Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T14:24:18.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘True Nzema’: A Layered Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Pierluigi Valsecchi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nzema has been used historically as a multiple term to describe different but interrelated social, political and territorial realities. Failure to understand the historical context fully has led to persistent ambiguity in writings about the area, especially in anthropological studies. The tendency is to isolate ‘ethnic groups’ as precise categories in a broad context which in reality is covered by a pervasive network of continua. This article deals with the historical ‘mapping’ of ‘what it is to be Nzema’ and therefore puts forward a framework for analysing the question of identity in its actual formulation or, in other words, in relation to local ideological and political processes. Finally, it attempts to identify some of the registers which inform the question and some of the criteria for the use of each specific register by individuals and communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 2001 , pp. 391 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aboagye, P. A. K. 1973. Nzema Anee neAnwo Mgbanyidweke. Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar
Aboagye, P. A. K. 1992. Nzema Nee Nrelenza Edwebohilele Buluku. Nzema-English, English-Nzema Dictionary. First edition 1965, Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar
Ackah, C. A. 1963. ‘The historical significance of some Ghanaian festivals’, Ghana Notes and Queries 5, 16–27.Google Scholar
Ackah, J. Y.. 1965. ‘Kaku Ackah and the Split of Nzema’. Unpublished M.A. thesis,Legon: University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Adjaye, A. 1931. Nzima Land. London: Headley Bros.Google Scholar
Agovi, J. K. E.. 1979. ‘Kundum: festival drama among the Ahanta-Nzema of south-west Ghana’. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Agovi, J. K. E. 1982. ‘Axim Kundum: a preliminary survey’, Research Review 10 (1), 70–82.Google Scholar
Agovi, J. K. E. 1990. ‘Words, music, dance and parody in confusion: the performance of Nzema Avudwene songs’, Research Review 6 (2), 1–7.Google Scholar
Amissah, M. K.. 1965. ‘The Music of Ahanta Kundum’. Unpublished thesis for a Diploma in African Music, Legon: University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Amon d’Aby, F. J. 1960. Croyances religieuses et coutumes juridiques des Agnide la Côte d’Ivoire. Paris: Larose.Google Scholar
Amselle, J-L. 1990. Logiques métisses: anthropologie de l'identité en Afrique et ailleurs. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Amselle, J-L. 1995. ‘Ethnicité et identité en Afrique’, in Cordellier, S. (ed.), Nations et nationalismes, pp. 87–93. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Amselle, J-L. and M'Bokolo, E. 1985.(eds), Au coeur de l'ethnie: ethnies, tribalisme et Etat en Afrique. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Arthur, A.. 1977. ‘Abisa Festival: a Ghanaian (Nzema) music institution’. Unpublished Ph.D. (Ethnomusicology) dissertation, Middletown, CTWesleyan University.Google Scholar
Asilijoe, P. A. K. 1992. Duma nee Mgbayele. Accra: Bureau of Ghana Languages.Google Scholar
Baesjou, R. 1979.(ed.), An Asante Embassy on the Gold Coast: the mission of Akyeampon Yaw to Elmina, 1869-72. Leiden: Afrika-Studiecentrum.Google Scholar
Baesjou, R. 1988. ‘The historical evidence in old maps and charts of Africa, with special reference to West Africa’, History in Africa 15, 1–83.Google Scholar
Barbot, J. 1688. ‘‘Description de la Côte d’r de Guinée’, in ‘ Description des côtes d’Afrique ’. MS, London: Public Record Office.Google Scholar
Binger, L. G. 1892. Du Niger au Golfe de Guinée par le pays de Kong et le Mossi. Two volumes, Paris: Hachette.Reprinted 1980, Paris: Société des Africanistes.Google Scholar
