The Akan Diaspora in the AmericasIn his groundbreaking study of the Akan diaspora, Kwasi Konadu demonstrates how this cultural group originating in West Africa both engaged in and went beyond the familiar diasporic themes of maroonage, resistance, and freedom. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Akan never formed a majority among other Africans in the Americas. But their leadership skills in war and political organization, efficacy in medicinal plant use and spiritual practice, and culture archived in the musical traditions, language, and patterns of African diasporic life far outweighed their sheer numbers. Konadu argues that a composite Akan culture calibrated between the Gold Coast and forest fringe made the contributions of the Akan diaspora possible. The book examines the Akan experience in Guyana, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, former Danish and Dutch colonies, and North America, and how those early experiences foreground the modern engagement and movement of diasporic Africans and Akan people between Ghana and North America. Locating the Akan variable in the African diasporic equation allows scholars and students of the Americas to better understand how the diasporic quilt came to be and is still evolving. |
Contents
Akan Cultural | |
History and Meaning in Akan Societies 15001800 | |
The Akan in Danish and Dutch America | |
The Akan | |
The Akan Diaspora | |
Akan Spiritual Praxis and the Claims | |
Glossary | |
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abosom Accompong Accra African cultural African descendants African diaspora African History Akan culture Akan language Akan names Akan persons Akan societies Akan spiritual Akonnedi Akwamu Akyem Anomabu Anomabu Anomabu Antigua Asante Asantehene Asanteman Barbados became Begho British Cape Coast captives Caribbean Christian coastal communities conspiracy Coromantee Cudjoe Cuffee Curaçao diasporic Africans Dinizulu Dutch early eighteenth century Elmina enslaved Africans enslaved persons ethnic European Fante forest Georgia Ghana Ghanaian Gold Coast groups Guinea Ibid important included indigenous international enslavement enterprise Islam Island Ivor Wilks Jamaica John Kintampo Kofi Komenda Kormantin Kromanti Kumase Kwaku Kwame Kwasi labor Mande Maroons Nana Dinizulu Nana Kwabena Brown Nana Oparebea Negro nineteenth century North America obeah ɔhene ɔkɔmfoɔ percent plantation planters polities Portuguese Quaco Quamina revolt River Saramaka settlements seventeenth century slave trade slavery social South Carolina spiritual practice Suriname Takyiman Tanɔ town traditions University Press Virginia Volta River voyages West Africa York Yorùbá