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An Ashanti Case-History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Peter Canham
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Extract

Ata Kwasi was a young Ashanti, about twenty-one years old. He had gained the Primary School leaving certificate and shortly after leaving school got a job as a junior clerk. In March 1945 he complained of a persistent cough and was admitted to hospital where pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed. Pressure on the limited accommodation, the impossibility of a cure and his own dislike of a hospital regimen made him leave after a few weeks. The following are the letters and reports of his illness which he wrote in English to a friend during the last four months of his life. They are produced without alterations except for the deletion of place-names.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1947, pp. 35 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1947

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References

page 35 note 1 Not his real name.

page 35 note 2 The Ashanti for Mohammedan.

page 35 note 3 The area on the outskirts of every large Ashanti village where people from the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast and Northern Provinces of Nigeria reside.

page 36 note 1 Or Fomene–‘Sacred Saturday’. One of the days in the 42-day cycle of the Ashanti calendar. See chapter ix of Rattray's Ashanti.

page 37 note 1 ‘Sacred Friday’. For a description of the ‘Fofie’ ceremonies of the great Ashanti god Tano, see , Rattray'sAshanti, pp. 183 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 38 note 1 The six-weekly Ashanti religious festival. See chapter vii of , Rattray'sAshantiGoogle Scholar for a description of the ceremonies.

page 38 note 2 Probably one of the sons of the great god Tano (or Ta Kora). The ceremonies connected with the worship of Tano are very fully described in , Rattray'sAshanti, chapters xvi to xix.Google Scholar

page 38 note 3 These are common Ashanti names. Possibly they are not the sons of Ta Kwasi but his ‘linguists’ (see , Rattray'sAshanti, p. 178)Google Scholar.

page 38 note 4 Lake Bosumtwe in Southern Ashanti.

page 38 note 5 The generic term for the language of the Akan peoples including the Ashanti.

page 38 note 6 i.e. a stammerer.

page 39 note 1 ‘Sacred Monday’. See note 1, p. 36.

page 39 note 2 ‘Sacred Sunday’. See note 1, p. 36.

page 39 note 3 ‘To carry the gods’ has a technical meaning. A priest ‘carries the god’, when it is wished to communicate with it, by placing its shrine on his head. He then becomes the medium through whom the god speaks. See , Rattray'sAshanti, pp. 177 ffGoogle Scholar.