AWAWA ATUU
GA-DANGBE HISTORY
Definition of Ga
DEFINITION OF GA
Ga is the derivation of Gaga (soldier ants) which according to Reindorf (1895, p.24) is the names of the big black ants which bites severely and are dangerous to the white ants. However, he noted that the natives called themselves Loeiabii (children of Loei). Of course, Loei is a Ga name for another species of dark brown ants, which meanders about in great swarms; invading houses, killing and devouring everything in their way. These marauding ants known to the Akans as nkrang, and whose aggressive nature were attributed to the powerful wandering Ga emigrant tribes; easily subdued other tribes as well as the Guans who were the aborigines of the land. This was the name ascribed to the Ga-speaking tribes due to their prowess and bravery in warfare, and the Portuguese due to their difficulty in pronunciation, later on corrupted it to Akra.
Definitons of dangbe
The Ga-Dangbes originally consisted of three active sub-nations: the “ga-asafo” people of the Ga speaking language, the “dangbe-asafo” people of the Dangbe speaking language and the “e-gbe” people of the ewe speaking language. The “egbe” people are now non-active members of the Ga-Dangbes. Those three active nations merged into one as a nation known as the Ga-Dangbes. The word “Ga-Dangbe” was coined from the names of the three nations and named after their newly born nation “the Ga-Dangbe”.
Since dawn, species of the Ga-Dangbe sub-nubian nations; Ga-mashie, Osu, La-asafo (La), Teshie, Nungua, Tema, Kpon, Ningo (nungo), Ada, Manya-krobo, Yilo-krobo, Shai, Gbugbla and many more, are in possession of their own rural towns and villages culturally and geographically. Each sub-nation of the Ga-Dangbes consist of a group of clans, with each clan’s own rules and regulations that are in the interest of the sub-nation they are under or part of. And each sub Ga-Dangbe nation has its own rules and regulation that are also in the interest of the entire Ga-Dangbe nations. An example of systemized practices of their yearly “asafotufiam” & ” homowo” atonement festival which they respectfully perform in a legacy manner from one sub Ga-Dangbe nation after the other.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GA COASTAL TOWNS
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GA COASTAL TOWNS
Ga is the name applied to a particular ethnic group of people living along the shoreline of the Gulf of Guinea. This Ga settlement areas is bounded on the East by the Tshemu lagoon near Tema, on the West by the Sakumofio River, the North by Akuapem Mountains and the South by the Gulf of Guinea. According to Reindorf (1895) the coastal towns established by the Ga-Adangbe speaking emigrants who arrived from Aneho, Benin, Boni and Boma to the Gold Coast in the early sixteenth century, stretches from Lanŋma (Mt. Cook Loaf) to Fla i.e. the Volta Basin along the shorelines of the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Among which are Ngleshi (James Town), Kinka (Ussher Town), Osu (Christiansburg), La (Labadi), Teshie, Nungua (Little Ningo), and Tema.
Ga, also spelled Gan, or Gã, people of the southeast coast of Ghana, speaking a dialect of the Kwa branch of Niger-Congo languages. The Ga are descended from immigrants who came down the Niger River and across the Volta during the 17th century. The Ga-speaking peoples were organized into six independent towns (Accra, Osu, Labadi, Teshi, Nungua, and Tema). Each town had a stool, which served as the central object of Ga ritual and war magic. Accra became the most prominent Ga town and is now the capital of Ghana.
The original Ga immigrants were farmers, but today fishing and trading in imported goods are the principal occupations. Trading is generally in the hands of women, and a husband has no control over his wife’s money. Succession to most offices held by women and inheritance of women’s property are by matrilineal descent. Inheritance of other property and succession to male-held public offices are by patrilineal descent. Men of the lineage live together in a men’s compound, while women, even after marriage, live with their mothers and children in a women’s compound.
Each Ga town has a number of different cults and many gods, and there are a number of annual town festivals.
SOURCE BRITANNICA.COM
USSER FORT JAMESTOWN
Usher fort, also known as “Fort crevecoeur”, is a fort not far from Accra (more exactly in the
locality of JamesTown ) constructed by the Dutch colonizators in the middle of the 17th
century.
It was constructed in parallel with another fort named “Fort James”. Those two forts changed
occupants; they were sold to the british empire in 1868.
At first, those forts were used as colonial economical establishments . It means that they were
used by european empires to increase their commercial exchanges. In this case, Ussher fort was
used to “store” the slaves (Conditions were horrible, slaves were sleeping on the floor all stuck
together with the bad hygiene; the slaves were also beaten…) and also served as a residence
for the european empires’s representatives and as a prison.
https://lfaccra.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Ussher-Fort.pdf
jamestown fort Accra
https://www.adesawyerr.com/history-of-jamestown-british-accra/
Ga Mashie
The Ga Mashie community as it is known today comprise of the seven Akutséii (quarters) made up of Asεrε, Sempi, Abola, Gbεsε, Akuŋmadzei, Otublohum (Otubronu i.e. Otu’s area) and Ngleshi Alata (Jamestown). These are divisions of the community jointly established by the Ga-speaking emigrants, Fante, Obutu, Akwamu and Kpéshi aborigines. Oral traditions had it that after the destruction of the Ayawaso Township by the Akwamu, and the death of the then Ga Mantsε Okaikoi in 1660, remnants of the Ga decided to come down from their hilly abode and join their friends and relations along the coast. Among the early migrants from the Asεrε and Abora groups to the coast were Saku Olenge, Akotia Owosika, Oshamra, Ayikwei Osiahene, Osu Kwatei (whom I believe established the Kpakpatse We dynasty), Anyama Seni, Amantiele Akele and others.
The main reason for this new migration according to Kilson (1974, pp.5-6) was the presence of the Portuguese and three other European powers that had by then established trading posts there, and were extending protection to the coastal towns and villages. In his discourse of the establishment of two out of the seven Ga Mashie Akutséii (quarters), Reindorf avers that Ayikai Osiahene with his people settled near James Fort and founded Akangmadshe and Mereku, i.e. Bereku quarters. Meanwhile, Adote Nii Ashare and Tete Kpéshi who with their retinue made their abode beyond the Korle lagoon returned and settled by the same Fort; and their descendants also established the Sempi quarters.
This arrangement according to Henderson-Quartey brought these towns within the vicinity of the three forts, and under the protection of the Danes (Osu), Dutch (Kinka) and the English (Ngleshi-Alata) from the Akwamu marauders. Besides, this led to the effective control of the local population and the maintenance of law and order within these trading enclaves to safeguard the traffic of goods between the hinterlands and the coast for the benefit of their respective companies.
In this way, to quote Bruce-Myers (1927, p.168), “the humble fishing villages which the Portuguese saw from their ships in the 1490s developed into the capital of the independent Republic of Ghana.” Thus, this community which until the beginning of the twentieth century was limited to the confines of the Ga traditional settlements along the coast; between the Christiansborg Castle, Ussher and James Forts, and the Korle lagoon, has grown in leaps and bounds despite its chequered history.
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