence
in comparison to the increased local power of the corrupt, often illiterate chiefly elite. When the asafo did organise
against the colonial government itself in rural areas, educated urban nationalists, frequently members of the
Aborigines' Rights Protection Society, usually provided the leadership.
Dominic Fortescue

Robert W. Wyllie
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.
the sociocultural system of which it is part.
Robert W. Wyllie
21
an ambivalent situation not only to the chief but even to the colonial government. It has already been established
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in this discussion that the presence of the colonial powers created a dual form of authority: the ethnopolitical leaders
of the land and colonial administration. It has also been demonstrated that the activities of the colonizers undercut
the authority of chief to the extent that his people with time became only nominal subjects.
Seth Tweneboah
The introduction of modern ways of doing things modeled in the western culture made it possible for the chiefs
subjects to defy his authority and also made the citizens appear only as nominal subjects of the chief. Evidence of
this is seen in the transformation of asafo group as a warrior organization to a resistant movement the core agents
for collective political resistance in the Akanland.
The Sacred Nature

Ideologically, the Accra asafo encapsulated a pre-colonial commoner consciousness which insisted that the
authorities treat the common people fairly and justly and sanctioned intervention if they did not. In contrast to a
more resolute class consciousness, such notions embodied the emotions of the disparate urban crowd, not one
particular social group, and reflected the still undeveloped economic framework within which such protest was
articulated. Vital, too, were more specific ideological strands which evolved with colonialism, rejecting absolutely
the principles of direct taxation and its accompanying threat to land rights and meshing easily with the asafo's more
general pre-colonial commoner consciousness.
The Convention People's Party (CPP) found its earliest urban support among the crowd, its market-women and
"verandah boys" as they were contemptuously called. And although the CPP's "derived" ideologies, its nationalism
and its socialism, swept the colonial order away, older notions informed popular ideology too (Hodgkin 1961, 36).
In rural areas, the asafo formed an important base from which Nkrumah won mass support. There are tantalising
glimpses, too, of the asafo and commoner ideology in urban areas.
Dominic Fortescue
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 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"
22
and involved in the tribal network are required to perform modern urban roles and are,
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at the same time, "townsmen."
Robert W. Wyllie
The Involvement of the Asafo
The asafo system probably originated in the sixteenth century among the Fanti (Datta and Porter 1971). By the
twentieth century asafo companies existed in every Gold Coast village and town (Johnson 1932, 307). 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.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the asafo's military role had become largely redundant. The traditional elite
continued to use the companies as "public works departments," and they remained significant in religious
celebrations; but the evolution of the asafo's political role as the mouthpiece of commoner interests was far more
important. The British, of course, believed Africans belonged to tribal, vertically integrated, harmonious societies,
and the colonial administration continuously feared that the "disintegrating waves of Western civilisation" threatened
to destroy this apparently admirable system. Maxwell feared that rapid communication advances, "disintegrating,
disrupting, external exotic influences," and educational progress tended to "break up the family and clan system and
that spirit, where the will and thoughts of each member of the community were not for self but for his family and
clan to which ultimately all personal interests and ambitions were subordinated."
The asafo was the institutional expression of such horizontal cleavages on the Gold Coast. Once an individual
became a chief or an elder he ceased to be a member of his asafo company. Most males allied "their interests with
the asafo rather than with the chiefs, for the latter are at all times associated with the interests of the omanhan and
the royal elite." At meetings of state, commoners grouped according to asafo membership, rather than to lineage or
division.
J. C. de Graft Johnson (1932, 308) described the system in the Fanti states as encompassing the "common people,
which socially goes by the nomenclature of kwasafu ... or 'young-men' to distinguish them from the mpanyinfu,
chiefs and elders." The akwasontse, a commoner who had as supreme military commander in pre-colonial days sat
by right on the council, continued to do so, but now as the legitimate representative of commoner interests.
As A. W. Cardinall (1931, 71), an experienced Gold Coast official put it, "The power and position of the asafu can
hardly be disregarded or minimised ... it constitutes the Third Estate without whose assistance, no native government
is possible" Membership of a company and the akwasontse's position allowed the individual to make his wishes
known concerning matters of state, and the akwasontse and asafoatsemei had a well-defined role in the enstoolment
of Ga chiefs (Field 1940, 159).
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.
23
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Dominic Fortescue

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.
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. Each asafo held an annual custom, when there were
company performances. All affairs in the asafo were managed on patrilinealines. A father trained his sons in all
possible skills of war, providing them with war medicines and weapons. Captaincies descended from father to eldest
son. Occasionally there were women captains, who usually took charge of cooking and domestic arrangements.
There are various interpretations of the origin of the asafo. Two main schools have offered their explanations. One
view holds that the asafo is indigenous to Fante society, while the other attributes its origin to the presence of early
Europeans.' Lack of evidence prevents us from making a definite conclusion. 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.'
Thirdly, since the word "asafo" has multiple meanings, it is necessary to distinguish different kinds of asafo to avoid
any confusion.' Moreover, the asafo in various areas might have different origins, and its organization varies from
locality to locality. 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. In the Eastern
Province, for example, the asafo seems to have been introduced from the coastal Fante, since it was less elaborated
and developed.' Moreover, the asafo of the Eastern Province and Eastern Asante was by definition a movement
among people of low status.
24
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Anshan Li
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.
Danquah analyzed the function as well as the legitimacy of destoolment: This, as a formidable weapon in the hands
of the people when properly manipulated, is a certain and sure safeguard of the democratic element in Akan State
Constitution in that the knowledge of the existence of the right and of the people's readiness to exercise it on any
necessary occasion acts as a check on the ruling princes reminding them perpetually that first and last the supreme
interest or political ideal before them is the good and welfare of the governed and of the State as a whole. Once
incorporated into the framework of colonial government, the chiefs status underwent several changes. Now loyalty
to and cooperation with the government became the essential requirement for newly elected chiefs.
Regarding a destoolment that occurred at Bekwai, the commissioner in charge of the investigation reported: In the
case of Bekwai, for instance, the "youngmen," that is to say the lower classes, those who were not Elders,
complained that they were not consulted in the choice of the Headchief, that they did not respect him in Bekwai
itself, or when he visited the villages, and to a man they refused to serve him. The Elders remarked that "One cannot
be a chief without subjects. If we support the Headchief we shall be alone. The whole of the youngmen refuse to
serve the Headchief and we support them.
Anshan Li
and the Opposition
The asafo not only led the opposition to the Ordinance and quite independently of the Gold Coast's "men of affairs"
(Sampson 1937) but also clearly provided a crucial organisational framework from within which to mobilise the
Accra crowd (Rude 1964, 246). The people respected the asafoatsemei whose tribunals continued to function
effectively into the 1940s. The close-knit companies themselves furnished an important forum for leisure and
recreational activity and some Fanti companies even held land corporately (Datta 1972, 310). Nor did the asafo's
male nature entirely exclude women. Very occasionally, women captained companies (Ffoulkes 1908, 269). More
common was female membership of either their father's asafo company or else a parallel structure, described by
Casely Hayford as a "sort of commissariat department to the Company," cooking food in war and generally lending
emotional support.

