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| Newly born baby and Mother |
As soon as a child is born, the husband and his family are at once
informed, so that they may go and congratulate both the mother and the
newcomer. The husband then sends a present to all who have assisted at
the birth. The present frequently consists of rum, and therefore called
"Defomo dan," the hand washing rum. The husband then sends one of his
cloths for use as a pillow for the child. This is absolutely necessary,
as it is the first actual sign of recognition by him that the child is
his.
On the eighth day, a week after birth, according to the native
calculation, the child is taken out and publicly presented to families
of both the father and mother, as well as to friends at the father’s or
grandfather’s house, if they live in separate houses. The mother’s and
father’s families meet together at the paternal grandfather’s house or
the father’s house in the morning between 2 and 4; they take to the
meeting corn, wine and other drinks.
A person of good character and reputation in either of the two families,
or outside of them, is next asked to take the child in his arms, hold
it up and bring it down three times gently on the floor, sprinkle water
on it three times, and then the father’s family name the child with one
of their family names.
Next the owner, or the eldest person in the house or quarter where the
ceremony is being performed, will say the following prayer for blessing
on the child:
Tsua Tsua Tsua manye aba. Tsua Tsua Tsua manye aba. Tsu-a Tsu-a Tsu-a
manye aba, Osoro (Osu) Ahatiri, Obu Ahatiri, Oboro dutu wokpe, Wodsebu
wodse nu, Wo ye wo nu wo kodsii adso wo, Gboni bale etse yi ana wala,
Enye yi ana wala, Esee tuu, Ehee fann, Eyi aba gbodsen, Ese aba halaann,
Wekumei wona faa ni wo fa le, Eba tsu eha wo ni woye, Eko atasi ni eko
aba, Ganyo humile koyo tsua dani owieo, Tsua Tsua Tsua manye aba,"
To which the others answer "Yao!" A free translation into English of the above would be:
Oyez! may the Gods pour their blessing upon us! Oyez! may the Gods pour
their blessing upon us! Oyez! may the Gods pour their blessing upon us!
A child has been born (presented); we have formed a circle round to view it.
Whenever we dig may it become a well full of water: and when we drink out of the means of health and strength to us!
May the parents of this child live long!
May it never look at the place whence it came!
May it be pleased always to dwell with us!
May it have respect for the aged!
May it be obedient to elders, and do what is right and proper.
May many more follow, full of grace and honour!
May the families always be in a position to pay respect and
regard to this child, and out of his earnings may we have
something to live upon!
May it live long and others come and meet it!
As a Ga person does not speak at random, so may this child
be careful of his words and speech, and speak the truth so
that he may not get into trouble and palavers!
Oyez! may the Gods pour their blessing upon us!"
To which the others say "Amen!"
This ceremony is called "kpodsiemo" and is made up of three words
meaning in English Annunciation, Proclamation, and naming. Some people
compare the word with "Baptism." Whatever the meaning, there can be
little doubt but that the form of ceremony seems similar to the Jewish
one.
The Name.
This is the most important thing among the Gas, much more important,
even, than their tribal facial cut, which is of comparatively recent
origin.
Just as it is possible for an instructed person to pick out a Ga man
from among thousands of other people of a different tribe, so he can
also distinguish from among most of the Ga people to which family he
belongs as soon as he hears the name of that person.
In old days a Ga man would die for his family name; and, just as it is
considered an insult, not only to the person to whom the affront is
offered, but also to the family to which he belongs, to serve him with a
summons personally, so it is considered and unpardonable defamation to
call a man or a woman by a name other than the one which was given to
him or her on the eighth day after his or her birth in the presence of
the families of both of his or her parents.
Further, in former days a Ga man asked for nothing more than to die
fighting in the midst of his family, under the family banner, with the
family war song ringing in his ears, or in the time of peace to die in
the midst of his family, and be laid to rest under the ground in the
family house.
It is this enchantment in the family name that makes every man go to war
taking for his party the father’s side; in a word, he does all he can
to enhance the fame and the good name of his family.
