Vibrations of Kormantse in the African Diaspora in the Americas

E. Kofi Agorsah Portland State University

Abstract: Resistance history in many parts of the New World appears to suggest the role of ancestral legacies or heritage of Kormantse (real or imagined) in empowering the enslaved, who passed through Kormantse, as they fought in the New World to define their power relations, restore justice, their traditional values and consolidate their achievements, successes and survival. It is speculated that the presence and participation of Kormantse descendants or their conjured spirits in both colonial or modern areas of the African Diaspora, provided the spirit of endurance, hope for victory over enslavement. Memories of Kormantse, archaeological sites and spiritual references appear to have guided and guarded Africans through the colonial experience as Kormantse sparked fear among enemies and raised pride and empowerment among the enslaved. Spiritual connections alone would drive many Africans, including those who were not necessarily “Kormantse”, to survive centuries of war against enslavement. This paper examines the extent to which historically visible structural features observed from a recent historical and archaeological investigation of historic Kormantse, Ghana, help explain these speculations, the possible processes involved and the “magical” impact of Kormantse on freedom fighting in the African Diaspora.

Résumé: L'histoire de résistance dans beaucoup de régions du nouveau monde semble suggérer le rôle des legs héréditaires ou l'héritage de Kormantse (vrai ou imaginé) en autorisant asservi, qui a traversé Kormantse, car ils ont combattu dans le nouveau monde pour définir leurs relations de puissance, justice de restauration, leurs valeurs traditionnelles et pour consolider leurs accomplissements, succès et survie. On spécule le que la présence et la participation des descendants de Kormantse ou de leurs spiritueux créés dans des secteurs coloniaux ou modernes des Diaspora africains, si l'esprit de la résistance, espoir pour la victoire sur l'asservissement. Les mémoires de Kormantse, d'emplacements archéologiques et de références spirituelles semblent avoir guidé et les Africains gardés par l'expérience coloniale pendant que Kormantse suscitait la crainte parmi des ennemis et soulevait la fierté et l'habilitation parmi asservi. Seuls les raccordements spirituels conduiraient beaucoup d'Africains, y compris tels qui n'étaient pas nécessairement « Kormantse », pour survivre à des siècles de guerre contre l'asservissement. Ce document examine le point auquel historiquement les dispositifs structuraux évidents ont observé d'une recherche historique et archéologique récente sur Kormantse historique, Ghana, aide à expliquer ces spéculations, les processus possibles impliqués et l'impact « magique » de Kormantse sur le combat de liberté dans les Diaspora africains.

Resumen: La historia de la resistencia en muchas partes del nuevo mundo aparece sugerir el papel de herencias ancestrales o la herencia de Kormantse (verdadero o imaginado) en la autorización de la haber esclavizado, que pasó con Kormantse, pues lucharon en el nuevo mundo para definir sus relaciones de la energía, justicia del restablecimiento, sus valores tradicionales y para consolidar sus logros, éxitos y supervivencia. Se especula que la presencia y la participación de los descendientes de Kormantse o de sus bebidas espirituosas conjuradas en áreas coloniales o modernas de la diáspora africana, con tal que el alcohol de la resistencia, esperanza de la victoria sobre el avasallamiento. Las memorias de Kormantse, de sitios arqueológicos y de referencias espirituales aparecen haber dirigido y los africanos guardados con la experiencia colonial mientras que Kormantse chispeó miedo entre enemigos y levantó orgullo y la capacitación entre esclavizado. Las conexiones espirituales solamente conducirían a muchos africanos, incluyendo los que no eran necesariamente “Kormantse”, para sobrevivir siglos de guerra contra el avasallamiento. Este papel examina el grado a el cual históricamente las características estructurales visibles observadas de una investigación histórica y arqueológica reciente de Kormantse histórico, Ghana, ayudan a explicar estas especulaciones, los procesos posibles implicados y el impacto “mágico” de Kormantse en la lucha de la libertad en la diáspora africana.