Anshan Li
25
The asafo company faced greater challenges with the introduction of the Native Administration Ordinance in 1927,
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which strengthened the paramount chiefs power. In 1928, a protest against the application of Native Administration
Ordinance led to the actual running the Kwahu State by the asafo. The omanhene, who was finally destooled in 1932
by the asafo, described the condition in Kwahu when he asked Ofori Atta I, the paramount chief of Akyem
Abuakwa, for help in his political difflculties: Kwahu asafo is something entirely different from all other asafos in
all Akan, Twi and Fanti States of the Gold Coast.... The asafo in Kwahu is a thing quite different from the old
constitutional asafos, It is a Kyenku of no asafo, It comprises the rabble of Kwahu, Commoners of the town and
villages headed by desperados known as asafoakyes the word itself gave [sic] you an idea of their origin Akan and
Ga instead of Stool Captains. They are quite independent of the natural rulers, have their own oaths . . . and their
object is mainly to make laws for their Chiefs and oppose the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883 and the new
Native Administration Ordinance of 1927.
Under colonial rule, the functions of the asafo underwent a great change, especially in the field of local politics.
Although the asafo represented the commoners' interests, its role received no recognition from the colonial
government. Because of ignorance, the British government at first did not interfere with the asafo company as a
political force, while they checked the chiefs authority at will. 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. Since colonial rule put an end to inter-state wars, the asafo transformed its main function from a
military one to a "public works department" and acted as a task force in particular situations. Although the duties
were always important, they now gradually became the major role of the asafo. Resistance did exist, especially
against public work.
Anshan Li
The asafo leaders also blamed the government and European companies for the poverty in the first place. They
condemned the mechanisation of cocoa transport from the railway station to the beach for "depriving the young men
and labourers of their work. Money which ought to go to the poor people is going to European firms." Garshong
attacked the government for having done so little to develop the country: We have never been encouraged to plant
and produce sugar or tobacco. We have oil palms but we have not been shown how to make soap, oil etc.... More
should be done to develop the natural resources of the country.... We have not been shown how to make chocolate so
that we can fix our own price.
Dominic Fortescue

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.
26
There are several chiefs, or ohen, in each state, a chief being a person who occupies an ancestral stool. A "stool" in
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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.
a petition to the Governor, urging that every educated African, whether he be a lawyer, doctor, surveyor,
engineer, or any other professional man, should be made to realize that he was still bound by traditional loyalties.
Part of the petition argued that western education or accident of wealth or other advantages were merely privileges
and that these were not enough for one to lord it over others in the society, especially the leaders of the land. The
chief and his officers argued that It does seem to us that education in the proper sense of the word implies a
contempt of the existing authority. It was absurd for an educated man to refuse to go before his natural court of
justice because the president or councilors were not equally educated: we beg to sound a warning.
Seth Tweneboah
Roger S. Gocking

Indirect rule was to aid the cultural self-determination of the African, and also prepare them
for eventual self-government. Education, primarily under the auspices of the various Christian denominations, with
government financial support, was encouraged. This led to the development of an African elite, many of whom
obtained training in England and the United States. However, little provision was made to absorb the educated
African into the government, either on the local level or in the central government.
27
|
During the 1890s, opportunities for asafo leaders increased,
as colonial officials came increasingly to depend on native authority figures
in the seaboard towns. Those, however, who had some Western education,
stood most to benefit, as they could communicate far better with British
officials and carry out their wishes.
Roger S. Gocking

Robert W. Wyllie
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
Valsecchi, Pierluigi & Viti, Fabio

Akan Worlds - Identity and Power in West Africa.
The contributions to Akan Worlds center around the rise to power and its manifestations at various levels, from
micro-level (local spirit cult, village, lineage) to macro-level (chiefdom or state). While the contributions deal with
specific polities such as Nzima (2), Efutu (2), Bono (1), Baoule (2) and Ashanti (2), few deal with "integration by
conquest" which was the dominant model of Akan expansion in the past. Chouin argues that cross-ethnic region-
wide associations are neglected by research on ruling groups, and that change from matrilinear to patrilinear
succession in Eguafo, NW of Elmina, occurred through such groups. The 17th century wars led kings to give their
sons the leadership and appoint them, rather than their sister's sons, as successors, under the influence of rival
brothers and French missionaries as princely educators. This century saw the takeover of the Nsona from the Anona
clan and transmission of the stool to their sons.
28
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Communion.
Michelle Gilbert

(West Africa 13 December 1924).

Although the asafo emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns,

three of four studies of it analyze the asafo 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
Energetic and youthful members, who mostly did not occupy any significant socio-political position in the society
but had worked hard to accumulate wealth, became influential in the society. Not only would their physical and
youthful exuberance permit them to rally and organize destoolment challenges against any uncompromising chief,
but the new economy had also supplied them with the wealth necessary to sustain such moves. The chief therefore,
had his position increasingly threatened. The emphasis of authority, influence and power in the society was more of
achievement rather than ascription.
Especially in matters related to western education, the impact of modernity at the time challenged not only ordinary
citizens but also the status of the chief. The seeming lack of education among most of the chiefs alienated them from
their young and educated subjects. As the years went by, the disparity between the two (the chiefs and the educated
youth) kept widening. The apparent lack of education among the chiefs, according to Kimble, for example, was
responsible for the rise of several young and educated men who rose up to institute destoolment charges against the
chiefs.
The Sacred Nature

Earlier, it was indicated how, using Rathbone observation, in the areas within the Akan traditional areas, several
destoolment charges were instituted. It was observed that between 1904 and 1926, an unprecedented cases were
preferred against Akan chiefs.
Modernity and its influencing factors challenged the chief of every exclusive rights he had hitherto enjoyed. Indeed,
what the chief could aptly term as the decadence western life, disorganized indigenous political structures of the
society. The introduction of modern ways of doing things modeled in the western culture made it possible for the
29
chiefs subjects to defy his authority and also made the citizens appear only as nominal subjects of the chief.
|
Evidence of this is seen in the transformation of asafo group as a warrior organization to a resistant movement the
core agents for collective political resistance in the Akanland.
According to Kimble, for example, modern ways of living and western education opened newer possibilities for
young people to organize themselves against uncompromising chiefs. This situation led to the formation of asafo
group, whose founders were mostly of the educated youth. Narrating the history behind the formation of the asafo
as a resistant group, Kimble opined that by 1915 the youngmen of Kwahu decided to make use of the traditional
form of organization as an outlet for their economic grievances, and founded their own Asafo with the object to
protest and resist against the imposition of heavy fines for breach of oaths, because nothing worthy was left as a
result.
Seth Tweneboah

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.
However, it must be emphasized that the existence of the asafo company existed prior to colonialism. Asafo (asa,
wars and fo, people, those who), among the Akan (and not only Akan but also later among the Ga, the Guan, the
Krobo people), was a warrior group or organization that defended the interest of the ethno-tribal state. These were
found in virtually every village of Akan land. Ideally, membership was opened to all able-bodied men (though
occasional inclusion of few women was not strange), with the exception of the chief and his elders. 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.
Anshan Li
A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie

