PREFACE

...previous volumes into matters which at first sight may seem to have had little bearing´ upon this, the ultimate goal of these researches.

The Supreme God (Nyame original: "Nyame"); the lesser deities (abosom original: "abosom"); charms and amulets (suman original: "suman"); ancestral spirits (Samanfo original: "Samanfo"); forest spirits and monsters (mmoatia and sasabonsam original: "mmoatia, sasabonsam"); the paternal spiritual groups of the Ntoro original: "Ntoro"; religious rites and beliefs; the significance of certain apparently material objects, such as Stools;´ In Ashanti culture, a "Stool" is the sacred symbol of a leader's authority and the soul of their ancestors. birth, puberty, marriage, death, and a future life; the religion that still lingers in Arts and Crafts; the rhythm and ritual of the drums—all these and many other aspects of Ashanti religion have an intimate bearing on the contents of this volume. Without a knowledge of these subjects, this book could hardly have been written.

I have no hesitation in stating that the Law and Constitution of these people evolved from, and were ultimately based upon, their indigenous beliefs. To say this is to suggest something that goes deeper than just explaining an interesting academic theory. It is to state a fact of considerable significance in the field of practical West African politics today. I believe that our successful guidance of these people, and ultimately their own success in self-government, must depend upon the correct application of this knowledge. It is necessary here for me to make a brief digression before I elaborate on this point.

There are, at the present time, two schools of thought regarding the direction in which the progress of the West African should be guided.

The older school would dismiss that entire unique spiritual past´—which I have endeavored to describe—to the African’s own refuse heaps (suminaso original: "suminaso"), or at least` to the shelves and glass cases that have become the mausoleums of dead or dying cultures.´ In such places—if I may use another analogy which my Ashanti friends will understand—the souls of the peoples whom our civilization has robbed of their heritage now seek a lonely and unhonored refuge.´ This school, working by what seems to me a standard of purely material and economic prosperity, argues that because the African’s beliefs appear to have served him poorly in the past as stepping stones to real progress, his culture has been tried and found wanting.´

`For these beliefs, this school would therefore substitute European civilization and thought. There is much, of course, to be said for such logic and methods, which are frank and clear-cut; they would prefer a clean slate (tabula rasa original: "tabula rasa") on which to start afresh; they are free from sentimentalism and are purely materialistic. This school offers to the African, all...