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A note on the Asante akonkofo: a non-literate Sub-elite, 1900–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Kwame Arhin
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Extract

Following the growing interest in recent years in social stratification in Asante in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Arhin, 1983a: 2–22; 1983b: 475; McCaskie, 1983: 23–44; Wilks, 1975: 166–719), this note offers a preliminary study of a body of men who became known in Kumasi and the capital towns of the other Asante chiefdoms – in particular Bekwai, Juaben and Mampon – as the akonkofo in the first phase of colonial rule, 1896–1930. The argument of the paper, written in the light of the views of Daaku (1970, 1971) is that the akonkofo, an intermediary group between office holders and non-holders of office (Arhin, 1983a) could emerge as a distinctive sociopolitical category only in the colonial period. The first section of this article, on the origin of the akonkofo, describes the factors that inhibited the rise of ‘merchant princes’ in Asante before colonial rule; the second, on the akonkofo in Kumasi, offers a kind of social portrait of the akonkofo; and the third section, on the position of the akonkofo in Asante society, examines the relationship of the akonkofo to traditional authority. My sources are archival and written. I have also recorded interviews with Barima Owusu-Ansah, over seventy-five years old, and a leading authority on Asante law and constitution, and with Baffour Osei Akoto, senior spokesman (okyeame) of the Asantehene and just turned seventy, as well as conversations with sundry officials at the Asantehene's court.

Résumé

Un mot sur les akonkofo de l'Asante: une sous-élite non littéraire, 1896–1930

Le thèse de cet écrit est que les akonkofo, groupe intermédiaire en Asante entre les officiels et les non-officiels, ne pourraient émerger en tant que catégorie socio-économique à part entière qu'au cours de la période coloniale. La première partie, traitant des origines des akonkofo, décrit les facteurs qui freinérent l'essor des ‘princes marchands’ en Asante avant la domination coloniale. La seconde partie révèle un certain portrait social des akonkofo à Koumase. La troisième partie examine les rapports des akonkofo avec l'autorité traditionnelle. Il est démontré que, bien qu'ils fussent illettrés, les akonkofo furent les précurseurs de l'intelligentsia moderne de l'Asante.

Type
Akan social history
Information
Africa , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 25 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1986

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