It must, again, be added that owing to their important role as defenders of the society, the views and opinions of the
asafo members were taken into serious consideration at the council of elders or any town or village meeting. They
had a strong influence in the selection and destoolment of a chief. The leader of the asafo group, for instance, was an
ex-officio member of the town counselors a representative of the commoners of the society.
Although by the early twentieth century the asafo had become a very powerful organization with the introduction of
modern life, the hitherto warrior group, the movement for commoners, was transformed into a strong critic of the
30
sacred chiefs authority and person. The century can aptly be described as struggling period for the Akan chieftaincy
|
institution. Within the first half of the century, virtually every colonial officer was said to have experienced or
witnessed cases of destoolment.
For example, it is on records that within four years of its formation in Kwahu, in 1919, the asafo group had made
dramatic impact, so much so that it was seen as a treacherous and undesirable group which undermined all
established authority within the socio-political arrangement of Kwahu. This indeed, brought about sever power
struggle between the chief and the asafo most of whom were then highly educated.
The bitter acrimony between the chief and the educated and influential youth was not limited to the Kwahu area
alone. Many of the traditional leaders felt challenged by the presence of the asafo group of youth. As early as 1913,
for instance, tension had already mounted between the chiefs and elders of the Akim Abuakwa and the Asafo group.
In this and other areas, the chief, seeing his sacred authority, the basis of his power in the society confronted,
resorted to the use of traditional sanctions that in turn, widened the friction and animosity between him and his
people. Many of these educated asafo groups and individuals, in some cases, were made to face the traditional
sanctions of the land. In some cases, this created an ambivalent situation not only to the chief but even to the
colonial government. It has already been established in this discussion that the presence of the colonial powers
created a dual form of authority: the ethnopolitical leaders of the land and colonial administration. It has also been
demonstrated that the activities of the colonizers undercut the authority of chief to the extent that his people with
time became only nominal subjects.

Seth Tweneboah
By delimiting and circumscribing the powers of the chief, the individual rights as a free citizen of the land were
greatly enhanced. This, among others, as has been argued, promoted several resistances against the chief especially
from the youth. What was problematic to the colonial government was that since the chief was an indispensable ally
in the mobilization of the people, any attempt to destabilize his (the chiefs) authority also had the ripple effect of
affecting the smooth administration and organization of the colony. Thus, should the modern youth succeed in
organizing destoolment against any unpopular chief, it would undercut the dual system of authority.
In most cases, the colonial administration fearing the consequences of the erosion of the authority of the chief on
their (colonialists) administration, enacted laws and Ordinances that sought to make destoolment less effective, if it
ever succeeded. For example, on April 21, 1927, the colonial administration enacted The Native Administration
Ordinance. This move sought to empower especially paramount chiefs whose positions were under constant threat
from the commoners. The Ordinance, with the blessing of the colonial governor, sought to withhold recognition of
destoolment. As expected, this did not go well with the local people hence the subsequent protest that ensued.
As has also been said earlier, in most cases, attempted destoolment cases were strictly punished by the chief. For
example, the 1918 failed destoolment plots and the attack on the office of the Paramount chief of Akim Abuakwa
was severely dealt with. Under conditions such as this, the chief and his elders became harsh and merciless towards
offenders; instituting sanctions, which, in most cases limited the rights of the masses.
So powerful was the friction between the chief and the educated elites that in 1919 the chiefs and elders of Akim
Abuakwa traditional council presented a petition to the Governor, urging that every educated African, whether he
be a lawyer, doctor, surveyor, engineer, or any other professional man, should be made to realize that he was still
bound by traditional loyalties.
31
Part of the petition argued that western education or accident of wealth or other advantages were merely privileges
|
and that these were not enough for one to lord it over others in the society, especially the leaders of the land. The
chief and his officers argued that It does seem to us that education in the proper sense of the word implies a
contempt of the existing authority. It was absurd for an educated man to refuse to go before his natural court of
justice because the president or councilors were not equally educated: we beg to sound a warning.
So intense was also the pressure mounted by western education that most of the chiefs who could not resist the
strong wave of it easily succumbed to its demands. Kimble reports that:
Toward the end of the century we find Hodgson writing approvingly that King Mate Kole had discarded native
dress, by reason of his education and therefore more enlightened ideas, and supporting his application to wear a
special uniform on occasions of state. The casting away of native customs including the wearing of chiefly
costumes by the king was not only a downplaying of the native ones but also a silent admission that European
styles of dress were important as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual superiority. Indeed it was the
European attempt to compel the indigenous societies of Africa to fit into the western model of modernization earlier
on indicated.

Seth Tweneboah
"the sensitiveness of some of the half-educated and un-educated

among the asafoatsemei appears to have been jarred by the sight of
these superior people reading their Petition together and laughing"
(Gold Coast 1926b, 5-8).
Dominic Fortescue
a petition to the Governor, urging that every educated African,

whether he be a lawyer, doctor, surveyor, engineer, or any other professional man,
should be made to realize that he was still bound by traditional loyalties.
... It does seem to us that education in the proper sense of the word implies a contempt
of the existing authority. It was absurd for an educated man to refuse to go
before his natural court of justice because the president or councilors
were not equally educated: we beg to sound a warning.
Seth Tweneboah

When the asafo did organise against the colonial government itself
in rural areas, educated urban nationalists, frequently members of the Aborigines' Rights
Protection Society, usually provided the leadership. the asafo and its ideology in an urban context, it provided
an effective vehicle for direct anti-colonial protest by the urban poor, in opposition not only to the government but
also to the urbane, anglicised coastal elite, who had no part in the protest.
32
|
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.
Dominic Fortescue

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.
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
Fante, the tufuhene was the next authoritative person after the ohene, or chief. The tufuhene could become a regent,
or even a chief himself.
Anshan Li
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
33
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against public work. Agbodeka points out: The refusal of the Gold Coast people to permit alien interference in their
affairs caused the British one particular difficulty, among others, that of obtaining labour, even paid labor, for public
works. To solve this problem, the government issued several ordinances.