342 Introduction

Kormantse and the problem of Cultural Identity “Kormantse”, as the modern people of the village call it, was a small fishing settlement located on a hill approximately a kilometer north of Fort Amsterdam at Abandze on the Accra- Cape Coast main road. The name and its associated events and people have been perceived as very powerful and in colonial days was almost synonymous with bravery, power and the best of the African. However, reference to the name has created considerable ambiguity in the identity and interpretation of the history and culture of Africa and the African Diaspora. Although the location of the original fort built by the English in the 1630s at Kormantse, was moved to its new site of Abandze and re-named Fort Amsterdam, when the Dutch took over the fort in 1665, the name “Kormantse” has become stuck to the identity and traditions of groups of people, who passed through that location. Reference to Kormantse in many parts of the New World cultural definitions cut across ethnicity, art and artistic expression, stereotypical behaviors and other forms of cultural identities which have been central to many recent scholarly discussions (Eltis and Richardson 1997, Thornton 1998, Northrup 2002, Lovejoy 1997, Ogundiran and Falola 2007). The paper examines structural features, traditions and practices, associated with Kormantse as a geographical or cultural entity and how it impacted perceptions about Africa and the African Diaspora. Resistance history, particularly marronage, in many parts of the New World appears to suggest that religious and cultural conceptualization of the Kormantse heritage in the African Diaspora, empowered the enslaved, who passed through Kormantse colonial settlement, as they fought to define their power relations, restore justice, their traditional values and consolidate their achievements, successes and survival. The presence and participation of Kormantse descendants or the spirits of their ancestors in events continue to be recognized in colonial or modern areas of the African Diaspora. Mention of Kormantse would spark fear, pride and empowerment. Without anything else, the spiritual connection alone would drive many, including even those, who were not necessarily “Kormantse”, or come from that and adjoining areas, to survive centuries of wars against enslavement. Physical features at the historic site that leave signatures of its past include shrines (abandoned) and in current use), grinding stones, lots of piles of iron ore and slag, burial grounds, fragments of what was left of the ruins of the first European lodge and standing walls of traditional houses from colonial times. Oral family and clan traditions of the over seven hundred years old settlement also recollect known boundaries or demarcations and clan or ethnic sections of the settlement. Migration stories also refer to historical connections with some ethnic group areas of the northern region of the Gold Coast. Festivals currently celebrated in Kormantse and other traditional areas of the northern sections of modern Ghana, claim relationships in historical times. Historical documentations such as description of festival celebrated in colonial and modern Caribbean countries such as Grenada and the Grenadines corroborate speculations about past connection with Kormantse and its impact on the history and culture of those islands. J. D. Elder (1983) provides information that indicates that connections between Kormantse in the Gold Coast and the African Diaspora as follows: “At the Nation dance festival… the head nation to be greeted and pacified is the Cromanti people… During the Nation Dance opening ceremony at which all Kromanti ancestors are invited, the circle of devotees is opened and two towels are laid crossed on the ground – an opening is left in the circle so that the old people (ancestors) may enter as the music is played. This music is made by a single drum, a used weeding iron hoe

343 struck like a bell. It is said that those who have second sight can see the old warrior ancestors as they enter the free ring. This ceremony is repeated at midnight and is called Cromanti cut neck” (Elder, 1988:33). However, the historic site of Kormantse has never saw any archaeological investigation of these connections until the launching of the Kormantse Archaeological Research Project.

The Historic Kormantse Site

The Kormantse community sense One question that arises from the Kormantse factor in the activities of Africans in the Diaspora is: what is it about Kormantse that created these historical and cultural references? Archaeological exploration of the original site of Kormantse appears to be pointing to possible experiences of the thousands of enslaved Africans, who came from or passed through Kormantse, that spiritually and physically helped them through the ordeal of the middle passage. An interesting observation about Kormantse is the number of shrines identified relative to the size of the site and other structures. Clan (Asafo) shrines are very special community domain. Locally referred to as posuban, which are mainly civic monuments and shrines of para-military groups, serve as the civic symbol of the group and also are meeting points for ritual and ancestral recognition. The Asafo system which believed to predate the arrival of European arrival on the Gold coast (Datta and Porter, 1971) and its presence in any town was identified by a public shrine representing the ideals, religious convictions and values of the particular clan and celebrating the glories of the past. According to elders at Kormantse, the earlier Asafo shrines originally consisted of simple mounds in a cane fence with usually a tree planted to give it shade but these have changed into elaborate structures as can be seen in many towns around Kormantse and along the coast. Considered one of the most effective democratic institutions among some Akan groups of Ghana, the Asafo continue to play a major political role, particularly among the Akan groups along the coast of Ghana and are led by the equivalent of commanders with a hierarchy of assistants including spokespersons, horn blowers, priests and priestesses, flag-bearers, drummers and other officials. Each Asafo group has its colors, banners, costume and other paraphernalia distinctive of that group. Flags display symbols and images appliquéd with motifs representing the traditional religious beliefs, mythology and military power.

