The Gas, Genyis And The Origin Of The Name “Ayigbe”

I am really disappointed that Ghanaians, Ewes in particular, had produced eminent history professors in the persons of Professors Agbodeka, Amenumey, Adu Boahen, Buah and many history graduates, but the origin of the word "Ayigbe" is still fraught with much misleading information. We get narratives full of wrong claims. Interestingly, the two accounts, undoubtedly got from the Weme Ewes, found in Jakob Spieth’s The Ewe People, are also wrong. I am, therefore, revising a comment I made elsewhere for publication. It is necessary to trace the origin to historical events that led to it, so this is going to be rather long.

First, yes, both the Ga-Adangmes and Ewes migrated from Nigeria and settled at various settlements in both Benin Republic and Togo before eventually spilling into present Ghana. The section of Ga-Adangmes who became the core of the Gas seemed to have left Ketou in Benin much earlier and arrived in Ghana by a coastal route, and eventually settled at Ayawaso in the interior, not Accra. That's why Gas have this tradition of claiming they came from the sea. It was only from 1677 when the conflict arose with the Akwamus over the circumcision of the Akwamu prince Akonnor sent to the Ga court that the defeated Ga fugitives fled in large numbers to Accra to seek protection by the European fortifications. Then, Accra was also populated by the indigenous Le ethnic group whom they assimilated, but some moved later to Anloga led by their leader Amega Le who introduced the "leƲu," the dug-out canoe, and constituted the Wifeme clan of Anlo, named after the undoubted relation, Wi, who hosted them upon their arrival. Some eventually settled at Agortime-Kpetoe besides some Ewe kinsmen of the Anlos and Dangme kinsmen who had assimilated them already after first joining the Avatime Guans for a while. All these happened after 1677 and 1702, according to the historical records captured in the writings of the aforementioned Ewe historians, too.

Accordingly, the eruption of the Akwamu conflict saw a large group of Gas under Ofori, one of the sons of the killed King Okai Koi, fleeing in 1677 into territory the Anlos had some jurisdiction over then. They brought the royal regalia with them, which they claimed to be still custodians of, as when they visited Ghana and met President Kufuor when he became President. The Anlos, against the wishes of their kinsmen like the Bes and others, helped them to settle at Glidzi, Zowla and Anfoin, which are now just across the border into southern Togo. Actually, Glidzi was a seasonal fishing spot of the Fla people, whom the people of Grand Popo claimed lordship over, leading to conflict later. Everyone thought then it'd be a temporary place of sojourn for the refugees. That never happened, and Glidzi became the capital of the new Ge-nyi state that was formed by the Ga fugitives, the Ewes they intermarried with and the Anyi (Ane) fugitives who fled from the Elmina area to found Anexo in 1702 when the subjects of King Ntim Gyakari of Denkyira rebelled against their king, defeated him and founded the new Asante kingdom in 1701. That's why the whites named the people there as the "Mina Ewes." We Anlos call them Anyitorwo, besides Adjigos, in order to distinguish them from the Ga descents from Glidzi under Lawson who usurped the kingship of Anexo from them in the C19th.

It is interesting to note that some of those Denkyira fugitives settled in Vume, Mepe and the Tefle areas and became part of them. They brought enhanced pot making skills with them. This is basic history covered by Prof. Amenumey in his Pre-colonial Ewes under review before his death.

Ofori (Foli Bebe or Ofori Nbiabia, as he became known) became the first king of the Ge-nyi state. He gave birth to Aschangmo from a daughter of the king of Tado that he married, thus becoming allies of the rivals who prevented the first Awoamefia of the Anlos, Torgbui Sri I, from becoming the king of Tado. He made further negative alliances, e.g., playing mercenary roles, for instance, for the emerging Dahomey kingdom to try to expand to the coast and take over towns founded by some allies of the Dogbos like Ouidah (Whydah) Anlos considered as kinsmen. This eventually led to conflict with Anlo and he was killed in 1695 when he led a big force against the Anlos, his former benefactors. That is how the long lasting conflicts between the Anlos and Genyis started.

Let's jump to after 1730 when the Gas eventually defeated the Akwamus with the help of the Akyems. That defeat led some Akwamus to flee into Eweland in the Volta gorge at present Akwamufie. They are, thus, also fugitives on land formerly under Ewe control on both sides of the lower Volta.

It was after the Akwamu defeat that the emissaries were sent to Glidzi for the Gas to return to Accra with the stool regalia. Ayi Kushi, then the Ga elder and leader, refused to return to Accra with the regalia saying in Ewe “me gbe,” that is, I refuse. This eventually became the infamous word “Ayigbe,” simply, Ayi refused, shortened from the Ga and Ewe “Ayi ke me gbe,” (Ayi said he refused), to brand all Ewe speakers. The Gas understood those words very well, as many were bilingual. As a matter of historical fact, a clan of the Gas were descendants of Gbi Ewes who got cut off from their main Ewe groups and ended up joining the Gas at Ayawaso. The search for them led to the founding of the Peki towns. Those Gas of Ewe descent know their story better. Anyway, it was some of those Ga descents from Glidzi and Anexo who first returned to Accra to found Osu Anouhou (Anexo) and got called Ayigbe, later extended to all bonafide Ewes who started moving to Accra during the colonial era. I met one of them in London, an obvious matriarch of the family with a typical Ga name. She was in charge of selling off lands given to their grand ancestor by the Aburi chief to farm on; practically everyone was well educated and abroad. She narrated to me vivid accounts of their early settlement in Accra and how their ancestors were moved from the outskirts to the centre of Osu in order to stop their vamooshing to Glidzi and Anexo anytime there was conflict, something Reindorf wrote about, which earned them a tag of being cowards on top of being regarded as thieves for the refusal to return the regalia - the origin of the “Ayigbe djulor e! Ba ni wo shi bo” cry we used to hear in Accra up to the mid-60s. Because of that shaming, she too used to hide her identity. She claimed she refused to follow the father on the regular pilgrimages to Togo, something she regretted.

In a conversation in Norway with a Ga royal who knew the story quite well, he was under the impression that because the Gas intermarried with we the Anlos or Ewes, we had a role in the refusal to return the regalia, which is not entirely the case, and completely false in the case of Anlos. It is a complex issue.

The criss-crossing over the centuries had blended us together as one distinctive Gbe ethnic group. Gas and others could not tell the difference between us but we know the differences from accent if one is from Togo, surnames or middle names, clan and other cultural differences if part of us. But, it is a silly and not perfect distinction, though, because of the intensive intermarriages over the centuries. Say, if the daughter of an Anlo royal Adzorvia or Bate man marries a Genyi man, the children become Genyi because of the patrilineal inheritance system both practise, and are regarded as Others. If the son of a royal Adzorvia or Bate marries a Genyi princess, the children become bonafide Adzorvia or Bate royals with allthe privileges. That was how Kofi Anyage with a mother from Anexo, who famously became Awoamefia Fiayidzehe, became a Bate Awoamefia over the Anlos. Unfortunately, he brought with him the unhinged slave trading culture from Anexo, along with his mother’s kinsmen to misrule Anlo, eventually leading to the attempt to remove him through the normal regicide the Anlos use to remove the Awoamefia, as a properly installed Awoamefia cannot be destooled.

ANDY C.Y. KWAWUKUME
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