The "opposition to established authority" was characterized by an increasing number of destoolments. The asafo
risings in 1915 -1918 in Akyem Abuakwa shared the same feature. Simensen suggests that the risings were not only
spontaneous protest reactions against various forms of exploitation but were a general expression on the political
level of increasing socioeconomic differentiation in Akyem Abuakwa. The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance passed in
1878 and enacted in 1883 remained the basis for the administration until 1927. In the Ordinance, nothing was
mentioned about the position of other political forces except the chiefs. The amended Ordinance in 1910 gave
traditional tribunals exclusive jurisdiction without either effective control from above or practical checks from
below. The chiefs took advantage of the situation, and cases of oppression and exploitation greatly increased.
Consequently, commoners organized as asafo began to fight back. Destoolment became the means of retaliation
most frequently used. During the three decades before 1920 more than seventy attempted destoolments occurred in
Akyem and Kwahu. The asafo's influence spread so rapidly that Governor Slater was surprised to discover in 1927
that in Akyem rural areas, the real power did not belong to the chief, but to the asafo leader.
This description outlined almost all the important features of the modem asafo system. First, it was new in
organization in terms of both its members and leaders. Although epithets such as "rabble of Kwahu" and
34
"desperados known as asafoakyes" were unpleasant, they did indicate that the members of asafo included the people
|
of lower class in the traditional sense. Second, being "independent of the natural rulers," the asafos main function
seemed to balance the chiefs authority, and was thus feared by the chief. Third, its aim was to make laws for the
chiefs and oppose the Native Administration Ordinance. The asafo became such a challenge to the established order
that chiefs desperately looked for help from outside.
Anshan Li

The company gods are consulted periodically during this time on such matters as how company members may best
be deployed in the hunt, where the best places are in which to find a deer, and what magical techniques should be
employed to ensure a catch or to hinder the rival company. In such consultations, company members direct questions
to the god via the company priest. He sits before a stone image of the god in a corner of a room within company
headquarters, his appearance trancelike, and answers questions in an unnatural, high-pitched voice, which is
believed to be that of the god.
Robert W. Wyllie
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 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.
A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie


Robert W. Wyllie
35
|
By way of contrast, and in the hope of further illuminating the problem of ritual continuity and change, ... 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,
and suggests certain revisions of Geertz' theoretical framework.
A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie
Dominic Fortescue
Throughout the 1930s, the asafo's involvement in local politics assumed an aggressive aspect. In 1930 the
nkwankwaa in Asante were outraged by the news that Kumasihene Nana Prempe I and his chiefs were considering a
law requiring that a percentage of a deceased person's property be given to the Kumasihene and his chiefs. In a letter
to the chief commissioner, the nkwankwaa reminded him of the case of Mensa Bonsu in 1883, whose overthrow was
caused by a similar measure. Following the chief commissioner's advice, Nana Prempe I dropped the issue.
Anshan Li
The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition The

asafo, objecting principally to the financial burdens of municipal government, rejected the Ga Mantse's suggestions
for involving the ARPS in the protest (West Africa 18 October 1924). When Tackie did eventually bring the two
groups together at the Rodger Club, an alliance proved impossible. According to Welman, "the sensitiveness of some
of the half-educated and un-educated among the asafoatsemei appears to have been jarred by the sight of these
superior people reading their Petition together and laughing" (Gold Coast 1926b, 5-8). Indeed, by 1925 the
36
In spite of the concern shown by post-independence African regimes with the urban crowd's political and economic
|
activities, historians have paid little attention to the crowd in colonial towns.' With the exception of South Africa,
where scholars have analyzed township life and the non-industrial working-class, most research on the African
working class has concentrated on the proletarianisation of colonial peasantries and the forms of association,
struggle, and protest adopted by waged labour once forced successfully into the workplace.
The existing literature has not only ignored the crowd's composition, organisation, and forms of protest but has
tended to concentrate on the new forms of association developed by Africans to deal with the novel colonial order in
the towns.

Dominic Fortescue
the importance of the Accra asafo companies in the resistance. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Gold Coast
asafo, a pre-colonial system of military organisation originating in the sixteenth century, had evolved a crucial
political role as the organisational and ideological mouthpiece of commoner interests. The economic implications of
the Municipal Corporations Ordinance constituted a vital factor in the protest, but it was 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, three of four studies of it analyze the asafo 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. Those involved were often
the literate and moderately wealthy beneficiaries of the cocoa boom, angered by their political impotence in
comparison to the increased local power of the corrupt, often illiterate chiefly elite. When the asafo did organise
general pre-colonial commoner consciousness. On this occasion, opposition motivated by such "inherent" forms of
ideology proved highly successful, forcing Governor Guggisberg to abandon all attempts at applying the legislation.
Roger S. Gocking
37
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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.

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. Prominent members of the ARPS had of course supported the Government's
plan from its inception, the scheme's electoral provisions promising such men real political power at a municipal
level. The asafo, objecting principally to the financial burdens of municipal government, rejected the Ga Mantse's
suggestions for involving the ARPS in the protest (West Africa 18 October 1924). When Tackie did eventually bring
the two groups together at the Rodger Club, an alliance proved impossible. According to Welman, "the sensitiveness
of some of the half-educated and un-educated among the asafoatsemei appears to have been jarred by the sight of
these superior people reading their Petition together and laughing" (Gold Coast 1926b, 5-8). Indeed, by 1925 the


and the Opposition
The asafo not only led the opposition to the Ordinance and quite independently of the Gold Coast's "men of affairs"
(Sampson 1937) but also clearly provided a crucial organisational framework from within which to mobilise the
Accra crowd (Rude 1964, 246). The people respected the asafoatsemei whose tribunals continued to function
effectively into the 1940s. The close-knit companies themselves furnished an important forum for leisure and
recreational activity and some Fanti companies even held land corporately (Datta 1972, 310). Nor did the asafo's
male nature entirely exclude women. Very occasionally, women captained companies (Ffoulkes 1908, 269). More
common was female membership of either their father's asafo company or else a parallel structure, described by
Casely Hayford as a "sort of commissariat department to the Company," cooking food in war and generally lending
emotional support.
Through this organisational framework, the crowd effectively applied pressure to those mantsemei who wavered in
their loyalties. At the first meeting of mantsemei and asafoatsemei, Welman described how the Osu Mantse, an
important witness for the Maxwell Committee and "naturally concerned not to be thought by his people to be
connected with the Municipal Corporations Ordinance," found "his conscience was quite clear of any complicity in
the details of the enactment which had just been put before the meeting in so unfavourable a light by Mr Garshong."
38
The Osu Mantse recounted: I rose up and asked my Asafobii and Osubii - "This is the case and you are present; may
|
I sign the petition? " - And they all said yes. I signed. Otherwise I do not know how they will deal with me.
According to Welman, "nobody was prepared to court popular misunderstanding" by refusing to sign the asafo's
petition and on this occasion, all but the Ga and James Town Mantses signed. Later, when the Gbese Mantse signed
as acting Ga Mantse, he did so, in his words, "to show I had not made one with the Ga Mantse to sell the country"
(Gold Coast 1926). The defection of the mantsemei under asafo pressure was for the Native Affairs Department at
least, "the most unfortunate feature of the whole affair" (Gold Coast 1925). As important as the asafo's
organisational presence was its provision of an ideology of legitimisation.
The asafo leaders also blamed the government and European companies for the poverty in the first place. They
condemned the mechanisation of cocoa transport from the railway station to the beach for "depriving the young men
and labourers of their work. Money which ought to go to the poor people is going to European firms." Garshong
attacked the government for having done so little to develop the country: We have never been encouraged to plant
and produce sugar or tobacco. We have oil palms but we have not been shown how to make soap, oil etc.... More
should be done to develop the natural resources of the country.... We have not been shown how to make chocolate so
that we can fix our own price.
Dominic Fortescue

