PREFACE

This volume contains the final investigations of the Anthropological Department regarding the Ashanti people. The Ashanti, or Asante, are a major ethnic group of the Akan people in present-day Ghana. It is the last of a trilogy which includes the previously published volumes titled Ashanti and Religion and Art in Ashanti.

Some six years ago, when a branch of Anthropological research was first established in the Gold Coast Colony, A British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, which gained independence as Ghana in 1957. I expected to prioritize the subjects which now form the contents of this, my final report. A knowledge of Akan-Ashanti Law is of paramount importance to the local Administration, which is currently engaged in framing "Native Jurisdiction Ordinances," Laws created by the British colonial government to regulate the legal powers and authorities of local African rulers. in schemes for the operation of "Native Tribunals," and in plans for "Indirect Rule." A colonial policy of governing through existing indigenous power structures and traditional leaders. I did, in fact, set out to blaze this trail—which some of my readers may have followed this far—by making the studies mentioned above my first and immediate objective. I had intended to follow up these legal investigations with inquiries into religious and social problems, and I hoped finally to examine Ashanti Arts and Crafts. It will be observed, however, that the sequence of the program as originally projected has been almost reversed. The reasons which influenced me to change my original plans may be set down briefly as follows.

I soon found myself, while pursuing my earlier intentions, constantly confronted with words in the Ashanti language which, although primarily associated with religion, were nevertheless continuously found in connection with legal and constitutional procedures. Regarding the exact significance of these terms, moreover, neither previous writings nor local authorities could throw very much light. In consequence, I was constantly being held up in my inquiries and compelled to attempt to determine, if possible, the exact meaning of words, phrases, or rites that were apparently of religious importance, but obviously in some way associated with legal and constitutional formulas. At the outset, I came to suspect—what later on I was to discover to be an indisputable fact—namely, that Ashanti Law and Ashanti Religion were intimately associated. It became advisable, therefore, to try to understand and explain the latter first, so that the former could be described with a better prospect of making a useful contribution to this difficult subject. Hence those excursions into pre- The text breaks off here at the end of the page, continuing into the word "previous" or "preliminary" on the next page.

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¹ With the exception of a collection of Folk-tales which is now in preparation.