A note on the Asante akonkofo

A non-literate Sub-elite, 1900–1930

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7550656
AutoresKwame Arhin (0000-0001-7167-3403, autor correspondente)
Ano1986
Volume56
Fascículo1
Páginas25-31
Data de publicação1986-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAfrica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1159731
OpenAlexW2155438728
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas13

Opening Paragraph Following the growing interest in recent years in social stratification in Asante in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Arhin, 1983a: 2–22; 1983b: 475; McCaskie, 1983: 23–44; Wilks, 1975: 166–719), this note offers a preliminary study of a body of men who became known in Kumasi and the capital towns of the other Asante chiefdoms – in particular Bekwai, Juaben and Mampon – as the akonkofo in the first phase of colonial rule, 1896–1930. The argument of the paper, written in the light of the views of Daaku (1970, 1971) is that the akonkofo , an intermediary group between office holders and non-holders of office (Arhin, 1983a) could emerge as a distinctive sociopolitical category only in the colonial period. The first section of this article, on the origin of the akonkofo , describes the factors that inhibited the rise of ‘merchant princes’ in Asante before colonial rule; the second, on the akonkofo in Kumasi, offers a kind of social portrait of the akonkofo ; and the third section, on the position of the akonkofo in Asante society, examines the relationship of the akonkofo to traditional authority. My sources are archival and written. I have also recorded interviews with Barima Owusu-Ansah, over seventy-five years old, and a leading authority on Asante law and constitution, and with Baffour Osei Akoto, senior spokesman ( okyeame ) of the Asantehene and just turned seventy, as well as conversations with sundry officials at the Asantehene's court

Ancient history · Capital (architecture · Chiefdom · Colonialism · Constitution · Elite · Indirect rule · Paragraph · Political science · Politics · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Law · Urban and Rural Development Challenges