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo

and the Opposition
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." "As long as the people are discontented and have no avenue of
redress," they said, "trouble will always ferment." The asafo, wrote its captains, "are fighting for their primordial
rights." British observers recognised the asafo's role but strongly disapproved, fearing that the affair was "being used
to drive home the unsound principle that government by the people means blind obedience by their 'ruler' to the will
of a mass meeting" (West Africa 13 December 1924).
Newlands found the James Town petitioners' attitude to the Ordinance's new licence fees most revealing. He wrote:
The imposition of new licences ... are regarded as "seriously prejudicing, curtailing and restricting not only the
rights and interests of the community" but as "interfering with their privileges and freedom as would be electors of
the Body Corporate." Continuing, Newlands stated that, "the average Gold Coast native is quite unused and
unreconciled" to direct taxation. While, "prepared to buy a postage stamp and to pay the customs duty on a parcel
reaching him from abroad," if forced to pay taxes, "he considers himself a victim of injustice and regards each
39
further payment as hardship." This attitude, Newlands believed, accounted "for the exaggerated language employed
|
in the passage quoted above" (Gold Coast 1926).
In Accra, the division between commoners and chiefs in pre-colonial times, and commoners and chiefs and the
educated elite under colonialism, was striking, while the development of even a waged working class was a limited
one. Successive Gold Coast Governors remained entirely committed to the colony's future as a supplier of raw
materials and a market for British manufactures. Neither a common relationship to the mode of production nor a
shared experience in the workplace united Accra's crowd. Nonetheless, they were poor, regarded themselves as such,
and, in spite of the colonial obsession with detribalisation and denationalisation, remained wedded to traditional
forms of authority and religion. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a pre-colonial, pre-capitalist form of
consciousness enshrined in the ideology of the asafo should have dominated urban consciousness in colonial Accra.
Such traditions have been a vital part of this analysis of urban protest in Accra, but neither the crowd nor the asafo
were relics of mid-colonialism.
The Convention People's Party (CPP) found its earliest urban support among the crowd, its market-women and
"verandah boys" as they were contemptuously called. And although the CPP's "derived" ideologies, its nationalism
and its socialism, swept the colonial order away, older notions informed popular ideology too (Hodgkin 1961, 36).
In rural areas, the asafo formed an important base from which Nkrumah won mass support. There are tantalising
glimpses, too, of the asafo and commoner ideology in urban areas.

Dominic Fortescue
The Accra Crowd, the Asafo and the Opposition

the persistence in an urban environment of a religious symbol system adjusted to peasant social structure". By way
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, and suggests
certain revisions of Geertz' theoretical framework.
40
|
Robert W. Wyllie
Essential to an understanding of the tribal social structure of the Effutu is the fact that the rule of double descent is
practiced. Both matrilineal and patrilineal descent are recognized in assigning individuals to two different categories
of descent group and in matters relating to inheritance of property and succession to political office.
The corporate character of the patrilineage is seen only when it is viewed as an integral part of the Asafo company
system which, since it plays such a prominent part in the Aboakyer ceremony, warrants a more detailed description
than the matrilineage system. 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, an important political force in the Oman.
Robert W. Wyllie

Dominic Fortescue
This article examines Accra's opposition to the British attempt at introducing a fully elective, fully self-financing
town council system. It aims first to contribute to the still largely unwritten history of the African crowd and its
forms of protest. Second, it establishes the importance of the Accra asafo companies in the resistance. By the mid-
nineteenth century, the Gold Coast asafo, a pre-colonial system of military organisation originating in the sixteenth
century, had evolved a crucial political role as the organisational and ideological mouthpiece of commoner interests.
The economic implications of the Municipal Corporations Ordinance constituted a vital factor in the protest, but it
was 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, three of four studies of it analyze the asafo 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. Those involved
were often the literate and moderately wealthy beneficiaries of the cocoa boom, angered by their political impotence
in comparison to the increased local power of the corrupt, often illiterate chiefly elite. When the asafo did organise
41
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general pre-colonial commoner consciousness. On this occasion, opposition motivated by such "inherent" forms of
ideology proved highly successful, forcing Governor Guggisberg to abandon all attempts at applying the legislation.
Dominic Fortescue
Anshan Li
Dominic Fortescue

Robert W. Wyllie
42
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The Omanhene, who is regarded as the spiritual and political head of the Oman, is nominated by the Queen Mother
(Ohemba) from among the male members of the royal matrilineage; An Omanhene may be deposed upon the
passing of a majority vote of no confidence by the State Council. Usually it is the leaders of the Asafo companies
who take the initiative in preparing and pressing deposition charges.
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.
The Omanhene, who is regarded as the spiritual and political head of the Oman, is nominated by the Queen Mother
(Ohemba) from among the male members of the royal matrilineage; her choice must be approved by the senior male
members of the martilineage before the assent of the commoners is sought in meeting of the Asafo companies. An
Omanhene may be deposed upon the passing of a majority vote of no confidence by the State Council. Usually it is
the leaders of the Asafo companies who take the initiative in preparing and pressing deposition charges.

Robert W. Wyllie
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.

Indirect rule was to aid the cultural self-determination of the African, and also prepare them for eventual self-
government. Education, primarily under the auspices of the various Christian denominations, with government
financial support, was encouraged. This led to the development of an African elite, many of whom obtained training
in England and the United States. However, little provision was made to absorb the educated African into the
government, either on the local level or in the central government.
It is interesting to compare the French and British policy in West Africa in this matter. The French, under their policy
of direct rule, aim for assimilation of the African into French culture and attempt to utilize the educated, French-
speaking native to promote their program. The British have unintentionallly been more successful in creating this
African elite than have the French, whose policy is aimed in this direction. The failure of the British to accord this
very verbal group a role in government was undoubtedly a major factor in the rise of nationalism in the Gold Coast.
43
The criticisms leveled by this educated group at the governmental system were many, but their complaints of the
|
political aspects can be stated briefly. First, there was not sufficient Africanization of the civil service and the
African people were not consulted concerning formulation of policy. Secondly, with the exception of the paramount
chiefs, a large majority of the chiefs and elders were illiterate, and thus incompetent to manage the affairs of the
people in modern times. In the same vein, they accused the chiefs of catering to the British to retain their positions,
and claimed the chiefs were being used by the British to suppress and delay the political development of the area.
Thirdly, the educated commoner, who was best qualified to serve, or to learn how to serve, had no role in
government.