Family and Individual shrines In addition to the posuban are several other shrines in the one mile long by half a mile wide original Kormantse settlement. These include earthen mound shrines with ritual objects and substances, simple piles of iron slag and ore, a single slab of rock and clay platforms. These have, since historical times, been located either in the middle of houses, at the back or front corners, centers, room entrances or on a platforms inside a corner of the room. The large number of shrines in almost every part of the seven-hundred year old small fishing settlement indicates the strong religious lifestyle that those passing through Kormantse would have experienced before the ordeal of the middle passage. A closer study of the different types of shrines and their location should provide a clearer idea of the how each type related to others. It would then be possible to answer the question about the true impact of Kormantse and its spiritual world on the formation of the African Diaspora. Although the spiritual strength that the enslaved needed at the time they were thrown into the middle passage did not save them from their initial ordeal, it appeared that it held their hope intact even as they fought for their freedom, when they were in the Diaspora. These Grenadines “Cromanti” ancestor-worshipers, as they have been referred to, are said to erect no shrines nor had any established hierarchy; neither did they have any physical identity although they were often thought to directly relate to the powerful Ashanti of the Gold Coast. An ancient folklore

344 about one “Kojo, the Cromanti”, who was a head drummer also exists in Grenada. One could compare the Grenadian example with what is referred to as “Play” among the Maroons of Jamaica as described by Colonel C. L. G Harris, a most recent paramount chief of Moore Town Maroons in Jamaica. “Play” is referred to as a ritual performance accompanied by “Kramanti” drumming and “Kramanti” music and involving spirit possession (Harris 1994:49). In their circumstances certain aspects of the religious process would become individualized, leading to the “invention” of individual shrines to match, but could disappear with the passing of that individual. Thus while “Kormantse” provided the historical context of the survival of the group, it also provided spiritual security, even if psychological, for confronting the challenges of the colonial experience. Military maneuvers and successes were credited not only to the physical strength of the Kormantse but also to the spiritual powers that connected or connects them to the ancestors as well as their ability to remain fluid in readiness to extend borders into other religious realms or thought. The religious “heritage” as it were, was much deeper and wider than many scholars have speculated in their discussion of the Kormantse. It is clear that historical, oral and records of performed religious expressions in many parts of the African Diaspora, particularly before the middle of the 19th century, do not appear to depict the process by which the elusive realm of African-derived beliefs could be observed from historically visible, structural features, traditions and practices. Peace treaties signed between colonial authorities as well as the move toward abolition of slavery provided relatively stable circumstances for open religious display among some Diaspora Africans in the form of structural features and other more visible paraphernalia. Philip Dark refers to some of these but so far no archaeological evidence exists to validate the reference. In some parts of the New World the most common visible, religious structural features, traditions and practices depicting the possible Kormantse impact have been documented and observed such as community and individual shrines and monuments invoke the memory of Kormantse. “Kromanti” herbal and spiritual healing processes (van Thoden and Wetering 1988; Counter and Evans 1981) including names of medicinal and nutritional plants. These “Kromanti” connections emphasize the healing power and effectiveness (both physical and spiritual) of herbal medicine made from these plants. In the minds of the healers and the priests and priestesses their survival still depends on the Kormantse spiritual legacy that, in the first place, enabled them to win freedom from slavery. The founding or establishment of certain archaeological sites of the Maroons in Suriname has also been attributed to the “Kromanti” people. These include sites in the northeastern areas of Suriname between the Cottica and the Marowijne Rivers and include Cromotibo and its creek Kromoti Kiiki, Komanti- Kojogron, Kwamigron, Kosay, Kofi-hay, Quassigron, Coematibo River and Tesisi (Hoogbergen 1990). Although not yet explored, the historical claims by the Maroons of Suriname are, however, very strong and the successes in the defense of those settlements, such as protective spiritual structures today referred to as azampau among the Saramaka, but probably prominent during colonial times are attributed to the “Cromantee” power. Among the Suriname communities we see historically visible features manifested in their recent past and modern traditional practices. Specially built shrines are the spiritual homes, where they would deliberate and perform their spiritual obligations – offerings, prayers, blessings, promises or dedications. Most prominent among the structural features are those representing the community. The Azampaau (Fig. 3), which is usually two standing posts with a crossbar of palm fronds hanging off, serves as a reminder that one was entering a traditional village guarded by one of the protective spirits. Among the Saramaka in particular no one carrying the bible, or who is a Christian missionary or preacher was allowed to enter such a village. The reason often given is

