Ashanti

This is work which is almost impossible to perform under the difficult and demanding conditions in which this task must often be carried out. I am again much indebted to my University Oxford University., which in a sense is the father of this branch of scientific research and where I received my early training. Dr. Marett Robert Ranulph Marett (1866–1943), a prominent British ethnologist and head of the Oxford University Anthropology Department. very kindly lent me all his valuable notes on "Primitive Law" before I began to write the present volume. Mr. Dudley Buxton has read all the proofs and helped me in many other ways. The Clarendon Press The academic publishing house of Oxford University. has again come forward with offers of the financial assistance necessary to publish this volume, and I thank the Delegates The governing board of Oxford University Press. once again on behalf of the Gold Coast Government The British colonial administration of what is now Ghana.. I feel that the constant repetition of my thanks to my brother-in-law, Sir Henry New, must have become monotonous to his ears; but since he has read this book through several times in proof—thereby giving me the benefit of his valuable literary criticism—I am compelled to thank him publicly again for all his invaluable assistance.

I have left the most important acknowledgement for last. It is to the Chiefs and people of Ashanti, who have admitted me to their homes, their friendships, and their confidences. As Dr. Danquah¹ Dr. J. B. Danquah (1895–1965), a renowned Ghanaian lawyer, scholar, and politician. rightly says, if I have been fortunate and "accurate" in my presentation of their life, it is because I have been "well informed." They have been my collaborators in this and in the previous volumes, and I cannot adequately express the debt I owe them.

Finally, I should like to make it quite clear, if I have not done so before, that when I have spoken of "religion"—which occupies such a large place in this and my previous volumes—I do not mean the teaching or practice of right conduct or of righteousness based on ethical motives. Primitive ethics are very different from Christian ethics.

I believe and maintain, however, that "religion," in the sense in which it has been portrayed here, brought about similar results. Originally (before our civilization began to break down traditional native customs), it guaranteed social standards very similar to those set by the higher forms of Christian ethical teachings.

This is the part played by "primitive religion" in Ashanti in the past; and surely in some way, which I do not even yet fully understand, it has served—and may serve—a noble and a useful purpose.

¹ See West Africa, 12 March 1927, No. 528, vol. xi.