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  3. Slavery, Memory and Religion in Southeastern Ghana, c.1850–Present
  • Cited by 13
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
August 2015
Print publication year:
2015
Online ISBN:
9781316257852
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316257852
Series:
The International African Library (49)
Subjects:
Area Studies, African Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History, Anthropology: General Interest, Anthropology, African History
Information

Book description

Based on a decade of fieldwork in southeastern Ghana and analysis of secondary sources, this book aims to reconstruct the religious history of the Anlo-Ewe peoples from the 1850s. In particular, it focuses on a corpus of rituals collectively known as 'Fofie', which derived their legitimacy from engaging with the memory of the slave-holding past. The Anlo developed a sense of discomfort about their agency in slavery in the early twentieth century which they articulated through practices such as ancestor veneration, spirit possession, and by forging links with descendants of peoples they formerly enslaved. Conversion to Christianity, engagement with 'modernity', trans-Atlantic conversations with diasporan Africans, and citizenship of the postcolonial state coupled with structural changes within the religious system - which resulted in the decline in Fofie's popularity - gradually altered the moral emphases of legacies of slavery in the Anlo historical imagination as the twentieth century progressed.

Reviews

‘Engaging, logically structured and based on impressive ethnography, this [book] makes an important contribution to the existing scholarly literature on the religion and belief of the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo and more broadly to an emerging history of religious change in West Africa that seeks to go beyond the established narrative of conversion.’

John Parker - School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

‘Meera Venkatachalam offers an informative analysis of the memory of slavery in Anlo (Ghana) as embedded in various ritual practices. She provides an excellent discussion of ritual as memory, and rituals as historically created processes.’

Sandra E. Greene - author of Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter and West African Narratives of Slavery

‘Meera Venkatachalam’s book is an involving account of the historical contingencies and complexities of belief among the Anlo-Ewe of southeastern Ghana. Her subject is the moral imaginary of Anlo-Ewe people since the 1850s in their evolving view of their own historical agency in, and responsibility for, slavery and slave-holding. This is a study of the intricacies of memory, but in a documented historical context that is still all too scarce in African studies. The book is lucidly written, intriguing, in places compelling, and always thought-provoking. The author is to be congratulated on this finely honed study.’

Tom McCaskie - Emeritus Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

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Contents

Contents
References

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Archival Sources

National Archives, Accra

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/228: Quittah Lagoon

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/272: Appointment of Dzodze chiefs (1910)

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/404: Awuna Native Affairs

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/430: Fetishes at Atiavo

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/637: Kune (Kunde) Fetish

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/680: Whuti Native Affairs

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/751: Dente Fetish

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/768: Fetish Atigo at Battor

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/886: Witchcraft

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/1091: Fia Adama of Agbosome vs Sri

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/1387: Suppression of Atti fetish (1908)

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 11/1/1679: Native Customs and Fetish

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 41/4/1: Quitta Criminal Case Files

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 41/4/2: Quitta Criminal Case Files

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 41/4/20: Quitta Criminal Case Files

  • PRAAD/A/ADM 41/4/22: Quitta Criminal Case Files

Websites

Principal Interviews and Informants

  • Name, Occupation, Place, Date(s) of Interview(s)

  • Ablavi Amegbor, Fofie devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 18 November 2010

  • Adokomesi, Fofiesi, Klikor-Agbozume: 12 August 2000

  • Adzo Amevedzi, Church-goer, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 6 March 2004

  • Agbodzi, Adzevodu initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 7 June 2004

  • Ajakoku, Head of the Fofie cult, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 13 September 2003, 8 March 2004, 15 April 2004, 29 August 2005

  • Babaa, Fofie worshipper, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 11 April 2004, 1 May 2004

  • Ben Afikpo, Nyigbla devotee, Afife: 21 December 2003

  • Blumesi, Fofie intiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 13 September 2005

  • Christian Seeku, Mamaa devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 6 March 2004, 23 August 2005, 14 September 2006

  • Dadziezor, Yewe vodusi, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 February 2004

  • David Davor, EP Church committee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 8 April 2004

  • David Kwatsikor, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 27 August 2006