It is only the present generation that has forgotten the house that bore
and bred their forefathers, a generation that apes that which is
foreign to its creation, nationless descendants of the generation that
witnessed heroic acts and deeds, that look down on what is intended for
them by nature, abashed, disgraced, and defamed to own the name into
which they were born, considering it unbecoming to bear the honour of
their father’s family name, but not ashamed to assume names coming form a
land and people as foreign as it was unknown to his early imagination,
and knowing not what the meaning or purport of that name may be these
are the men who weaken the very roots of all attempt to live a national
life suited to the country of their birth; without ambition, they look
forward to being what they will never be, and, being without faith in
the strength of indigenous things truly their own, they look for help
and support from that which is entirely extraneous and exogamous.
It appears that in other tribes there is always a difficulty in naming a
child; therefore children are mostly called after the day on which they
were born. But there is no such difficulty experienced among the
members of the Ga tribes because, in most cases, if not in all, children
are born into their names, i.e., before a child is born, it is known
what name it will bear, irrespective of the day on which it is born they
have their names according to the order of their birth.
It may be mentioned that in case a husband in either line has more than
one wife, the issue of each wife has to be named the same order in the
particular line and number.
There are generally two sets of names: the senior or first set, i.e.,
the fathers; and the junior or second set, i.e., the children. The
fathers give the names in the second set to their children, and the
children give the names in the first set to their own children. It means
that the customary law lays it down that children are bound to give to
their own children the names which their fathers, uncles and aunts bear
or have borne.
Among the Ga tribes one or two of the following are given to children, viz.:
Tribal names. Family names. Day names. Fetish names. Kra names. Nicknames.
The following are the names in general use among the hole of the Ga tribes, viz.:
Ayite (Male), e.g., Ga Nyo Ayite. Ayele (Female), e.g., Ga Nyo Ayele. Dede do. Korkor do. Tette (male). Ayi do.
Family Names.
It is evident that a country like that occupied by the Ga tribes must
necessarily contain a population made up of heterogeneous groups
containing two or more families with distinctive names and customs
peculiar to each of them, besides the general custom of the mass over
which a Mantse rules or the unity of masses over which the paramount
head called the Ga Mantse reigns.
Apart from any fame or importance which any particular family might have
attained subsequently in politics or otherwise by individual exertions
on the part of a member or by a whole family, the fact remains that
these family names have in their origin a meaning attached to each of
them, and also that they are arranged like a chain in make and female
lines.
It is quite true that many of the family names have lost their original
meaning, yet some of them can be traced even now. In this matter of the
family names it is considered expedient to take Accra, the principal
town of the Ga people and the seat of the Ga native government, which
also has become the seat of the English government since the seventies,
wherein the following family names exist, with all historic
peculiarities attached hereto:
I. Ankrahs.
The family name of the Ankrahs of Otublohum of Otoo Street, Dutch
Accra.This is not the original name belonging to this family. The seat
of the family is in the stool of the Gbese Quarter of Dutch Accra, and
the head of the famil is known by the name of Ayi; but a member of that
family was nicknamed "Wankara," abbreviated to "Ankra," a Twi word,
which means "He never bids good-bye" or "He never gives anyone notice
when leaving or going away."
Others also allege that a member of that family became so rich that he
kept hotels at Accra for the white people who dealt in the iniquitous
slave trade, and that when these white men were coming to Accra thy
said, "We are going to Ankra" i.e., Accra, and lodged in his hotel,
hence the name.
The family names of this family by a wife with a husband in either line are:
First line,
Male. Second line,
Female. First line,
Male. Second line,
Female. (i) Ayi or Ankrah. Ayite. Okaile. Ayikaile.
The other names are the same as those of the Gbese Stool family names
given below. There are more of the names belonging to each line, but thy
are invariable taken from other branches of the family and therefore
need not be given here.
The Ayi family, now known as the Ankrah family, in connected with family
that has the charge and right of occupation to the Gbese Stool as
Mantsemei or political representatives of the Gbese people.
It may be mentioned that the occupant of the Gbese Stool at present is
called Ayi Bonte, Ayi being his proper family name and Bonte a nickname.