Bosman, W. 1705. A New Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea.. London: Knapton.Reprinted 1967, London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Bowdich, T. E. 1819. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. London: John Murray.Reprinted 1966, London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Brackenbury, H. 1874. The Ashanti War: a narrative.. Two volumes, London: Blackwood.Reprinted 1968, London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Cardona, G. R. 1977. ‘Profilo della lingua Nzema’, in Grottanelli, V. L. (ed.), Una società guineana: gli Nzema, pp. 95–142. Turin: Boringhieri.Google Scholar
Christensen, J. B. 1954. Double Descent among the Fanti. New Haven CT: Human Relations Area Files.Google Scholar
Chukwukere, I. 1978. ‘Akan theory of conception: are the Fante really aberrant?’, Africa 48 (2), 135–48.Google Scholar
Chukwukere, I. 1982. ‘Agnatic and uterine relations among the Fante: male/female dualism’, Africa 52 (1), 61–8.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. and Comaroff, J. L. 1991. Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, colonialism and consciousness in South Africa, I. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press..Google Scholar
Daaku, K. Y. 1973. ‘”Unknown” Aown: its people and their traditional history’. MS, Legon: Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Danquah, J. B. 1944. The Akan Doctrine of God: a fragment of Gold Coast ethics and religion. London: Lutterworth Press.Google Scholar
Davy- Hayford, O. 1971. ‘Dance of Nzema-Evalue Kundum’. Unpublished diploma thesis, Legon: University of Ghana..Google Scholar
Delafosse, M. 1901. Essai de manuel de la langue agni. Paris: André.Google Scholar
Delafosse, M. 1904. Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de soixante langues ou dialectes parlés d la Cote-d'ivoire et dans les régions limitrophes. Paris: Leroux..Google Scholar
de Marees, P. 1987. Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea (1602). Amsterdam: Claesz. Translated from the Dutch and ed. A.van Dantzig and A. Jones, Oxford: Oxford University Press..Google Scholar
Dolphyne, F. A.Kropp Dakubu, M. E. 1977. ‘The Volta-Comoé languages’, in Kropp Dakubu, M. E. (ed.), The Languages of Ghana, pp. 50–90. London: Kegan Paul, for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Donhela, A.Kropp Dakubu, M. E. 1977. Descriçao da Serra Leoa e dos Rios de Guiñé do Cabo Verde(1625)/An Account of Sierra Leone and the Rivers of Guinea of Cape Verde (1625),(ed.) Teixeira da Mota, A. and Hair., P.E.H.Lisbon: Junta deinvestigaçoes científicas de Ultramar..Google Scholar
Dyer, H. McN. 1876. The West Coast of Africa as seen from a Man-of-war. London: Griffin.Google Scholar
Eschlimann, J-P. 1985. Les Agni devant la mort (Côte-d'Ivoiré). Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Essuah, J. A. 1958, 1959, 1962. Mekakye Bie I—III. Three volumes, Cape Coast: Catholic Mission Press.Google Scholar
Firmin-Sellers, K. 1996. The Transformation of Property Rights in the Gold Coast. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1950. ‘Kinship and marriage among the Ashanti’, in Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Forde, D. (eds), African Systems of Kinship and Marriage, pp. 252-84. London, New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1969. Kinship and the Social Order. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Gilbert, M. 1987. ‘The person of the king: ritual and power in a Ghanaian state’, in Cannadine, G. and Price, S. (eds), Rituals of Royalty, pp. 298-330. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, M. 1994. ‘Aesthetic strategies: the politics of a royal ritual’, Africa 64 (1), 99-125.Google Scholar
Greenberg, J. 1963. ‘The languages of Africa’ II, International Journal of American Linguistics 29 (1), 1-177.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1960. ‘Nome e anima fra gli Nzema’, Actes du Vie Congrès international des sciences anthropologiques et ethnologiques II (2), pp. 389-92, Paris.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1961. ‘Pre-existence and survival in Nzema beliefs’, Man LXI (art. I), 1-5.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1962. ‘Emblemi totemici fra gli Nzima del Ghana’, Anthropos 57, 488- 508.Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1971. ‘L'ordalia del veleno fra gli Nzema del Ghana’, in Szabadfalvi, J. and Ujvary, Z. (eds), Studia ethnographica et folkloristica in honorem Bêla Gunda, pp. 223-303. Debrecen: Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem Konyvtára..Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L.(ed.). 1977. Una società guineana: gli Nzema I, ‘I fondamenti della cultura’. Turin: Boringhieri..Google Scholar
