The Akan Diaspora in the Americas This page intentionally left blank The Akan Diaspora in the Americas Kwasi Konadu 1 2010 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Konadu, Kwasi. The Akan diaspora in the Americas / Kwasi Konadu. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-19-539064-3 1. Akan (African people)—America—History. 2. Akan (African people)—Migrations. 3. America— Ethnic relations. 4. African diaspora. 5. Akan (African people)—Social conditions. 6. Akan (African people)—Social life and customs. 7. Africa, West—Social life and customs. I. Title. E29.A43K66 2010 305.896'3385—dc22 2009022954 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper O ne proverb (in translation) says that A sase (Earth) is a market where we come to do our transactions in life, but spirit is our home. I dedicated this book to all of the Africans who forcibly crossed temporal waters to the Americas and found resolve in the spiritual side of those cultural transactions. I also dedicate this book to our daughter, Yaa Sunkwa Akomaa. May you walk the path to the river and fi nd spiritual-temporal balance in all that you say and do. This page intentionally left blank Mpaeε (Libation) and Acknowledgments Onyankopɔn, Asase Yaa, abosompem, meda mo ase bebree. Na monim sε mere- sua; momma menhu . To my family in Ghana, Jamaica, and North America, I thank you for your continued support and understanding. I am especially grateful to Ronela (Amma), Bria (Abena), and Yaa for everything. To Nana Kwaku Sakyi, Nana Kwabena Brown, Kwasi Bempong, Obadele (Kwame) Kambon, Leslie Alexander, Solwazi and Fabiane, Kofi Sakyi, and wɔfa Kwasi Odaaku, thank you for your encouragement and support. Both Dr. James Turner and Dr. Kweku Agyeman have been and continue to be important elders in my intellectual life, and here I want to record my deepest thanks. T his research would not have been possible without the pioneering work done by so many writers, whose interpretations I attempt to engage, and by “local” historians in Ghana who collected and wrote histories—from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s—of persons and communities we would otherwise never have encountered. In this regard, the effort to collect oral histories across a nascent Ghanaian landscape by the late Kwame Daaku has been a key contribution and a source of inspiration. Though those oral histories should be read critically, they have provided the archaeologist a path to sites of cultural and historical value, provided the historian a window through which to envision how Akan societies and culture moved through Akan history, and confi rmed some of the fi ndings of both modes of inquiry. I began this project in 2001. Since then, several scholars have kindly answered questions about sources, made suggestions, and even provided copies of source materials. To them all, I say thank you once more. To Nancy Toff at Oxford University Press, I thank you for your support of this project and the expertise of your staff. I am also greatly indebted to friends and col- leagues who assisted with translations and to the staff of repositories in Europe, Ghana, the Caribbean, and North America. Your contributions have helped to increase the book’s value. The usual disclaimers apply. This page intentionally left blank Contents Drum Lyric to River Tanɔ—The Path Crosses the River xi Maps xiii 1 On Diaspora and the Akan in the Americas 3 2 Quest for the River, Creation of the Path: Akan Cultural Development to the Sixteenth Century 27 3 History and Meaning in Akan Societies, 1500–1800 55 4 “The Most Unruly”: The Akan in Danish and Dutch America 93 5 The Antelope (A dowa ) and the Elephant (E sono ): The Akan in the British Caribbean 122 6 “All of the Coromantee Country”: The Akan Diaspora in North America 162 7 Diaspora Discourses: Akan Spiritual Praxis and the Claims of Cultural Identity 202 Glossary 237 Notes 241 Index 283