At the turn of the century, however, a gradual volte-face occurred, as colonial policy shifted in favor of indirect rule
for even what the government called the "civilized" towns on the coast. Officials came to realize that they needed
the cooperation of the native order even in these locations. In order to carry out the rudimentary, sanitary measures
that these increasingly larger towns required, the British depended on the cooperation of some local authority
figures.
In these places, however, those who sought to benefit from this change in colonial policy could take advantage of
the attenuated condition of the native order to convince officials of their legitimacy and manipulate traditional
institutions to suit their own purposes. 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. Initially, the best opportunities for
such advancement in the traditional order lay in the asafos, or "companies" as they were called in English.
Roger S. Gocking

to the Municipal Corporations Ordinance, 1924 25
The Economic Context of the Disturbances

Initially, the British reacted decidedly unsympathetically to the disturbances. Guggisberg informed London that "It
has been the policy of those who oppose the Ga Mantse to represent themselves as being a united body of people
voicing the unanimous wish of a long-suffering community," a claim he rejected. Accra officialdom believed the
Ordinance had given "the adversaries of the Ga Mantse an opportunity which they were not slow to seize, alleging
that the bill had been passed after consultation with him" (Gold Coast 1925b, 4).
Guggisberg admitted to the Legislative Council that "such strong local opposition" forced the holding of the
Newlands enquiry, which quickly found that "public opinion in Accra is emphatically against the application of the
Municipal Corporations Ordinance" (Gold Coast 1926a, 137; Gold Coast 1926b, 11-12). It also became obvious
immediately that Accra's populace objected to the Ordinance largely on economic grounds. Newlands reported: "the
financial condition of the inhabitants of the town of Accra is such that they are unable to assume ... the fresh burdens
or the hardship ... of carrying out the new scheme of municipal government." The property transfer tax and new
taxes on drumming and concerts proved very unpopular and the increase in market and hawking fees "met with a
great deal of criticism." The new provisions for the rates, which he conceded exempted only "the poorest of the
poor," "raised a storm of opposition."
44
The financial burdens of the Municipal Corporations Ordinance and the economic position of Accra's crowd are vital
|
to an understanding of the opposition to town councils in 1924. Even so, the urban crowd was not easily mobilised.
The Accra poor held diverse interests and views which were not necessarily radical. Vulnerable and needy, the poor
often acted conservatively. Here, then, an analysis of the asafo's involvement, its ideology and its organisation, is
essential to a proper understanding of the protest.


Dominic Fortescue
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.
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
Fante, the tufuhene was the next authoritative person after the ohene, or chief. The tufuhene could become a regent,
or even a chief himself.
45
against public work. Agbodeka points out: The refusal of the Gold Coast people to permit alien interference in their
|
affairs caused the British one particular difficulty, among others, that of obtaining labour, even paid labor, for public
works. To solve this problem, the government issued several ordinances.
The "opposition to established authority" was characterized by an increasing number of destoolments. The asafo
risings in 1915 -1918 in Akyem Abuakwa shared the same feature. Simensen suggests that the risings were not only
spontaneous protest reactions against various forms of exploitation but were a general expression on the political
level of increasing socioeconomic differentiation in Akyem Abuakwa. The Native Jurisdiction Ordinance passed in
1878 and enacted in 1883 remained the basis for the administration until 1927.
In the Ordinance, nothing was mentioned about the position of other political forces except the chiefs. The amended
Ordinance in 1910 gave traditional tribunals exclusive jurisdiction without either effective control from above or
practical checks from below. The chiefs took advantage of the situation, and cases of oppression and exploitation
greatly increased. Consequently, commoners organized as asafo began to fight back. Destoolment became the means
of retaliation most frequently used. During the three decades before 1920 more than seventy attempted destoolments
occurred in Akyem and Kwahu. The asafo's influence spread so rapidly that Governor Slater was surprised to
discover in 1927 that in Akyem rural areas, the real power did not belong to the chief, but to the asafo leader.

This description outlined almost all the important features of the modem asafo system. First, it was new in
organization in terms of both its members and leaders. Although epithets such as "rabble of Kwahu" and
"desperados known as asafoakyes" were unpleasant, they did indicate that the members of asafo included the people
of lower class in the traditional sense. Second, being "independent of the natural rulers," the asafos main function
seemed to balance the chiefs authority, and was thus feared by the chief. Third, its aim was to make laws for the
chiefs and oppose the Native Administration Ordinance. The asafo became such a challenge to the established order
that chiefs desperately looked for help from outside.
Anshan Li
46
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Communion.
Michelle Gilbert
Valsecchi, Pierluigi & Viti, Fabio

Akan Worlds - Identity and Power in West Africa.
In precolonial times, the chief was identical with government, uniting executive, judicial, and religious functions.
Colonial governments created parallel local government institutions to diminish chiefs' political roles. While British
indirect rule left limited functions like customary law, local taxation, and road maintenance with "Native
Authorities"-though govenors had to confirm appointments and destooled chiefs-Nkrumah even abolished post-war
Local Authority legislation and the 1951 Native Authority Law, the 1959 Chiefs' Recognition and 1961 Chieftaincy
Acts further reduced chiefly authority. But no government dared nationalize stool lands, confiscate royalties, or
abolish chiefs' judicial role even though all tried to dismember the institution.
Andreas MASSING
any scheme of reform." The Accra Crowd, the Asafo,
Dominic Fortescue

Jarle Simensen
In early November 1915 commoners from all parts of the indigenous state of Kwahu in the Gold Coast Colony
gathered at Abetifi, the seat of the leading divisional chief. From there they sent hammock-men to Abene, the
ancient capital, to bring the paramount chief, the Omanhene Kwaku Akuamoa, to their meeting, and under threat of
boycott of his palace and tribunal they forced him to sign a comprehensive set of rules regulating political and
economic affairs in the state. Two years later the regulations were elaborated in an impressive document formally
approved by the omanhene and his principal divisional chiefs as bylaws to be enforced in the traditional courts of
Kwahu. The document, later referred to as the Magna Carta of Kwahu, merits closer attention as a starting point for
an analysis of the movement behind it: the commoner organization known as asafo.
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. 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. Indigenous states refers to the traditional kingdoms of southern Ghana, which in British documents were most
47
often called kingdoms during the nineteenth century, divisions during the first period of colonial rule, and native
|
states from the time of the Native Administration Ordinance of 1927. Legally, local bylaws could only be enforced
after the governor had approved them.
The New Asafo Organization

One of the most interesting aspects of the Kwahu story is the opportunity it provides for observing the connection
between socioeconomic change and organizational innovation at a grass-roots level. Central here is the
transformation of the old asafo organization in response to the commoners' growing need for an independent
political instrument. No contemporary evidence is available on the form and function of the asafo companies in the
precolonial period. However, in the many inquiries into Kwahu disputes instituted by the British after 1901, in
particular in the extensive Fieldgate Enquiry of 1932, we have numerous detailed statements about the structure of
the asafo organization in the precolonial era.
Although originating from two opposing parties in the conflict-from chiefs and asafo leaders-these descriptions of
the old system basically concur with each other, and with the account J.B. Danquah gives of the traditional asafo
organization in Akim Abuakwa in his writings. We are therefore on fairly safe ground in reconstructing the basic
features of the asafo organization of the precolonial period. The old asafo was said to have originated primarily for
military purposes and was integrated into the traditional authority structure of the Kwahu state.

