Summary of Who are the Akans - Essay Example

This portrays the helpful feature of the people. The article further explains the way of life in the Akan society beginning with the process of creating a village, which then grows into a town. An Akan village has a head while a town in Akan has a stool of power and a chief as the center of the power.

The article entitled The Akan people by Adu-Amankwah provides basic information about the Akan people. The article explains that they live in central Ghana and speak the Akan language which is a collection of various dialects. The dialects they speak influence their identity since the people are often categorized into such groups. Among the existing groups based on the variety of dialects, include Wassa, Asante, Fante, Bono, Akyem, Kwahu, and Akuapem. The author of the article cites several historians as he provides details of the Akan people. He explains that they lived in independent kingdoms founded by refugees from Kumbu, a kingdom that consisted of twenty-seven states and was destroyed by Songhay in 1470. The economic activities of the Akan people include hunting, farming, and fishing.

The article, Akan kinship terms, provides a detailed analysis of kinship in the Akan society. In doing this, the article explains that the Akan people believe in the extended family system. The system is material in nature. With such an exciting yet informative introduction, the article proceeds to provide translations of some basic kinship names to English despite admitting that most of such names have no direct equivalent in English. Such terms include papa for father but the term Agya may refer to father too. Maame is for mother while Eno/Awo is an equivalent for affection though not directly transplanted as such. Nua is for a sibling, kunu refers to a husband, and yere for a wife. A child is a significant individual in society and the Akan refer to a child as ba.

Greetings on the other hand is an article that discusses the type of greetings in the Akan society. The article begins by acknowledging that greeting is a personal obligation in the Akan culture. The Akan consider those who do not greet people as uncultured. The Akan have greetings for morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Greetings are so important that marriages can always break up in case greeting is not part of a spouse’s culture. The Akan must always describe the time of the day while greeting. Maakye refers to the morning, Maaha to the afternoon, and Maadwo for both evening and night. Dayie refers to goodnight. Just as in any other context, the greetings have responses such as Yaa open, yaa amu, and yaa oburu among others.