  • David Nyamesi, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 8 December 2010, 9 December 2010

  • Denis, Adzevodu devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 3 May 2004

  • Dzogbesi, later Dzakpasi Metumisi, Fofie initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 23 November 2003, 30 November 2003, 5 December 2010

  • Elias Agboado, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 27 August 2005, 7 December 2010

  • Esi, Yewe devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 8 March 2004

  • Faith Nyameshi, Mamma devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 10 April 2004, 29 August 2005

  • Felix, Diviner, Anloga: 6 October 2003, 8 October 2003

  • Gabriel Yevuagdi, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 10 September 2005

  • Gawu Mortu, Afa diviner, Dagbamete: 25 February 2004

  • Gbara, Fofie initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 12 September 2005

  • Gideon Nyamesi, Fofie worshipper, Keta: 9 December 2010

  • Goku, Yewe shrine owner, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 31 October 2003, 4 November 2003, 10 September 2005

  • Foli, Yewe priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 10 May 2004

  • Hlomesi, Gorovodu priestess, Pahou, Rep. of Benin: 14 June 2004

  • Hope Agboado, EP Church member, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 27 August 2005

  • Hope Amevedzi, RC church, Anloga: 24 April 2005, 25 August 2005, 11 September 2006

  • John Kuatsikor, Yewe priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 September 2006

  • Justice Agboado, member of Fofie lineage, Keta: 9 December 2010

  • Ketaboko, Yewe priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 February 2004

  • Kofi Ameve, Former Afrikania Mission Head, Accra: 3 August 2000, 10 August 2000

  • Komla Donkor, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 15 September 2007

  • Kwaku Amevedzi, Fofie worshipper, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 23 November 2003

  • Kwasi Aku, Gorovodu priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 February 2004

  • Kwabla Agodzi, Nunge priest, Atorkor: 17 September 2003

  • Kwadwo Jyameshi, Blekete drummer, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 14 April 2004, 25 June 2004

  • Kwadwo Tamakloe, Fofie devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 11 April 2004, 1 May 2004

  • Mama Abena, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 24 November 2003

  • Mama Acose, Yewe priestess, Pahou, Benin: 16 June 2004

  • Mama Adzima, Fofie shrine keeper, Dzita: 8 October 2003

  • Mamedu Badesi, Fofie initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 28 February 2004

  • Mansa Aidam, Yewe initiate, Atorkor: 19 September 2004

  • Metumisi, Fofiesi, Havedji: 6 December 2010

  • Midao Kazahlo, Yewe priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 8 April 2004

  • Minao Gbanyaga, Yewe priestess, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 4 November 2003

  • Miano Yorxor, Yewe priestess, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 26 August 2006

  • Nana Dente, Chief priest of Dente shrine, Kete Krachi: 9 May 2004

  • Nanunsi (in trance), Fofie initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 3 June 2004

  • Nyomesi, Fofie initiate, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 13 September 2005

  • Paulina Seeku, Mamma devotee, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 13 April 2004

  • Peter Azumah, Gorovodu worshipper, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 12 May 2004

  • Quasi Nyamesi, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 May 2013

  • Rexford Smith, African-American visitor, Keta: 7 December 2010

  • Rose Aidam, Fofie devotee, Whuti: 3 April 2004

  • Sacrebode, Gorovodu spirit, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 18 September 2005

  • Senchisro, Gorovodu priestess, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 13 September 2003, 30 November 2003, 27 August 2005

  • Slender, Gorovodu priest, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 19 September 2005

  • Sogolum Kwashiga, Adzevodu shrine owner, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 8 June 2004

  • Solomon Ocloo, Gorovodu worshipper, Blekusu: 10 June 2004

  • Togbi Akpate Akrobotu, Divisional Chief, Whuti: 17 September 2003

  • Togbi Mamma, Mamma shrine, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 7 June 2004

  • Tunde Jyameshi, Afrikania Mission, Anlo-Afiadenyigba: 11 May 2004

  • Wango Adzinu, Gorovodu priest, Blekusu: 15 June 2004

  • Winston Churchill Van Lare, Anlo local historian, Accra: 22 April 2014

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