The akan clan system - Essay Example

Additionally, the Ashanti Empire owed its prominence to its location because it was located with the regions richest goldfields. Today the tradition kingdom remains and significant national traditional and political force. This is because it is inseparably tangled to the functions and structures of the matrilineal ancestry system that forms the foundation of the Akan social order. The Akan’s make the biggest ethnic group in the two countries where they make up a population of about 20 million people.

This essay will analyses the Akan clan examining their lineage, cultures and ritual functions and oral traditions, as well as, the political economy of the clan. The Akan Clan has a multitier segmentary structure that comprises of matrilineal clans. There are main matrilineages and minor ancestry parts where the clans are made up of eight clans that are not localized including the members throughout the kingdom. The Akan abusua include Agona, Aduana, Asakyrir, Asinie, Asona, Ekuona, Bretuo and Oyoko.

Most individuals belong to the Asona abusua who make the largest group while the smallest is the Asakyiri (Shumway, 2011. P. 17). The origin of the clans has been attributed to the mythical female ancestors, but there have been no attempts made to trace back the descent lines to the founders of the clan. Abusua means a group of people that were derived from one great-grand mum on their maternal side. Where a clan is a confederation of four or five diverse groups of abusua that traces their ancestry via the same mutual ancestress.

The Akan’s believe that a human being is made up of a soul (okra), blood (mogya), spirit (sunsum) and family (abusua). The kinship from the mother determines, which family group a person belongs to because the according to the Akan’s a kid is what his or her mother is. This means that a person can be an Asante because of the fact that their mother is an Asante. In the Akan clan, matrimony between members of an in-group is