Grottanelli, V. L. 1978. Una società guineana: gli Nzema II, Ordine morale e salvezza eterna. Turin: Boringhieri..Google Scholar
Gyekye, K. 1987. An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: the Akan conceptual scheme. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..Google Scholar
Hintze, U. 1949. ‘Untersuchungen zur sprachlichen Stellung des Nzema innerhalb der Akan-Sprachen’. Unpublished degree thesis, Berlin: Free University.Google Scholar
Kadja Mianno, D. 1978. ‘Mythe Sanwi de l’origine des clans: essai d’interprétation sociologique’, Annales de l’Université d’Abidjan F (Ethno-sociologie) VII, 21-32.Google Scholar
Kea, R. A. 1982. Settlements, Trade, and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century Gold Coast. Baltimore MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Kropp Dakubu, M. E. 1977. ‘The contribution of linguistics to the study of Ghanaian history’, in Hunwick, J. O. (ed.), Proceedings of the Seminar on Ghanaian Historiography and Historical Research, 20-22 May 1976. Legon: Department of History, University of Ghana.Google Scholar
Kropp Dakubu, M. E. 1985. ‘Notes on the linguistic situation on the Coast of Ghana during the nineteenth century’, Research Review, new series, 2 (1), 192-202.Google Scholar
Kwaansa, K. 1932. ‘Reflections on the destoolment of Nana Annor Adjaye of western Nzima’, Gold Coast Times, 27 August, 8-9.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1985. ‘Power and dynastic conflict in Mampon’, History in Africa 12, 167–185.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. 1995. State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..Google Scholar
Mock, C. C.. 1969. ‘The Grammatical Units of the Nzema Language: a systemic analysis’. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, London: University College.Google Scholar
Mondière, M. A. T 1880. ‘Les nègres chez eux, ou, études ethnographiques sur les populations de la Côte-d'or (côte occidentale d'Afrique);’ Revue d Anthropologie IX, second series, 3 (4), 621-50.Google Scholar
Mouezy, H. 1953. Assinie et le royaume de Krinjabo: histoire et coutumes. Paris: Larose..Google Scholar
Niangoran- Bouah, G. 1973. ‘Symboles institutionnels chez les Akan’, L'Homme XII (1–2), 202-32.Google Scholar
Ntumy, S. 1995. ‘A summary report on Ahanta Survey’ Research Review 9 (supplement), 42-57..Google Scholar
Palumbo, B. 1992. ‘Marriage, land, and kinship in a Nzema village’, Ethnology 31 (3), 233-57.Google Scholar
Palumbo, B. 1995. ‘Come Venere in cielo: paradigmi di identità nzema;’, inSolinas, P.(ed.), Luoghi d'Africa: forme e pratiche dell'identità, pp. 129-204. Rome:Nuova Italia Scientifica..Google Scholar
Paulme, D. 1970. ‘Un rituel de fin d'année chez les Nzema de Grand-Bassam’,Cahiers d'études africaines X(2) 38, 189-202..Google Scholar
Pavanello, M. 1996. ‘Parenté, catégories économiques et théorie du pouvoir: le cas des Nzema du Ghana’, Cahiers d'études africaines XXXVI (3) 143, 373-96.Google Scholar
Perrot, C-H. 1982. Les Anyi-Ndényé et le pouvoir aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles.Abidjan and Paris: CEDA/Publications de la Sorbonne.Google Scholar
Ranger, T. 1989. ‘Missionaries, migrants and the Manyika: the invention of ethnicity in Zimbabwe’, in Vail, L. (ed.), The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, pp. 118-50. London: James Currey; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Rathbone., R. 1996. ‘Defining Akyemfo: the construction of citizenship in Akyem Abuakwa, Ghana, 1700-1939’, Africa 66(4), 506-25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1923. Ashanti. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Reprinted 1969, New York: Negro University Press.Google Scholar
