The Ewe-Speaking People of Togoland and the Gold Coast

Western Africa Part VI

Madeline Manoukian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781315295954
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Routledge is proud to be re-issuing this landmark series in association with the International African Institute. The series, published between 1950 and 1977, brings together a wealth of previously un-co-ordinated material on the ethnic groupings and social conditions of African peoples.

Concise, critical and (for its time) accurate, the Ethnographic Survey contains sections as follows:

• Physical Environment
• Linguistic Data
• Demography
• History & Traditions of Origin
• Nomenclature
• Grouping
• Cultural Features: Religion, Witchcraft, Birth, Initiation, Burial
• Social & Political Organization: Kinship, Marriage, Inheritance, Slavery, Land Tenure, Warfare & Justice
• Economy & Trade
• Domestic Architecture

Each of the 50 volumes will be available to buy individually, and these are organized into regional sub-groups: East Central Africa, North-Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, West Central Africa, Western Africa, and Central Africa Belgian Congo.

The volumes are supplemented with maps, available to view on routledge.com or available as a pdf from the publishers.

Political Organisation

The Ewe-speaking people have never formed a single political unit but have remained a loose collection of independent sub-tribes; and though some of these groups formed alliances in time of war, these were only temporary, breaking up when peace was restored ; there has never been a political confederation of Ewe sub-tribes. “It seems to have been left to the European administration to begin the welding together of the sub-tribes into larger, centralised groups, and to the effects of European rule to create a national, pan-Ewe consciousness.”¹ The present strongly organised pan-Ewe movement for political unification under a single administration, which today commands very widespread support among the people, originated with a few educated British and French Ewe as recently as 1945.

The account below is based on Spieth’s² and Westermann’s³ descriptions of Ewe political organisation as it existed about fifty years ago. Unfortunately no more recent study of Ewe political organisation has been made.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICSOF EWE POLITICAL STRUCTURE

At the beginning of the present century the widest independent political unit was the sub-tribe, a group inhabiting a certain territory and usually sharing a tradition of common origin. Both the sub-tribe and its territory were known as a du (pi. duwo). There were about 120 such groups, and though exact figures do not exist it seems likely, from the data available, that they varied in size from possibly a few hundred to perhaps twenty thousand or more members. Within each du there were one or more settlements, of which one was the capital or fiadu, and a number of subsidiary villages and hamlets. The capital was the seat of the chief (fia) and his council of elders and officials who assisted him in the administration of the du. Some sub-tribes, such as Ho and Glidyi, included a number of subordinate local groups or subdivisions (also known as duwo), each consisting of a group inhabiting a town with its surrounding territory, and each having its own sub-chief or fia, the chief of the whole sub-tribe then being known as fiaga or ‘great chief’.⁴

The administration of the du was in the hands of the fiɔhawo or ‘chief’s people’, that is, the chief himself and a number of executive officials, the asafohenewo (sing. asafohene),⁵ together with the elders of the royal lineage. The full council of the du included also the dumegawo (elders of the capital) that is, the heads of the component lineages and the more senior heads of household groups in the capital, who together formed the dumegawo be takpexwe or ‘council of the town elders’ Other villages had no chiefs but were represented by a senior official, usually belonging to a certain lineage.

In those sub-tribes which contained sub-divisions the sub-chiefs appear to have had considerable independence in their own capitals, though little information is available on this matter. They had no regular place on the chief’s council, but came to his capital for important conferences, for example, to discuss whether or not to go to war.

POLITICAL UNITS WITHIN THE SUB -TRIBE

The sub-divisions which existed in certain sub-tribes apparently had an organisation similar to that of the sub-tribe ; the ruler was a sub-chief with his own elders and officials, who had considerable independence in his sub-division. The exact relations of these sub-divisions to each other and to the sub-tribe as a whole are not clear from the information available.

The capital (du) was distinguished from the village (kɔfe, kɔdyi) not in terms of size (though capitals were usually larger) or of economic importance, but of political importance, usually expressed in terms of traditional history and original settlement. The capital of a sub-tribe, or the nucleus of a sub-division, was the seat of the chief or sub-chief and his council of elders and other officials. Other settlements were represented by a senior official known as an asafohene. All the larger settlements were divided into a number of ‘wards’ or ‘quarters’.