There are other families in the Otublohum quarter of Accra which are
Gas and not Skwamu, but it appears there is some difficulty in following
the line of their names after the first two or three births, and
generally only the first four names can be given with precision.
II. The Ama Family Names
This is a place or family in the Asere quarter of Dutch Accra called or
known by the name of Amatsewe, and the people living there, or the
members of this family, are called Amatsewebii. The head or principal
man among this family of people is the Jase-Asafoatse, or the captain of
the bodyguard, of the Asere Mantse, and every male child of this family
is a member of the bodyguard of the holder of the Asere Stool. It
appears there is a family connection between this family and that of the
Kpakpatsewe people and through that family to that of the Damtedsanwe
people or family.
Certainly there can be no doubt but that the Amatsewe and the
Kpakpatsewe peoples are smiths by trade originally; the amatsewe family
being gold- and silver- and copper- smiths and the Kpakpatsewe peoples
blacksmiths. Whether these two failies were related previous to their
arrival at Accra it is not easy to say in this twentieth century.
This family has attained to great influence and reputation among the
Gas, not only because the members thereof are gold-, silver-, and
copper-smith, as well as being the bodyguard for the occupant of the
Asere Stool, but also by the personal exertions of individual members of
the family both politically and in their private business undertakings.
Whether the family brought with them the craft of gold-, silver-, and
copper-smith from where they came, or whether they had some knowledge of
it and improved upon it when they came into contact with Europeans on
the Gold Coast, or whether thy only learnt their craft from Europeans
after their arrival here and coming in contact with them, is a matter
for another article.
The family name for this people starts by each wife to each man in
either line with Armah or Ama for the first male line and Amale for the
first female line, e.g.:
Male. First Line. Second Line. 1. Ama. 1. Amate. 2. Amakai. 2. Amatei.
3. Amalai. 3. Amakwei 4. Amakwei. 4. Amalei. 5. Boi. 5. Laryea.
After these names others are borrowed from other families or fetishes to give to male children that may follow in either line.
Female. First Line. Second Line. 1. Amele. 1. Ahine. 2. Amokor. 2. Amateokor. 3. Amakai. 3. Amatekai. 4. Amatso. 4. Amatetso.
After these names others are borrowed from other families or fetishes to
give to female children that may follow in either line; they then run
on through the grades like any other family name. This family is
described in the article on "The Native Tribunals of the Akras." The
customary ideas of this family are not unlike those of the Kpakpatsewe
people, which are opposed to twin births.
III. The Kwate or Kpakpa Family.
There is another family, also in the Asere quarter, known as the
Kpakpatsewe people, which family is also fully described in the article
on "The Native Tribunals of the Akras." How this family came to be known
as Kpakpatsewe instead of Kwatetsewe or Kwateitsewe is difficult to
deal with under native tradition. The word Kpakpa was not originally the
family mane; according to tradition, it was first given as a nickname
to one of its members.
It is stated that the Kpakpatsewe people, besides being farmers and
blacksmiths, sometimes engage in trade with other tribes, and that one
of them, called Kwate, treated his customers so well that he was
nicknamed by the Twi-speaking people "Papa," or "Kpakpa." This word
"Papa," or "Kpakpa" in Akan-Twi, means "Good and strong," which came
into common use afterwards and has led to all the members of the family
who are called "Kwate" being known afterwards as "Kpakpa," and, like the
nickname "Ankrah" in the Ayi family, the nickname "Kpakpa" also became
prominent in this family instead of the proper family names of Kwate or
Kwatei.
It is easy to try in this way to explain away how it is that in one
family there are three distinct first male child names, when there
should be only one or two, as usual. But if this explanation is correct,
how came it about then that the first of the two principal stools of
this family is called Kpakpa? It appears also that the first male child
of the senior half of this family has been called Kpakpa previously to
the coming of this family from Ayawaso to Accra with the other Ga
tribes.
