Warrior of the Denkyira Kingdom in Gold Coast (Ghana), West Africa. Circa 1800. Traditions claim that the founding fathers of Upper and Lower Denkyira in the Central Region originally lived in the Mande areas, in Voltaic Region, south of the Niger Bend. They deserted the region owing to the arid nature of the land that led to famine and hostilities.They migrated south-westwards, crossed the Volta and reached the Tekyiman (Techiman) in the Ancient Bono State around 1570. After a time, the migrants lived for a while with the Nkyiras in the same region. They were at the time known as ADAWUFO, hence the saying ‘Adawu, Dawu Denkyira, mene-sono.’ (lit’. Adawu Dawu Denkyira, the swallowers of elephants’), which became the honorific byname of the Denkyira people. They stayed with the Nkyiraa for more than a century and learned their institutions so well that people said ‘’they had become like the Nkyiraa’’ (‘Dan- Nkyiraa i.e. dependency on Nkyiraa) (See: Daaku K. Y. ‘Oral Tradition of Denkyira’, I. A. S., Legon, 1970).
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 20:16:14 +0000
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