Jarle Simensen
Each town or village had from one to three companies, each of which was said to have been established as a section
of five national companies, the Apesemaka, the Akomfudi, the Ampuli, the Asagya, and the Kyere Amin. At both
village and national levels the company system was headed by stool-holding subchiefs or elders who in times of war
became generals, or asafohemfo (sing., asafohene), of the omanhene. 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.
In destoolment cases the commoners similarly were allowed only a secondary role, with the elders normally taking
the initiative and always holding a veto. However, commoner leaders claimed at the Fieldgate and other inquiries
that the asafo also had always had the right to call the chiefs to account, and that never "in the long history of
Kwahu" had they refused to answer them.
The omanhene admitted that in the precolonial period the commoners had occasionally acted outside the traditional
company system "for evil purpose." Thus, certain tendencies toward independent commoner political action may
have been inherent in the Kwahu system. All accounts agree, however, that important changes in the form and
function of the Kwahu asafo were taking place at the beginning of the colonial period. The new asafo consisted of
all the commoners of a town or village, who met in one body to elect joint leaders, usually one or two, independent
of the traditional companies.
The new officers carried the title of asafoakyefo (sing., asafoakye), borrowed from the coastal Ga-Adangme area. To
enforce internal discipline, they had their own oaths and tribunals and special gong-gongs for public announcements.
To the chiefs the asafoakyefo embodied the political challenge of the strengthened class of commoners. The
48
Omanhene Akuamoa Boaten described the new asafo thus: "It comprises the rabble of Kwahu, commoners of the
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villages headed by desperadoes known as asafoakyes... instead of stool captains. They are quite independent of their
rulers, have their own oaths and aim at making law for the chiefs. ... The 'Asafo Kyenku' of Kwahu is in all but in
name a Boshevic [sic] or communist society seeking to pull down the native administration."
The most revolutionary feature of the new Kwahu asafo was their development of an organization for concerted
action at the state level, the asafo oman (oman means state). Beginning with a mass meeting at Nkwatia on the death
of the Omanhene Amoako III in 1905, joint "national" meetings of the town asafo became a regular feature of
Kwahu political life. Asafo gong-gongs taken from one town to another called the members together, and the
asafoakye of Abetifi, the seat of the leading divisional chief, was recognized as the overall leader.
District Commissioner Crowther, inquiring into the organization in 1906, concluded that "it embodies in one
organization the people of Kwahu," and that it was "far removed in principle and purpose" from the company system
in the coastal states. Of crucial importance is that the scale of organization among the commoners now matched that
of the chiefs. Faced with an assembly of several thousand people under organized leadership, the omanhene was
bound to make concessions.

Jarle Simensen
The charter of 1917 had been forced on him in the same way. Although we know that educated people headed the
national asafo from the beginning, information is scarce on the role of the different social groups in the movement.
We do not know, for instance, whether the traders, salaried workers, and cash crop farmers-the groups most affected
by the money economy-contributed a particularly militant element. Members of the royal families, the adehye, who
were not holders of political office were in principle asafo members, and the asafoakyefo were frequently chosen
from among younger members of the chiefly families who in many instances later became chiefs. This factor, of
course, indicates the danger of overemphasizing the dichotomy between the political elite and the commoners in
Kwahu society. For instance, an element of generational conflict in the system merits closer consideration. None of
the other inland states in the Gold Coast developed an asafo organization at the state level.
In Akim Abuakwa the local town asafo seems to have undergone a similar development during the first two decades
of the new century, detaching itself from the traditional authority structure and electing its commoner leaders. In
1918, however, attempts at asafo action at the state level were promptly suppressed by the omanhene, Ofori Atta,
and the British district commissioner. Among the coastal states the asafo shared a national leader in the tufuhene,
who had a seat on the state council, but the constant rivalry and occasional ferocious infighting between the different
local companies prevented effective joint action nationally.
The explanation for the exceptional strength of the Kwahu asafo must be sought in several directions. The leading
asafoakye of the early 1930s, E.R. Addow, maintained that the first asafo oman was founded some time before 1873
as an instrument in the fight against the Ashanti yoke, more particularly to prevent the Ashantis from wresting
control of the Awurahai salt monopoly from the Kwahus. Such precedents may have come to mind when the new
asafo oman was created during the colonial period. More important for our concerns must be the speed of economic
and educational change in Kwahu at the turn of the century and the fact that the form commercialization took
strengthened the commoners disproportionately to the chiefs. In fact, it would have been difficult to explain had
socioeconomic changes on this scale not resulted in pressure to adjust the political system to match the new social
balance.
49
Geography is another relevant factor; all the politically important towns and villages of Kwahu were situated within
|
a distance of twelve to fifteen miles. Commoners could therefore assemble at national meetings without too great a
cost in time and money, unlike the situation in, for example, Akim Abuakwa. The secretary for native affairs in 1918
characterized this as "the main curse of Kwahu"; "all the towns are too close together." Finally, the lack of unity
among the elite under strong leadership of the kind provided by Ofori Atta in Akim naturally gave the commoners a
wider scope for large-scale organization.

Jarle Simensen
The Asafo Offensive: 1905-1918

The commoner offensive was initiated in 1905. The immediate occasion was the death of the Omanhene Kwame
Apeadu, under whose reign the fees and fines of the traditional tribunals had risen to an extraordinarily high level.
On the election of his successor, Akuamoa IV, a national meeting of the asafo was called at Nkwatia to force a
reduction of tribunal scales. The assembly's bargaining position was strong at the time, for the new omanhene had
inherited financial difficulties. Moreover, his standing with the British was very low. Confronted with a formidable
mass of commoners under organized leadership he backed down, and accepted scales for fees and fines well below
the stipulations of the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance of 1883.
In fact, the oath fee of the omanhene of Kwahu was about a third of the corresponding fee in the neighboring states.
In return, the asafo collected a tax of one shilling a head, totaling between ?300 and ?350, to relieve the omanhene's
economic straits. The pact of 1905 was a new departure in Kwahu history. Through the new asafo organization,
commoners had emerged as an independent force able to check the power of the chiefs and elders in the crucial area
of judicial administration. The chiefs repeatedly tried to break the contract, arguing that the rules were outside the
scope of the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance; later they alleged that Kwahu was becoming a refuge for criminals
because of its strong asafo and its low scale of fines. They appealed to Crowther, but he ruled that the compact of
1905 must stand as a binding voluntary agreement.
The main sanction the asafo used to uphold the 1905 agreement in the decade that followed was destoolment action
against defaulting chiefs. Thus they instituted proceedings at Aduamoa in 1906 and at Mpraeso in 1908.30 On the
latter occasion they charged the omanhene and the headman of Mpraeso, the omanhene's brother-in-law, Kwajo
Kissi, of trying to push up the adultery fees without commoner consent. The defendants in turn condemned moneyed
young men who came back from the mines in Sekondi and "frequently seduce[d] the wives of those who remained
in town by extremely coaxing such wives in giving or promising them big money."
The announcement of the new rates precipitated a major rising; the asafo attacked the messengers of the chiefs and
"mill[ed] through the streets in great numbers with clubs and cutlasses and plentiful supply of strong drinks." They
removed the chief from office and sent the provincial commissioner a detailed list of charges against him.
Altogether, three paramount chiefs were destooled between 1907 and 1917. Elders and rival candidates were clearly
involved in the Aduamoa and Mpraeso incidents, but all observers agreed that the primary initiative was now
obviously in the hands of the people. The omanhene complained that the new asafo organization had brought
"rebellions and disorder" to his state, and appealed to the British for its suppression.
A Kwahu correspondent to the Gold Coast Leader complained that

"all the present chiefs hold their posts mechanically, fearing the populace and
expecting every moment a destoolment, so that aristocracy is giving way
50
The new popular political ambitions became apparent in the course of stool elections as well. During a dispute at
|
Mpraeso in 1918 asafo leaders went so far as to argue that "the majority carries the vote... and we all know that it is
very commonly done in our district and according to custom." They claimed that the principle of numerical
democracy had been accepted by District Commissioner H.J. Hobbs, who had counted the houses of contending
parties on several occasions. Thus the charter of 1917 was the culmination of a decade's political offensive. The
tribunal regulations mainly confirmed the contract imposed on the chiefs in 1905. However, wartime problems
sharpened social conflict and increased commoner militancy. Farmers suffered severely from low cocoa prices.
Simultaneously the cost of imported goods rose, which in turn induced the local traders to push up market prices on
domestic foodstuffs. Under such conditions maladministration by the traditional rulers must have been felt
particularly keenly.

