A Brief History of Aŋlɔ and the Role of Leaders

"Miawoe nye adza ƒe viwo tso adzatome amemakumakuwo ƒe hlɔbialawo".

The popular loose words from a drunken man that started the events leading to the exodus from ŋɔtsie.

Before the exodus from ŋɔtsie the people of ŋɔtsie and the Dogbo people _who constitute the Ɛʋɛ groups that migrated from ŋɔtsie_lived together. During the period there were petty misunderstandings between the ŋɔtsie elders and Dogbo elders. Even though they coexisted, each wanted a way to inflict pain on the other.

One day there was a fight between a Dogbo elder's son and Togbui Agɔkɔli's son. In the said fight Agɔkɔli's son hit the son of the Dogbo elder on the head and he suffered some injury and went into coma.

He was rushed indoors and eventually recovered. However, the Dogbo elders wanted to use the incident to inflict damage on the ŋɔtsie people. So they declared their son dead and presented the corpse of another man who had died within the period. Torgbui Agɔkɔli was compelled to surrender his son to be killed to to ensure that peace reigned.

The Dogbo people kept this a secret and often had a feast to mourn the death of their dear son whose death was faked. During one of such feast a drunken man made the statement in my first sentence of this writeup, which means " we are the children of Adza from Adzatome, the avengers for the living".

At the time of the feast there were equally people from Agɔkɔlis quarters present so the news quickly spread and the living man that was declared dead had the flee the kingdom.

And this was why Togbi Agɔkɔli became wicked towards the Dogbo people now mainly the Ɛʋɛ people of Ghana and parts of Togo, and this was the cause of the events leading to Ɛʋɛ's fleeing the ŋɔtsie kingdom. We were not victims.

The story continues that when we settled in Anlo, the royal stool for Torgbi Sri I was forgotten in ŋɔtsie so there was still needed to go back. Negotiation was opened between the Aŋlɔs and ŋɔtsie and as condition for the return of the stool. Torgbi Agorkorli asked for the head of Togbui Sri I in exchange for the stool. But the Aŋlɔs would not honour that, they sent a wrong head of a person who resembled Togbi Sri I whilst they hid Togbi Sri away from the public. This was done to outwit Agorkoli and they managed to return with the stool.

Agorkoli suspected that the head was the wrong one so he sent warriors and spies after the Aŋlɔs to find out if truly Togbi Sri had been killed. These warriors and spies stayed around the new settlement of Aŋlɔ for a while but didn't get any information to suggest that Torgbi Sri I was alive.

There is another version that states that a person who had yaws on the arm similar to that of Torgbi Sri I was killed and the arm presented as Togbi's under the pretence that he was old and feeble, therefore it would be useless to kill him so they brought his arm.

Regardless it came to be known by some that this is why the Anlo chiefs were called Awɔmefia meaning a leader in seclusion and also how the appellation "Du nɔ eme mase eme nya o". Came about. (For this I will task non Ɛʋɛ readers to ask their TRUE Ɛʋɛ friends to translate for them)

To those who agree with this narrative it was from this history that it became a norm that the Aʋadada of Aŋlɔ played the major open leadership roles especially in warefare, law enforcement, defence and deal with anything that affects the wellbeing amd survival of Aŋlɔ. The Aʋadada (the warlord) was the Commander in Chief, whilst the Awɔmefia played the private roles like settling disputes, and being the head priest of the Kingdom.

Some researchers also argue that the role of the Awɔmefia did not change because of King Agɔkɔli's spies but was the original role since the stool was originally a priestly stool and as a priest your duty was to maintain holiness and only appear in public when it is needed. Just as the Roman Pope and anciently spiritual leaders who hardly appear in public except to perform rituals.

They were not political leaders originally.
M.A.Y Kulewosi