Rattray, R. S. 1929. Ashanti Law and Constitution. Oxford: Clarendon Press..Google Scholar
Republic of Ghana 1984. 1984 Population Census of Ghana: special report on localities by local authorities. Western Region. Accra: Statistical Service of Ghana..Google Scholar
Robertson, G. A. 1819. Notes on Africa. London: Sherwood Neely & Jones.Google Scholar
Sanderson, R. W. 1925. ‘The history of Nzima up to 1874’, Gold Coast Review 1 (1), 95–107.Google Scholar
Signorini, I. 1973. ‘Agonwole Agyals: the marriage between two persons of the same sex among the Nzema of southwestern Ghana’, Journal de la Société des africanistes XLIII 1 (2), 221–34.Google Scholar
Solinas, P.(ed.).1995 Luoghi dAfrica: forme e pratiche dell'identitd.. Rome: Nuova Italia Scientifica.Google Scholar
Spear, T. and Waller, R. (eds).1993. Being Maasai: ethnicity and identity in East Africa. London: James Currey; Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota; Nairobi: East African Publishing House; Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. M. 1966. ‘Akan history: some linguistic evidence’, Ghana Notes and Queries 9, 54-8.Google Scholar
Teixeira Da Mota, A. and Hair, P. E. H. 1988. East of Mina. Afro-European relations on the Gold Coast in the 1550s and 1560s: an essay with supporting documents. Madison WI: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Terray, E. 1995. Une Histoire du royaume abron du Gyaman: des origines d la conquête coloniale. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Vail, L. (ed.). 1989. The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. London: James Currey; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Valsecchi, P. 1986. ‘Lo Nzema fra egemonia asante ed espansione europea nella prima meta del XIX secólo’, Africa (Istituto ítalo Africano/ISIAO,Rome) 41 (4), 507-44.Google Scholar
Valsecchi, P. 1994. ‘Per una storia dello Nzema: le origini (secoli XVII e XVIII)’, Etnosistemi 1 (1), 82-101.Google Scholar
Valsecchi, P. 1999. ‘Groups, politics, trade and war in the western Gold Coast (eighteenth century). Nzema history beyond “ethnic history”’, in Valsecchi, P. and Viti, F. (eds), Mondes Akan/Akan Worlds, pp. 241-72. Paris: Harmattan.Google Scholar
Van Dantzig, A. 1979. ‘La “juridiction” du fort Saint Antoine d'Axim’, Revue française d'histoire d'Outre-mer 66, 223-36.Google Scholar
Viti, F. 1995. ‘Luoghi comuni: appartenenza politica e identità locale. La costruzione delPetnia Baule (Costa d'Avorio)’, in Solinas, P. (ed.), Luoghi d'Africa: forme e pratiche dell'identitd, pp. 205-79. Rome: Nuova Italia Scientifica.Google Scholar
Viti, F. 1998. Il potere debole: antropología politica dell'Aitu nvle (Baule, Costa d'Avorio). Milano: Angeli.Google Scholar
Wade-Brown, A. 1982. ‘Il capodanno tra gli Nzema del Ghana: festa della comunità o del potere?’, L'Uomo 6 (2), 151-76.Google Scholar
Wade-Brown, A. 1989. ‘Festa e sistema politico: il caso del “Kundum” tra gli Nzema del Ghana’, Critica sociológica 90/91, 121-38.Google Scholar
Welman, C. W. 1930. The Native States of the Gold Coast: history and constitution, II Ahanta. London: Crown Agents for the Colonies..Google Scholar
Werbner, R. and Ranger, T. (eds). 1996. Postcolonial Identities in Africa. London and Atlantic Highlands NJ: Zed Books..Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1975. Asante in the Nineteenth Century: the structure and evolution of a political order. Second edition 1989, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press..Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1977. ‘Land, labour, capital and the forest kingdom of Asante: a model of early change’, in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. J. (eds), The Evolution of Social Systems, pp. 487-534. London: Duckworth..Google Scholar
Wilks, I. 1993. Forests of Gold: essays on the Akan and the kingdom of Asante. Athens OH: Ohio University Press..Google Scholar
Yarak, L. W. 1990. Asante and the Dutch, 1744-1873. Oxford: Oxford University Press..Google Scholar