Jarle Simensen
What was new in 1917 was that the asafo, in addition to curbing fees and fines, also claimed the right to legislate to
control food prices. From there they arrogated to themselves powers of judicial administration. The starting point for
the asafo judicial offensive was the recognized right of the asafo companies to regulate their internal affairs. For this
purpose the asafoakyefo had their own oaths and tribunals for disciplinary action. But defining the precise
boundaries between internal and external matters was difficult in an organization which comprised practically the
whole population of the state. As early as 1906 Crowther noticed a tendency among the asafoakyefo to act as
arbitrators, a function he accepted while disclaiming their right to enforce judgment. After 1917 the situation was
different; the asafo now tended to regard the economic regulations of the charter as their own laws. People breaking
the market rules, even strangers from Akim, were arrested and fined by the asafoakyefo.
Politically, indirect rule was designed to exclude the educated elite from power both locally and centrally, and for
this purpose as well the position of the traditional chiefs had to be a strong one. Cultural arguments were developed
to reinforce the political and administrative ones. Clifford elaborated on the danger that the modernization process
might "demoralize and emasculate" the people because it destroyed the tribal system. The solution was to "abide
strictly by native constitutional law and custom," and "strengthen among the natives their natural loyalty to the
chiefs." Such ideas justified a restrictive policy toward the asafo, and Clifford concluded that "if the asafo is allowed
to exert... its authority in opposition to that of the chiefs it will be impossible for the latter to carry out the
administration of the tribe." Developments in Kwahu in the period that followed were to prove that an extension of
asafo power was irreconcilable with colonial control. In 1919 the omanhene was asked to give his opinion on
Clifford's new Native Jurisdiction Bill but he refused, saying that he was afraid of an asafo reaction.

By 1930 the asafo leaders wanted to impose representative reform on the state council as well, arguing in particular
that without representation taxation of the kind levied by the omanhene in 1929 was unacceptable. On this point the
commoners had experienced a set-back in the Native Administration Ordinance of 1927. On the basis of that
ordinance the government had decided to codify and gazette the composition of the state councils as customary law.
The Kwahu chiefs had then submitted a very restricted list of members, entirely excluding popular representation. In
addition, the omanhene had manipulated the council membership until it had become, in the judgment of one British
officer, "a cabal of the Omanhene's friends."
A Kwahu correspondent to the Gold Coast Leader complained that "all the present chiefs hold their posts
mechanically, fearing the populace and expecting every moment a destoolment, so that aristocracy is giving way
51
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To asafo leaders with rising political ambitions and a well-developed national organization behind them, this was an
intolerable development. The Kwahu commoners were aware that the Native Administration Ordinance represented
a change for the worse in other respects as well. It had increased the chiefs' judicial powers without providing
stricter central control. It had created the provincial councils of paramount chiefs, which in 1931 intervened in the
Kwahu conflict on the omanhene's side. The asafo had been quick to protest the ordinance, refusing to allow the
omanhene to attend the first provincial council meeting and staging a riotous demonstration at Nkwatia when the
ordinance went into effect in 1928.
The Omanhene Akuamoah Boaten II had been forced to abdicate as a result of this unrest, which was coordinated to
some extent with a country-wide campaign against the new constitutional legislation.
In the 1920s coastal politicians were charging the British with incorporating the chiefs into the structure of colonial
government in order to hold back democratic pressure both at the local and at the central levels. Through
newspapers and informal contacts, the educated asafo leaders were no doubt well aware of the great constitutional
debate. From this perspective, the Kwahu offensive has a place in a larger context of anticolonial protest. Yet
compared to asafo action in Akim Abuakwa, the anticolonial aspect was subdued in Kwahu.

Jarle Simensen
Dominic Fortescue
During the 1930s it became increasingly clear that the chiefs were incapable of acting as effective agents of a local
development administration. Both in agriculture and in sanitation, British officers were obliged to rely on direct
administrative intervention or the creation of ad hoc committees recruited from among the more enlightened
members of the community. In Kwahu, however, the district commissioner reported in 1935 that an effort to bring
three wealthy and influential commoners into a town committee was abandoned in the face of opposition from a
number of elders, "all in a state of senile decay," who regarded the presence of commoners on the board as "a sign of
insubordination to their elders."
Jarle Simensen

52
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Dominic Fortescue

A Ghanaian Example
Robert W. Wyllie
A Ghanaian Example
the formation of asafo group, whose founders were mostly of the educated
youth. by 1915 the youngmen of Kwahu decided to make use of the traditional form
of organization as an outlet for their economic grievances, and founded their own Asafo
Seth Tweneboah
53

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Union Jack CEOs

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

how close the Ashantis conceive the bond to be that

The positions of stool occupant (ohene: chief) and abusua panyin

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

Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example

The company gods are consulted periodically during this time

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

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

An inquiry into the origin and development of a Ghanaian institution

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

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

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

Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example

Superimposed upon, and interlinked with,

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

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

a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

Ritual and Social Change:

The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

Asafo and Destoolment

The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

This is especially the case outside the urban area, where

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo,

When the asafo did organise against the colonial government

We have never been encouraged to plant and produce sugar or tobacco.

In rural areas, the asafo formed an important base

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

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo,

In rural areas, the asafo formed an important base

A Kwahu correspondent to the Gold Coast Leader complained that

Asafo and Destoolment

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

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

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

In Accra, the division between commoners and chiefs in

at the Rodger Club, an alliance proved impossible. According to Welman,

We are the people:

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo,

The basic unit in Akan social and political structure is

The Role of Alcohol

The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

the asafo's involvement which moulded the disparate elements of

a Ghanaian tribal ceremony that persists and flourishes

The company gods are consulted periodically during this time

This is especially the case outside the urban area, where

Ritual and Social Change:

Although the asafo emerged initially in the Colony's coastal towns,

The Sacred Nature of the Akan Chief and its Implications

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

Ritual and Social Change: A Ghanaian Example

The Accra Crowd, the Asafo, and the Opposition

Superimposed upon, and interlinked with, these traditional groupings

Asafo and Destoolment

Asafo and Destoolment

African Political Systems - 1950-51