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Power and Dynastic Conflict in Mampon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

T.C. McCaskie
T.C. McCaskie*
Affiliation:
Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
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Extract

The analysis of the relationship between oral and written documentation and the expression or articulation of political power and interest is now extremely sophisticated for the Asante case, yet it remains obstinately one-sided, as Asante history has tended to be interpreted from the political center, Kumase. Some scholars have intermittently called for another, more broadening and less constraining, perspective, and a very few have acted upon this plea by considering the nature of historic Asante society from various points on the ‘periphery.’ Among other things the present paper is a contribution to this ill-developed but much-needed ‘view from the periphery,’ even though the ‘periphery’ in the present case is as politically central as could be envisaged without resorting to the heavily researched Kumase perspective. I deal here essentially with oral historical perceptions of power--and struggles for it and validations of it--in the major territorial division of Mampon, but first I address one or two more general points, obvious perhaps, but usefully alluded to in the present context nonetheless.

First, there is now a respectably large literature concerning the use (and usefulness) of African oral historical materials. This literature evinces two broad tendencies. One is a very proper scepticism about and mistrust of the regrettably widespread reliance on unsupported oral tradition. The other is an intellectualist attempt to divorce such traditions from ‘actual’ historical experience by interpreting them within a synchronic, often ‘structuralist,’ framework. Both approaches are valid, but they are ultimately ordained by a simple absence of ‘external’ or qualifying data. Asante is favored here in the sense that the ability to cross-check between oral memory and the written record is the most developed for all of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 12 , 1985 , pp. 167 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1895

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References

NOTES

1. In deliberating on present matters I have incurred intellectual debts; I should like to thank Joseph and Richard Agyeman-Duah, Charles Osei-Bonsu, Otumfuo the Asantehene Opoku Ware II, Ronald Atkinson, Ivor Wilks, and the late Meyer Fortes.

2. The most honorable instance here is the work of Kwahe Arhin. Two others have influenced me in this regard. They are Maier, D.J.E., Priests and Power: the aase of the Dente Shrine in Nineteenth-Century Ghana (Bloomington, 1983)Google Scholar and Yarak, Larry, “Elmina and Greater Asante in the Nineteenth Century,” (unpublished paper, 1984).Google Scholar It is to be hoped that this important essay in regional history, based at one remove on the author's “Asante and the Dutch: a case study in the history of Asante administration, 1744-1873” (Ph.D., Northwestern, 1983)Google Scholar, will shortly be published. Asante history, as noted here, very badly needs a perspective other than that of Kumase.

3. See several of the essays collected in Miller, Joseph C., ed., The African Past Speaks (Folkestone, 1982).Google Scholar I find this to be a besetting weakness in the work of the ‘Madison’ school—and notably Vansina and Feierman. But perhaps its most extreme expression comes in the work of Luc de Heusch, the ‘purest’ follower of Levi-Strauss in African studies.

4. For some indication see the chronological divisions in Manning, Patrick, Slavery, Colonialism and Economie Growth in Dahomey, 1640-1960 (Cambridge, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The work of the late Werner Peukert labors under similar difficulties.

5. The best example here is the work of historians--and most notably Elizabeth Isichei--on the Igbo.

6. The anthropological data are in Rattray MSS., Royal Anthropological Institute, London, and Fortes MSS., African Studies Centre, Cambridge University. I am most grateful to the late Meyer Fortes for according me access to MSS. not on public deposit.

7. See Institute of African Studies, Legon (henceforth IAS) AS/33, “Ceremony of Enstoolment of Otumfuo Asantehene, May 1963;” Hagan, G.P., “The Golden Stool and the Oaths to the King of Ashanti,” Research Review, [IAS], 4/3 (1968), 1–33Google Scholar; Kyerematen, A.A.Y., Kingship and Ceremony in Ashanti (Kumase, n.d.).Google Scholar For a historical example, the refusal of Owusu Sekyere Kuma to take part in the 1888 enstoolment of Asantehene Agyeman Prempe I, see Barnett's account in B.P.P., LXXV, C5615, 1888, Further Correspondence respecting the affairs of the Gold Coast.