There must therfore be reasons other than those given to explainwhy
there are three distinctive first male child names in this family. It
may be mentionedthat from "Kpakpa" sprung "Kpakpafio" or "Papafio," the
name of the Quartey-Papafios, which name should be spelt Kwate-Kpakpafio
instead of the euphonic spelling Quartey-Kpakpafio, as adopted in these
days.
The following are a few of the names of the members of this family by a wife to a husband in either line.
Male Female First or
Senior Line Second or
Junior Line Senior
Line Junior
Line (1) Kwate or Kpakpa Kwatei Kwalei Oyo (2) Kwate Kwatelai Kwateokor
Kwateokor (3) Kwakwei Kwate-Kwei Kwatekai Kwatekai (4) Kwaboi Kwate-Boi
Kwatecho Kwatecho (5) Laryea Laryea Kwatefo Oyiofo (6) Afutu Afutu
Ashame Ashame
It should also be mentioned that in olden days the Amatsewe and the
Kpakpatsewe peoples use their family names in common, as is observable
form the family names given of the two families. Not only did they use
the family names in common, but many other things as well; in fact they
were in olden days known as what might be called "Cousins."
IV. The Damte Family
There is another family also in the same quarter as the last two known
as the Damtedsanwe people. This family is also described in the article
on "The Native Tribunals among the Akras."
This appears to be an important family that occupied themselves largely
in mercantile business. The members of this family are proverbially
known to be acute in finding money but very careless in keeping it. They
are proper members of the Ga tribe in many respects, and it is in a
house in the "place" where this family lives that the Elephant and the
Palm tree, which form the emblem of the Gold Coast Colony, was,
according to tradition, first known.
This family formerly played a not ignoble part in the history of the Ga
peoples; but the scorn which they now have for anything native, and
their intimacy, love, and devotion for everything foreign, have greatly
weakened their influence. The Chief, or political head, of this family
went to live at Gbere together with Mantse Okaija; since that date the
Priest of the Damte fetish, which is the fetish for this family, has
become the head and representative of the family politically.
He it is that regulates the calendar every year for the Gas. He
manipulates it so nicely that the Honowo or Harvest Custom falls on
Saturdays always.
Male Female First Line Second Line First Line Second Line (1) Odarte
Lamptey or Damte Lamile Koshi (2) Odatei Lamtei Lamiokor Odakor (3)
Odakwei Lamkwei Lamikai Odakai (4) Odalai Lamiaya Lamtsoi Odacho
Here also thy borrow names from other families to add on. As stated
before, the Damtedsanwe people are not only good and proficient traders,
but thy are also not at all behind any other tribe or people in martial
spirit. In fact, so much is this the case that some of them adopted
such nicknames as follows:
Owusu = Owuolisu, i.e., death is crying: this is the nickname now belonging to every Odate.
Ajebu = he sizes and breaks: this is also the nickname of every Odate.
Owusu = Wonwuso, i.e., he boldly speaks his mind and never dies.
Abolo = the meaning of this varies.
There is another family known by the name of Sackey in Adansi, a place
in the Alata quarter of British Accra. The founder of his family was an
Obutu man, a member of the aggregate Ga tribes.
There are many other families in the town of Accra, but it is difficult
to discuss them, because the members have lost touch with their
traditions, and at present either refuse or else are not in a position
to give any reliable information whatever about them; such are the Addys
of Atukpai (Otuopai), the Nunoos of Abola, the Alloteys, Addos and
Kpakpos of Sempe, the Ayikais of Akamaije, the Yaotes of Gbese the
Krotes of Asere, the Abbeys of Asere, the Netteys of Gbese, the Amoos of
Otublohum, the Lalais of Gbese, and others, many of whom are not
strictly Ga.
The Stool Name.
This is the greatest of all names, and designates the members of family which occupy stools.
The various stools in Accra and their origin are treated in the article on "The Native Tribunals among the Akras."
The Ga stool _ Nicknamed Takyi. The names of the occupants of the Ga
stool since the eighteenth century are Yaote, Adama, Obile, and others
which are not easy to give in detail.
The Gbese stool _ Nicknamed Okaija. The names of the Gbese family stool holders ever since its foundation are:
Males. First Line Second Line (1) Ayi. (1) Ayite. (2) Ayikwei. (2) Amma. (3) Ayai. (3) Adu. (4) Boi. (4) Okai.
