The Fluidity of Akan History and Civilization

The Komfo Anokye Story or Myth is multifaceted and one for which several of the Great Akan States and Kingdoms duly and legitimately take credit. For example, while the Genius and the Visionary Osabarima and Oduruyefo Kwame Frimpong-Manso(n) has been historically and incontrovertibly known to have been born in Akuapem-Awukugua, in the Eastern Region, it often begins in the Eastern Region, by the way - that is, great historical events and that which presages the same - highly likely, the homevillage of his father and the paternal lineage of his family and clan, there is another version and variation of the Komfo Anokye Story that also locates the Great Warrior-Physician’s moorings in the present-day Municipality of Akyem-Tafo, in the Ancient Akyem Kingdom of Abuakwa, historically, the allodial overlord of Akyem-Mansa, that is, The Three Kingdoms that constitute The Great-Akyem Confederation.

Oftentimes, some Akan storytellers of Non-Akyem provenance or descent and ancestry who have attempted to trace and track the origins of arguably the Greatest Akan States of the 17th and the 18th Centuries, such as Akwamu, Akyem, Denkyira and Asante, have tended to enviously and, perhaps, even out of sheer ignorance laced with obstreperous envy and jealousy, deliberately avoided the forensically and credibly established fact of Osabarima Nana Kwame Frimpong-Manso(n) having also hailed from Akyem-Tafo on the maternal side or lineage of his family. Now, whatever the real case scenario may be, the recent publication of an article with a banner headline on the web portal of Modern Ghana well appears to have seamlessly brought everything together in one piece, as New Yorkers are wont to say.

The banner headline news story in question reported the officially announced intention of His Royal Majesty, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, to pay a historic visit of homage or the ceremonial expression of gratitude to the Akwamuhene in commemoration of the central and the critical role that the Akwamu State and Nation played in the hitherto historically unprecedented accession and the ascendancy of the putative litany of events that led to the founding of Asanteman and the Asante Federation and Kingdom. Properly speaking, The Asante Empire, to be more exact.

The preceding announcement follows the Courtesy and the Sympathy or Commiseration Call which the Paramount King of Akwamu, Odeneho (“He Who Owns Himself” or “Owes Allegiance to Absolutely No Other Potentate of Monarch”) Kwafo Akoto, III, in the wake of the epochal passing of The Real Power Behind Sikadwa Kofi - the globally renowned and celebrated Asante Golden Stool - Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom, III, who also happened to have been the Elder Sister of Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, whose mortal remains were scheduled to be laid to rest on Thursday, September 18, 2025.

Now, we are also reliably informed that the exact date of Otumfuo Osei-Ttutu’s Historic-Trip-of-Homage to his Akwamu relative has yet to be finally scheduled and officially announced to the general Ghanaian public (See “Asantehene to Pay Historic Visit to Akwamu Paramount Chief” Modernghana.com 9/10/25). By the way, we almost forgot to also remind our readers that it was the erstwhile British Colonial Imperialists who, in a raw and pure show of political suzerainty and racial supremacy, decided to downgrade the status of the titles and the accolades of “The Kings” of their officially declared colonial subjects to those of Chiefs and Petty-Chieftains.”

Consequently, the status of the most influential and most powerful Ghanaian Monarch in the Modern Era, that is, the European Colonial Era, His Royal Majesty, The Asantehene, would come to be pejoratively reduced to “The Chief of Chiefs,” in the primitivized language of 19th-Century European Anthropology, such as Yours Truly had the patently repulsive misfortune to recently hear a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Television Documentary Commentator from the 1950s and the early 1960s rattle off with earnest and exuberant glee in one of those familiar old BBC documentary reels.

You see, no bona fide Ghanaian citizen, especially an Akan citizen, has any difficulty whatsoever differentiating an “Omanhene” (King) from an “Ohene” (Sub-King or Lieutenant-Monarch) from an “Odikro” (Chief or Townshead) and the various local and “national” chieftains anywhere between or in-between. Which was precisely why I was obstreperously proud when upon the death of The Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku-Ware, II, The New York Times, popularly nicknamed as “America’s Newspaper of Record,” published an obituary with the following headline: “Opoku Ware II, King of Asante, Is Dead at 89 [79].” New York Times, March 4, 1999).

When I left the State University of New York (SUNY) Community College where I had been teaching for close to three decades, about two years ago, I also left several xeroxed copies of the aforementioned obituary piece on my office’s bookshelf, copies which I had been using to teach students of my journalism classes the “Obituary-Writing Style,” as a means of showing off my rich cultural and influential political background and heritage. But what I especially want to highlight here is the fact that there is incontrovertible forensic evidence pointing to the fact of the historically organic interlinkage between the Akyem-Tafo and the Akuapem-Awukugua origins of Komfo-Sabarima Kwame Anokye - aka Nana Kwame Oduruyefo Benfo Frimpong-Manso(n).

At any rate, one singular marker inheres in the fact that it is the traditional rulers of both Akuapem-Awukugua and Akyem-Tafo who, collectively, decide the official date and season for the annual celebration of the “Ohum” (Yam) Festival. And if the Dear Reader were to meet or encounter any knowledgeable Akyem-Tafo native or indigene and to enquire about their origins - that is, his or her origins - that enquirer would promptly be informed to his/her surprise that: “There were the Akyem before the arrival and the emergence of the Abuakwa.” Which simply means that, historically, the Akwamu preceded the Akyem-Abuakwa people, who came from Adansi, hereabouts.

In short, historically, Akyem-Tafo is also Akyem-Akwamu. We are, ultimately, one and the same. Which is also why one of these days, it would be culturally and morally refreshing for The Opemsuo, Eseremusei, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu, II, to equally travel to Akyem-Tafo and do homage to Osabarima Adusei Peasah, IV, in reciprocal honor of Osabarima-Duruyefuo Nana Kwame Frimpong-Manso(n) - aka Omanyefuo Nana Komfo Anokye. I am, of course, well aware of Otumfuo Osei-Tutu’s historic visit to the Ancient Okyeman Capital of Kyebi. Now, Barima Kwaku Dua needs to bring it back home all together, definitively.

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
Professor Emeritus, Department of English
SUNY-Nassau Community College
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]