8. See--and variously produced--“Traditional History of Ashanti Mampong,” recorded by J. Agyeman-Duah from Kwaku Dua Agyeman and Afua Sapon, Kumase, April 1959.

9. Ivor Wilks, Interview with Nana Kwaku Dua, former Mamponhene, Kumase, 5 April 1960. I am most grateful to Wilks for making his interviews on Asante matters available to me.

10. Rattray, R.S., Ashanti Law and Constitution (Oxford, 1929), 40, 82Google Scholar; see further the same author's Ashanti Proverbs (Oxford, 1916).Google Scholar

11. The best summary is Wilks, , “Land, Labour, Capital and the Forest Kingdom of Asante: A Model of Early Change” in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M., eds., The Evolution of Social Systems (London, 1977), 487–534.Google Scholar See too the same author's “The State of the Akan and the Akan States: A Discursion,” Cahiers d'études Africaines, 87/88 (1983), 231–49.Google Scholar Although I have yet to devote time to the details, Wilks' argument here requires re-examination. Much of his anthropological perspective seems to derive from Mary Douglas' views of matriliny; and for historical material he seems overly dependent on Kea and Vogt.

12. For the use of this aphorism in the case of the Kumase Oyoko see, Manhyia Record Office, Kumase (henceforth MRO), “The History of the Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself,” dictated by Asantehene Agyeman Prempe I and recorded by T.A. Prempeh (commenced 6 August 1907 in the Seychelles).

13. See McCaskie, T.C., “R.S. Rattray and the Construction of Asante History: An Appraisal,” HA, 10 (1983), 187–206.Google Scholar

14. Rattray, , Ashanti Law, esp. 13, 242–86.Google Scholar See too Rattray MSS., no. 7. For the family of Ose! Bonsu I am grateful for information from Charles Osei-Bonsu.

15. Rattray, MSS. No. 7; idem., Ashanti Law, 235-55, and most especially 235 footnote 1, 236 footnote 3, and Figures 67 and 68.

16. MRO, Kumase, File 18/46, Tena Family Mampong, Tanahemaa Adwowa Bikae & Tanahene E.D. Appiah to the Ashanti Confederacy Council, Mampon, 17 January 1946.

17. Ibid., Minute of a statement made by Mamponhene Owusu Seky-ere Abonyawa before the Mampon Sub-divisional council, February 1946. See further ibid., Mamponhene to Ashanti Confederacy Council, Mampon, 8 February 1946.

18. Ibid., Botaasehene Kwabena Byima, Kwaku Dua, etc., to Otum-fuo the Asantehene, Kumase, 21 February 1946.

19. MRO, Kumase, File 18/46, Tena Family Mampon, Tanahemaa and Tanahene to Asantehene, Mampon, 7 August 1945.

20. Ibid., Secretary of Ashanti Confederacy Council to E.D. Appiah, Kumase, 31 October 1946.

21. Ibid., Tanahemaa and Tanahene to Ashanti Confederacy Council, Mampon, 17 January 1946. See further, same to same, Kumase, 1 March 1946.

22. Ibid., Statement taken under oath from Tanahemaa, Mampon, 20 January 1946 (in substantiation of her letter of 17 January).

23. For a revealing confusion in the text see Rattray, , Ashanti (Oxford, 1923), 285n4.Google Scholar

24. MRO, Kumase, File 18/46, Tena Family Mampon, Owusu Sekyere Abonyawa to Asantehene, Mampon, 8 February 1946.

25. Ibid., Tanahemaa to Ashanti Confederacy Council, Mampon, 21 February 1946. See too Tanahemaa to Asantehene, Mampon, 2 April 1946 and Asantehene to Mamponhene, Kumase, 2 April 1946.

26. Versions of the case are contained in the following: MRO, Kumase, File 18/46; MRO, Kumase, sub-divisional council minutes, Mampon; MRO, Kumase, File 166/32/V2, Mampong Native Affairs. An incomplete but illuminating digest is in IASAS/CR 47: The Mampong-Tana Clan Affairs. For Agyeman Prempe II's view see MRO, Kumase, “The History of Asante,” MS. prepared by a committee of traditional authorities, n.d. (but the 1940s).