The ‘ward’ or ‘quarter’¹ was, according to Westermann, the locality of a residential group of which the core usually consisted of the members of a single lineage claiming descent from an original first settler and providing the ward-head. He and the heads of any other lineages in the ward acted as councillors for the ward, and, together with the heads of all the other wards, they formed the council of town or village elders (dutnegawo be takpexwe). In addition, an official known as an asafohene, together with another, termed ga, and in consultation with the ward elders, was responsible for the maintenance of law and order in his ward. The dutnegawo and the asafohenewo of the capital of a sub-tribe (or sub-division) formed part of the full council of the du, which also included the chief and the elders of the chiefly lineage.

Villages, i.e., settlements other than the capital, varied greatly in size from the temporary farming site of a man and his own family, with perhaps one or two helpers, usually kinsmen, known as agblekɔfe or agbleta, or the rather larger hamlet of several families (kɔfe: farm-village) having no political significance. But such a hamlet might develop into a permanent settlement to which kinsmen and friends of the first farmer might be attracted. At first (and often permanently) it might be merely an offshoot of the parent settlement in which the villagers kept their houses open and where they stayed from time to time, taking part in the religious and ceremonial observances of the settlement and paying full political allegiance to its rulers. Such a village (called kɔdyi by the Glidyi, who referred to the farming hamlet as kɔpe) had its own headman, usually the first settler or his heir, who, together with the heads of the other lineages present, formed the village council and adjudicated in minor disputes. It was to that extent a political unit and was represented by an asafohene, as if it were a detached ‘quarter’ of a town.² In time a village might become increasingly independent, eventually developing into a capital town.³

The lineage was the smallest political unit within the ward and the village. It was under the authority of the lineage head, who, with senior members of the lineage, settled disputes within the group and represented it in its relations with the other lineage groups of the community. In certain parts of the country lineages were the recognised agents for dealing with homicide through the institution of the blood-feud⁴ (see below, p. 38).

THE CHIEF

Succession to chiefship⁵ is both hereditary and selective. The chief is chosen from the royal lineage (fiafome, fiaxome) of the sub-tribe, whose members usually claim to be descended from the first immigrants or from ancestors who had been leaders in local affairs, though this claim is not always founded on fact. Where the royal lineage has ramified widely, candidates for the chiefship may be provided by each sub-lineage in turn. In some sub-tribes, such as Bagida and Be, for example, the rule of primogeniture is followed.¹

A suitable candidate should have no bodily defects, and should be at least prepossessing enough not to be a laughing-stock to neighbouring sub-tribes. He should be intelligent and understanding and of a tractable nature, willing to take the advice of his elders. The actual selection is made by the senior members of the royal lineage and their decision is laid before the capital and sub-tribal elders by a ‘leading man of the lineage’, with the title fiatɔ or fiata (chief’s father). The elders may reject the proposed candidate and demand another, and the process of selection is usually lengthy, an interregnum of several years being common, during which there may be considerable jealousy and intrigue. During or after the selection the approval of the trowo (gods) and ancestors is sought by invocation and divination.

Once selected, the chief is installed with considerable ceremony, the details of which show many local variations. The officials who have leading roles are not always the same, but seem usually to include members of the royal lineage (generally the ‘chief’s father’) and leading executive officials, such as the senior asafohene, or the avadada (war-mother). The chief receives certain royal insignia, including a stool (which in some sub-tribes plays an important part in the installation ceremony), a crown (usually a white bandeau, sometimes accompanied by a top-hat), sandals, cloths, an umbrella, a palanquin and a ceremonial sword. There are also royal musical instruments, fly-switches, whips, and staffs carried by the royal messengers. On the death of a chief all these objects pass into the temporary care of the ‘chief’s father’ or the ‘war-mother’

There are a number of royal retainers, some of whose office...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• Original Copyright
• FOREWORD
• CONTENTS
• Grouping and Demography
• Language
• Traditions and History
• Physical Environment
• Main Features of Economy
• Social Organisation
• Political Organisation
• Land Tenure
• The Life Cycle
• Religious Beliefs and Cults
• Bibliography