345 that it was with the bible that their ancestors were enslaved and once delivered from slavery by their ancestral spirits they would rather remain under their protection rather than bring the bible back. The bible would contaminate and therefore weaken the potency of those spiritual powers. The community shrines are often found in the open either at the entrance or the center of a settlement. At a community shrine of the Saramaka settlement of Semoesi on the Suriname River, the Gaa-Gadu wosu (house of the Great God), is a block enclosure, which has a standing libation platform with remains of previous offerings including food, glasses, cloth-covered bowls and pans, empty rum bottles, hoe blades and dry bones of sacrificial animals, and certain herbal plants in and around the wall. During their libations sessions, mention is made several times of the “Kormantse ancestors”. Even in the village of Daume (Dahomey), also on the Suriname River, not far from Semoesi, mention is constantly made in their ceremonies and libation sessions to their Kormantse ancestors although there are no clear records about the clearly proven Kormantse ancestry of the Saramaka of Daume settlement. Personal shrines are located in the individual homes and in rooms in the homes and are only accessible to certain persons of the family. These take many forms some with a forked pole holding a bowl or pot containing herbal concoctions, similar to the nyame dua known among some Ghanaian communities. Herbal bath is often given from the receptacles of the herbal medicine to cleanse individuals of evil spirits, sickness, curses or some misfortune.

The Kormantse Vibrations

Kormantse obviously appears to have been more than a port of departure. Preliminary archaeological investigation at Kormantse appears to suggest that the culture of spirituality among the enslaved was embedded in the trade activities in and around Kormantse and which linked other trading centers such as Anomabo, Elmina and Cape Coast on the coast and the interior areas of Begho and Kumasi (Posnansky 1971, 1973), Salaga (Okoro 2007) and Krachi (the territory of the famous Krachi Dente oracle that was consulted during the 17th and 18th century wars in the Gold Coast, Agorsah 2003). Archaeological finds such as trade beads, kaolin smoking pipes as well as cowry shells attest to the vibrant trade activities, which provided the context for the religious activities (Agorsah 2008). Evidence resulting from the archaeological study should provide greater understanding of the relationships between the shrines and other features of the colonial Kormantse. The Kormantse heritage in the New World was considered as the “importation of experience of rebellion”, obviously, from the Kormantse tradition. The process of the signing of the peace treaty also brings back memories of the sacred oaths they had sworn after their African ancestors. Although the British took it lightly, as it was looked to them as an awkward approach, the Maroons after several centuries, still considered the “blood treaty” sealed for ever. It reminds us of how the Kormantse factor was at the forefront of the search for freedom through the use of the ancestral connection as part of the political and social struggle against slavery (Hart 1985a & b, Carey 1997) and as they defined their power relations, justice and values (Ogundiran and Falola 2007: 3-45). The number of Kormantse among the Jamaican Maroons may have been small yet their influence could have been substantial as is appears to be the case with the oath-swearing-link with the signing of the peace treaty. The influence of the Kormantse connection can sometimes be erroneously construed as if the Kormantse (whatever their origin or composition) was the predominant group. Warner-Lewis’ (2003:13) statement that “the cultural dominance ought not to be considered as necessarily the result of numerical superiority, though it is likely to be a factor” cannot be more clearly stated. The example of the perceived dominance among “the Maroons of Jamaica of Akan ethnic group, which includes the Fanti, Koromanti and Ashanti” is cited as an example. They may have constituted a minority but had much stronger influence on the

346 group. Kormantse as a trading post was not as large as those at Elmina and Cape Coast (DeCorse 2001) but its special connection appears to have had a strong impact on the African Diaspora. These connections constitute the vibrations that will continue to draw our attention to the Kormantse effect in the African Diaspora.

Acknowledgements: The Kormantse Research Project is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, USA. I wish to acknowledge the support of the Portland State Faculty Enhancement Grant, Fulbright Senior Scholar Grant, USA, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Department of African Studies and the Center for International Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana and the Chiefs and Elders of Kormantse and Anomabo and all participating students and staff of these institutions.

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