27. I cannot pursue the matter here but would refer readers to Wilks, , Asante in the Ninteenth Century (Cambridge, 1975), 371n174.Google Scholar

28. The fine extracted was utilized in the creation of the Dadiesoaba stool in the Gyaase fekuo of Kumase.

29. IASAS/CR: 47, A Typescript Document entitled the Mampong-Tana Clan Affairs, 17-18.

30. For a summary see Wilks, , Asante, 333–43.Google Scholar A succinct presentation is in ACBP/28: Kwaadu Yaadom.

31. Wilks, , “Land, Labour, Capital,” 522–26Google Scholar, and McCaskie, T.C., “Accumulation, Wealth and Belief in Asante History: I, to the Close of the Nineteenth Century,” Africa, 53 (1983), 23–43.Google Scholar

32. Bowdich, T.E., Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (London, 1819), 229–30.Google Scholar

33. Asantehene Agyeman Prempe I, “History of the Ashanti Kings,” 1-4.

34. MRO, Kumase, File 18/46, Tena Family Mampon, Tanahemaa and Tanahene to Ashanti Confederacy Council, Kumase, 1 March 1947; Mamponhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 28 March 1947; Tanahemaa and Tanahene to Ashanti Confederacy Council, Mampon, 16 May 1947; D.C. (Mampon) to Asantehene, Mampon, 29 August 1947; Tanahene to Asantehene, Kumase, 8 October 1947; Tanahemaa and Tanahene to D.C. (Mampon), Mampon, 3 May 1948; Asantehene to D.C. (Mampon), Kumase, 12 June 1948; Tanahene to D.C. (Mampon), Mampon, 18 October 1948.

35. The historical evidence can only be summarised very briefly here. For Owusu Sekyere Panin see Wilks, , Asante, 104, 116, 251, 694Google Scholar; for Oduro Firikyi see RAI, Rattray MSS., 4, commenced 4 June 1925, especially ‘B’ and General State Archives, The Hague, ARA, MK3965, Journal of the Factory Officer J. Simons, 1831-32; for Abonyawa Kwadwo see Methodist Missionary Society, London, Wharton to General Secretaries, Kumase, 9 November 1846; for Kwabena Dwemo see in particular T.C. McCaskie, Interviews with Boakye Tenten (Kofi Apea Agyei), Kumase, 1975-76; for Kwame Adwetewa see Lewin, Thomas, “The Structure of Political Conflict in Asante 1875-1900,” (Ph.D., Northwestern, 1974), 170–73Google Scholar and Wilks, , Asante, 551–53.Google Scholar For Yaw Boakye see B.P.P., LV, C4477, 1885, Further Correspondence respecting the affairs of the Gold Coast, Report by Brandon Kirby, 15 April 1884; for Owusu Sekyere Kuma's destoolment see Wilks, , Asante, 579–84Google Scholar; for Kwame Apea Osokye see MRO, Kumase, “A History of Nana Prempeh's Adventure during his 30 years captivity,” Kumase, 13 April 1925; for Osusu Sekyere Kuma under the British see MRO, Kumase, File M/113, Mampon and (Illustratively) Rattray, Ashanti Proverbs, frontispiece; for the installation and destoolment of Owusu Sekyere Abonyawa see MRO, Kumase, File 166/32/V2, Mampong Native Affairs, Asantehene to D.C. (Mampon), Kumase, 31 March 1936 and Minutes of the Mampon State Council in re Mampon vs. Mamponhene Owusu Sekyere Abonyawa, 12 September 1951 and enclosures; and for Safo Katanka see ibid., Asantehene to D.C. (Mampon), Kumase, 3 March 1952 and Mamponhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 22 January 1958. The historical chronology of the Mampon stool is well understood, but the historical data are highly resistant to brief summary. Indicators may be found in the references cited here.

