AKAN PEOPLE

The 'Akan people' are a linguistic group of West Africa.
This group includes the Akuapem, the Ashanti, the Akyem, the Baoulé, the Brong, the Fante and the Nzema peoples of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. From the fifteenth century to nineteenth century, the Akan people dominated gold mining and gold trade in the region. Akan art is wide-ranging and renowned, especially for the tradition of crafting bronze gold weights, which were made using the "lost wax" method of casting. Branches of the Akan include the Abron and the Afutu. The Akan culture is the most dominant and apparent in present-day Ghana. The Akan are typically better educated and are in better financial positions than the other ethnic groups, historically. This is illuminated by the fact, during the slave trade, the Akan/Asante actively helped the Europeans sell other groups whom the Akan had deemed ethnically inferior.^[1]
Some of their most important mythological stories are called Anansasem. Anansesem literally means "The Spider Story". Anansesem also could mean the traveler's tales. ("spider stories" also Nyankomsem "words of a sky god"). These stories generally, but not always, revolve around Kwaku Ananse, a trickster-spider spirit.

Contents

See also

References

Examples of Akan Language:

See also

★ Adinkra

★ Akan (language)

★ Akan names

★ Bono state

★ Rulers of the Akan state of Asante

★ Rulers of the Akan state of Akyem Abuakwa

★ Adamorobe Sign Language

References

★ Akan gold trade

Examples of Akan Language:

★ Akan (Akuapem)

★ Akan (Asante)

★ Akan (Fante)

★ The Dictionary of Standard Written Akan
1. William R. Polk. The Birth of America, (????). p.85
''The forts had originally been strongholds in which gold could be safely stored. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the gold trade was being overtaken by the slave trade; from being importers of slaves, the Akan people of the Gold Coast had become exporters. So the buildings that had originally been lockboxes were converted into prisons for captives. These prisons, or concentrations camps, were called barracoons. It was through them that most of the 10 million to 12 million Africans began the journey across the Atlantic.''