Glossary & Terminology

Akan word for history: an account or story of past events. Christaller analyses it as 'nsɛm a aba kɔ' (matters that have come and gone) and cross-references the near-synonym abasɛm.

The elders recounted the abakɔsɛm of the town at the gathering.

Christaller (1881) glosses aban as 'a house built of stone … a large fine building, palace'; aban-kɛse is 'fort, castle'. Curnow (The Bright Continent) notes that the stone building in Kumase known as the Aban was completed in 1822.

The Asantehene's stone Aban in Kumase was completed in 1822.

Coastal Fante town in the Central Region of Ghana, north-east of Cape Coast, in the Mfantseman area; most inhabitants are fishermen. It is the site of Fort Amsterdam (Kormantin).

Fort Amsterdam stands on the hill above Abandze.

Female day-name for a girl or woman born on Tuesday (Benada). Christaller (1881) lists Abena among the female day-names, matching the male Kwabena.

A girl born on a Tuesday may be named Abenaa.

Akan word for a young man or youth. Christaller gives the synonym akwankwaa.

Every aberantee in the town joined the communal labour.

Christaller (1881) glosses aberewa as 'old woman, matron, mother', noting that 'm'aberewa' is a very respectful way to address one's mother.

The children greeted the elderly woman respectfully.

Zimmermann's Ga vocabulary (1858) glosses abei as 'butterfly'.

A child pointed at the abɛi resting on the flower.

Akan word for an old woman, matron or mother. Christaller also records secondary senses of aberewa as a kind of mat and a kind of European cloth.

The aberewa told stories to the children in the evening.

A rite of public confession and enquiry held during the Kundum festival, in which the community's grievances and wrongdoings are brought into the open before the deities and the chief. It functions as an annual clearing of accounts between people and between people and the gods. Related observances are found among the Ahanta and in Côte d'Ivoire as Abissa.

Abisa allows a townsperson to speak plainly to the chief without reprisal.

The third and final stage of the Nzema Kundum festival, which S. E. Etikpah identifies as the purification rite. As with the other stages, it is marked by the ɛdɛneyelɛ libation rite with invocations (nza ɛgualɛ). The phrase contains azule, 'river'.

The Abisa azule nu ɛdolɛ, the purification rite, closes the Kundum celebration.

The second stage of the Nzema Kundum festival, which S. E. Etikpah identifies as the public performance of the festival. It is marked by the ɛdɛneyelɛ libation rite. Ivorian sources describe a parallel stage of the Abissa, the Gouazo, as the 'coming-out' of the Abissa.

The Abisa gua zo ɛralɛ is the public, performed stage of Kundum.

The first stage of the Nzema Kundum festival, which S. E. Etikpah identifies as the preparation rite. It is marked by the ɛdɛneyelɛ libation rite. The Ivorian Abissa has a parallel first stage, the Siédou, in which the sacred drum is secluded for about a week.

The Abisa siedu ɛhɔlɛ opens Kundum as its preparation rite.

The French-orthography name of the annual festival of the Nzema (N'zima) of Côte d'Ivoire, held at Grand-Bassam in October–November and treated as the Nzema new year. Its central social function is public repentance and reconciliation: grievances, including criticism of leaders, may be voiced without fear of reprisal. Its ritual core has three stages: Siédou (seclusion of the drum), Gouazo (coming-out) and Ewudolé (the climax, with disguises).

At Grand-Bassam, the Abissa gives townspeople licence to criticise their leaders openly.

Ablɔɖe is the Ewe word for 'freedom'. Skinner (2015) records that it became the name of the political movement in British Togoland that, from the late 1940s, opposed the integration of the territory with the Gold Coast; participants are remembered as freedom fighters of the Ablɔɖe struggle.

The word ablɔɖe is often translated into English as 'freedom'.

The deer-hunting festival of the Effutu of Winneba, in which two asafo companies compete to capture a live antelope bare-handed for presentation to the deity Penkye Otu. The company that catches it first takes the year's honour. Tradition holds it replaced an earlier practice of human sacrifice.

At Aboakyer the winning company carries the live animal shoulder-high to the chief.

Zimmermann (1858, vol. 2) glosses aboboi as ground-beans and other beans which, boiled, make a favourite breakfast. Whitby (1968) describes aboboe in southern Ghana as a porridge of soaked, boiled round beans (Bambara groundnuts), seasoned with red pepper, salt and often sugar, and sold by food hawkers.

A hawker was selling bowls of aboboi in the morning.

Field (1940) names Abola and Asere as the two main sections of Ga Mashie (Accra) that placed themselves under Dutch protection, with Gbese attached to Abola. She records that in divisions of proceeds Abola takes a seniority portion before sharing with Gbese, and that in her time the Abola mantsɛ was known as the Ga Mantsɛ and treated as head of all Accra.

Abola is one of the historic quarters of central Accra.

Zimmermann (1858) glosses abolo as bread, the common bread of the local people made from maize, and lists aboloba, the leaf in which bread is baked. Whitby (1968) describes a Ga abolo made from unfermented, part-cooked corn dough left to ferment, then wrapped in leaves and baked, and contrasts it with the steamed Ewe abolo.

The abolo was wrapped in leaves before baking.

Plural of ɔbosom. Christaller (1881) glosses ɔbosom as the tutelary or guardian spirit of a town or family, subordinate to God. UNESCO's Asante Traditional Buildings documentation calls the abosom lesser gods who act as intermediaries between Nyame and people.

Each Asante town traditionally honoured its own abosom.

Deity swords. Ampene and Nyantakyi III (2016) state that the state swords are divided into akrafena (swords of the soul) and abosomfena (deity swords), carried to the left of the Asantehene in procession.

Sword bearers carry the abosomfena on the Asantehene's left in procession.