Rank and class among the Asante and Fante in the nineteenth century

Abstract

Opening ParagraphThe starting point of this article is what I see as the contrasting contemporary Asante and Fante views about the admirable man. The Asante say of such a man that ‘ose ohene’, lit. ‘he is like a chief’; the Fante say of him that ‘oye krache dodo’, lit. ‘he is extremely well educated’. For the Asante the ‘ohene’ remains the model of social achievement, while for the Fante it is the apparently well educated who lives and behaves like a ‘gentleman’ who is the model of social excellence.These statements about what may be called the ‘ideal’ man among the two Akan sub-groups express the actual social position of traditional rulers and educated persons among them (Sarbah, 1897,1906; Casely-Hayfordj 1903; Manoukian, 1950: 9). The Asante respect a traditional ruler, known as nana, of any rank, more than an educated person, whatever his degree of education. For the Fante it is the reverse. An Asante, however well educated or rich, aims at some kind of chiefship as the supreme index of social achievement. The Fante aims at the acquisition of repute as a highly educated man.