36. Wilks, Asante, and Lewin, , Asante Before the British (Lawrence, Kansas, 1978)Google Scholar, have the most easily accessible details. Osei Bonsu's own views are in MRO, Kumase, Correspondence File 1920-5, Osei Bonsu to CCA., Mampon, 9 May 1924.

37. National Archives of Ghana, Kumase, File D.91, Mamponhene to D.C. (Adwira), Mampon, 7 January 1920.

38. MRO, Kumase, File 166/32/V2, Mamponhene to Amma Sewaa Mmorassa, Mampon, 4 May 1936.

39. Fortes MSS., Cambridge, File 3, “Biography of Mansa [sic] Bonsu,” n.d.

40. Ibid., “The Capture of Prempeh and Yaa Asantewaa war by ex-Mamponhene Kwaku Dua.”

41. MRO, Kumase, 166/32/V2, Evidence of Yaw Agyei Asafoakye and others in Mampon vs. Kwaku Dua Agyeman, May-June 1933 and T.C. McCaskie, Interviews with Boakye Tenten, Kumase, 1975-76.

42. Ibid., and MRO, Kumase, Kumase Village Affairs, Akuffo Dampare to Mamponhene Osei Bonsu, Kumase, 3 July 1927.

43. MRO, Kumase, 166/32/V2 and the correspondence in ibid., “Succession to Stools, 1930-40.”

44. Some summary is in Tordoff, William, Ashanti Under the Prem-pehs 1888-1935 (Oxford, 1965), 405–07.Google Scholar I am also grateful to Tordoff for permission to consult the notes he took in Kumase in the 1950s.

45. MRO, Kumase, 166/32/V2, Correspondence relating to the destoolment of Kwaku Dua Mampon, 1931-5.

46. Ibid., for May-June 1933 and B.K. Agyeman to D.C. (Mampon), Mampon, 3 January 1935.

47. Tordoff, , Ashanti, 405–07Google Scholar and MRO, Kumase, Affairs of the Divisions, n.d.,(but the 1930s and 1940s) for details.

48. MRO, Kumase, 166/32/V2, Kyidomhene to Kumase office-holders, Mampon, 14 July 1933 and in re Mampon vs. Kwaku Dua Agyeman, 1933-5.

49. Asantehene to D.C. (Mampon), Kumase, 31 March 1936, in ibid.

50. Only key references are given from this correspondence. MRO, Kumase, 166/32/V2, Mamponhene to Amma Sewaa Mmorassa, Mampon, 4 May 1936; Amma Sewaa Mmorassa to Asantehene, Kumase, 15 December 1936; Mamponhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 6 January 1937; Mamponhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 11 January 1937; Afua Sapon to Asantehene, Kumase, 28 January 1937; Mamponhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 17 June 1937; Afua Sapon to Asantehene, Kumase, 9 August 1937; and Amma Sewaa Mmorassa to Asantehene, Kumase, 12 August 1937.

51. Ibid., Mampon State Council vs. Mamponhene, Mampon, 12 September 1951 et seq.; List of Mampon State Councillors who destooled Mamponhene; Mampon Anoben Baamuhene to Asantehene, Mampon, 20 September 1951; petitions by Krobo ode-kuro and others, 1951.

52. Ibid., Kwaku Dua Agyeman to Governor, Kumase, 9 July 1951.

53. Ibid., Botaasehene Kwabena Gyima to Asantehene, Mampon, 1 August 1951.

54. Ibid., CCA. to Asantehene, Kumase, 19 November 1951 and Asantehene's Minute on Mampon correspondence, Kumase, 3 March 1952.

55. The best accounts--thus far--are in Wilks, Asante and in relevant pre-code sheets produced by the Asante Collective Biography Project (1973-79) at Northwestern University.

56. I am currently preparing a separate paper on this issue.

57. In this context one thinks of forthcoming work by Adu A. Boahen on Dwaben, Gareth Austin on Bekwae, and Malcolm D. McLeod on Offinso.

58. See Wilks, , Asante, 116.Google Scholar

59. Rattray, , Ashanti Law, 235n1.Google Scholar