Aspects of the Akan Belief System Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Aspects of the Akan Belief System - Term Paper Example The Akan depict love for freedom and independence from the foreign rule and their insistence on independence helped them in transforming the modern Ghana. Akan has several belief systems and this form of writing highlights aspects of the Akan belief system. Akan’s main feature is their language Twi, which is the most predominant native language used in Ghana and has several intelligible dialects that are qualified based on the speakers. Currently, various dialects have been incorporated into the Twi language thus making it a unified language. The Twi language constitutes proverbs that are of concise moral and religious origin as they touch on issues of common sense and good manners. Akan’s cultural influence was trigerred by the Akwamu and Asante Kingdoms that detained people to learn Twi and forcing non-Twi speakers into their Kingdoms (Gyekye, 1995). The Akans are organizedin 8 classeswhere every group is known as a TOTEM, which are social institution, and they includ ed the Aduana, Agona, Asakyiri, Asenes, Ayokoo, Bretuo, Ekoona and the Asona. The Akan was organized into kingdoms that were initially established by the Bono. The Kingdoms were full of gold that were mined in the Volta River that later turned them to merchandisers. The trade between the Portuguese with the Akan largely determined the locations of the Akan’s future kingdoms along the trade routes. ... The human sacrifice was believed to be effective when the victim accepted it voluntarily and the Akan believed that it led to emergence of quarters and flourishing town. The place where the victim was buried was highly protected because they believed that it was sacred and it was mostly used to sacrifice and carry out libations. Moreover, the Akan believed in the family (Abusua), was considered as the basic social unit and one’s individual family included the issue of his mother, mother’s sisters, and children of his sisters. On the other hand, the extended family comprised of his immediate as well as the immediate families that traced their ancestry from the common female ancestress Extended family is regarded as vital since it ensured mutual helpfulness and cooperation as well as conformity to social norms. According to their matrilineal arrangement, females were deemed the maintainer of the family in such a way that a family would become extinct whenever there was no woman to keep it going. Father is only known to be a facilitator in the family. The family was headed by Abusua Panyin who had a number of duties such as ensuring sustainability custom, law, and tradition and exercising superintendence over the family members. The Akans hugely regarded the significance of procreation as the fundamental of life and everyone who bore children was highly respected. They really valued children born into wedlock due to the great importance they gave to marriage, which sets stage for responsible and stable family. Men searches for their wives and borne all the expenses associated with the search as well as with the marriage. Marriage is regarded as a group union