(5) Adama.
(6) Ayikai.
(7) Teiko.
(8) Ankama.
Females. First Line. Second Line (1) Ayikale. (1) Okaile. (2) Ayikaikor.
(2) Okaikor. (3) Ayikaikai. (3) Okaikai. (4) Ayikaitso. (4) Okaitso.
(5) Ayikaifo. (5) Okaifo.
The Abola Stool _ Nicknamed Nunu. The name of the Abola Stool holder is
generally known as Nunoo, followed by Anuum, words which are not
strictly Ga.
The Otublohum Stool _ the name of the Otublohum stool holder is Amu,
followed be Daku and other names, which are strictly Akwamu in origin.
The Asere Stool _ the name of the Asere stool holder is not fixed, since
the change took place after the fall of the Ga Mantse in June, 1660,
during the Akwamu War, as described in the article on the "Native
Tribunals among the Gas" but the present names are taken from the two
families which supply occupants for the stool.
The Sempe Stool – Nicknamed Anege. The name of the Sempe stool holder is
generally known as Anege; the other names are Kpakpo, Akwei, &c.
The Akamai-je Stool – Nicknamed Ayikai. The name of the Akamai-je stool holder is Ayikai.
The Alata Stool _ the name of the Alata stool holder is now ganerally Kojo, but this is not a Ga name.
The Ga Akwason Stool _ Nicknamed Kpakpa. The name of the stool holder of
the Kpakpatsewe family is Kwate or Kpakpa, but the stools themselves
are called Kpakpa and Kwatei.
Birthday Names.
There are people who, though Gas, are nevertheless called be the name of
the day of the week on which they were born in addition to their family
names. The seven days of the week have names attached to them, and by
which they are known.
It is stated that these are named after some fetish or other such ting,
and some of them declared holidays on which certain classes of the
people do not carry on their trades and vocations. The names of the days
of the weeks are the following:
Ga. English. 1. Dsu Monday 2. Dsufo Tuesday 3. So or Shor Wednesday 4. So Thursday 5. Soha Friday 6. Ho Saturday 7. Hogba Sunday
It is rather curious that although the Ga language has names for the
seven days of the week, the Gas are said in reckoning their time, to
count eight days to the week, but I think the real thing is that they
cannot count the day on which the matter happened, but include the day
of the same name following, and when giving birth names they take the
name of the day of the week form the Akan-Twi names of the days of the
week. This may be an indicative reason to show that the usage of naming
people by the name for the days of the week was by the Gas acquired from
the practice of the Twis. The names of the days of the week according
to the Akan or Twi language, where also eight days make a week, are the
following:
Akan-Twi. English. 1. Dsoda Monday 2. Bla Da Tuesday 3. Kuda or Okuda
Wednesday 4. Yaoda Thursday 5. Fida Friday 6. Memleda Saturday 7.
Kwesida Sunday
It will be seen from the following that the birth day names are strictly
Akan-Twi, or what is commonly called Twi. The following are the birth
day names:
Male Female Born on Monday called Kojo Ajua Tuesday " Kobla, Kwabina or Kobina Abla
Wednesday " Kwaku or Kweku Aku or Akua Thursday " Yao or Kwao Yawa or Aba Friday "
Source : Ghanaweb.
We visited this castle in 2008.
Cape Coast Castle is situated in the small town with the same name in Ghana.
In 1665 Carolusburg was taken by the English fleet led by Captain Holmes. The English Chartered Company
of Adventurers expanded and strengthened the fort to be comparable in size and strength with the nearby
Dutch Elmina Castle and renamed it Cape Coast
Castle.
It was also equipped with 3 slave dungeons (2 for males and 1 for females) from where some 70.000
slaves were exported to the New World each year. The castle is reputed to have been one of the largest
slave-holding sites in the world during the colonial era where slaves, many of them traded to the
British by Ashantes in return for alcohol and guns, were stored before being stowed in merchant ships
and deported.
