Detailed History of The Guans: AD 2020 Marks 1,020 Years of Their Entry into Ghana.

The Guan people comprising of 28 ethnic groups migrated to Ghana in AD1000 and are scattered across seven regions.

This year, AD 2020 marks 1,020 years of their entry into Ghana.

The late Anyenum Kwame Ampene from Anum Boso in 1981, launched the Guan Socio_Cultural Renaissance at Ajumako that give birth to the Guan Congress with the primary vision to help provide a single platform and singular identity for the Twenty Eight (28) Guan speaking communities in Ghana.

The late Kwame Ampene,  (Check Afrisearchgh.com for his biography) prolific writer, historian and a regular columnist of the weekly spectator newspaper during his lifetime published a compelling history of the Guan speaking peoples of Ghana, “The Undisputed Aborigines of Ghana (Starspirit Press, 2011) 11) to confirm the historical records that the Guans were the first ethnic group to settle in today’s Ghana.

The Guan speaking peoples live mostly in Ghana though there are some pockets in Togo, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

Modern historians more or less agree that since time immemorial the Guans have been “the original inhabitants” of Ghana, because unlike the Akan who arrived from Bouna in the north-west, the Ewe from Notsie in Togo about 1720, the Ga-Adangme from certain parts in Nigeria, and the Mossi-Dagomba group of states who migrated from the north-east, the Guans, on the other hand, migrated from nowhere; thus Ghana is the ancestral homeland of the Guans.

Even the pockets of Guans in Togo (the Anyanga), those in Benin (the Gbede, Wese, Okomfo) and the Baule in Cote d’Ivoire claim migrant origin from Ghana.

There are numerous studies which support Guans claim to their autochthonous (i.e. aboriginal) status.

However, for lack of space let’s focus on factual information provided by the late Professor Adu Boahen who says:

“Neither the Akan nor the Ga-Adangbe found the coastal districts of Ghana unoccupied.

It is clear from oral traditions as well as linguistics evidence that these immigrants met the Guans who were living in these areas in different degrees of concentration and political organization”.

These Guans are represented today by:

1. Gonjas,
2. Nchumburum,
3. Achode,
4. Akpafu,
5. Anum,
6. Kyerepong (Akuapem),
7. Basa,
8. Breku,
9. Etsii,
10. Afutu and
11. Asebu etc etc.

By 1482, when the Portuguese led by Don Diogod Azambuja negotiated with the local chief of Edena for the construction of a fort, there was not any Fante, Ga, nor Ewe on the coast.

The Edena people originated from one of the Ancient Guan Kingdom, namely Aguafo.

The rest were Asebu, Fetu near Cape Coast, Agona in the Central region and Guan Kingdom in the Afram Plains under the Ataaras.

They were all state builders.

Gonja is the oldest Guan settlement, but whether it is the nursery ground and the cradle of Guans institutions, it’s one of the problems which archaeologists are now called upon to solve.

But one thing is certain and that is the partrilineal groups so typical of the Guans definitely evolved here.

Historians assert that the growing power of Songhai Empire
pushed the Mossi-Dagomba ancestry ancestors south of the Niger Bend, so that by A.D. 1333 they became a threat to the very survival of the Guans in Gonjaland, thus waves of Guans moved southwards in search of settlements.

Earlier the desire to move southwards into the forest country had been felt by the Guan, because the climate and the vegetation were not conducive to intensive human occupation.

Eventually, members of kindred groups broke away and wandered afield to their present inhabitants.

The first Group penetrated into the Afram Plains where they built a powerful state under the Ataaras.

The last of the Ataaras, by name King Ataara Ofinam VIII, was ousted by the Akan who migrated from Adansi in a seven-year war, (1690-1697), so that inhabitants fled to:
– Atwode,
– Akpafu,
– Lolobi,
– Santrokofi,
– Likpe,
– Buem,
– Anum,
– Boso,
– Nyagbo,
– Tafi,
– Akposo,
– Logba,
– Akpafo,
– Abanu, and
– Okere, as well as the
– Buem and
– Nchumuru.

The OKERE ancestors first settled at Tafo, Kukurantumi and Osiem, from there they moved to ABOTOASE near the present-day Adawso before settling on the mountains.

At Tafo the OKERE established the OHUM festival, which has since become the aboriginal cult of Akyem Abuakwa.

In the same way the Fetu Afahye of the original Afutu at Oguaa has reminded of the aboriginal cult and not the Ahobar of Borbor Mfante.

The second group moved towards the lower Volta Basin. Among them were the:

– Senya,
– Larteh,
– the Kpeshi aborigines of the GA countryside,
– the Obutu (Awutu) whose leader by name Awietey had gold and brought this with him.

The third group moved to:

– Sefwi,
– Nzema,
– Aowin,
– Wasa,
– Ahanta,
– Shama,
– Asebu,
– Aguafo and the
– Etsii settlements.

They have all been subjected to Akan imperialism and have lost all cultural triats which made them identified as Guan.

The Fetu settlers founded Oguaa.

Some of them moved eastwards along the coast and founded Mumford and Winneba, while the Nkonya continued the journey to Nyanawase, thence to Larteh before the Volta.

Almost all the Guan communities now living on either side of the Volta north of Kpando have traditions of COUNTER MIGRATION, i.e. migration southwards and backwards to the north.

There was counter-migration from the ancient town of Lartey(h) across the Volta to

– Nkonya,
– Prang,
– Yeji,
– Dwan,
– Nkomi and
– Nammuri.

The Guans now live in 8 regions of Ghana namely:

– Western North,
– Central,
– Eastern,
– Bono East,
– Savannah,
– Oti and
– Northern Region

Their institutions and language operate side by side with those of their closest neighbours, and it appears this sense of cultural distinctiveness is intensified and justified by the practise of partrilineal succession in all the Guan_speaking areas, except Anum and Boso who became matrilineal by adoption.

In conclusion, let me digress a little with a plea that the Guans should value their heritage whatever their origins.

They should preserve and not neglect their links with the past.

The time to reorganize the annual Great Guan Congress is now.

2021 shall mark its 40th anniversary.

SOURCE: Ing(Surv) Abdul Nasser