The Akwamu(also called Aquambo) was a state set up by the Akan people in Ghana which existed in the 17th century and 18th century. Originally immigrating from Bono state, the founders settled in Twifo-Heman. The Akwamu created an expansionist empire in the 16th and 17th century. That is to say, the Akwamu at the peak of their empire created an influential state and, culture which has affected at least three countries in West Africa.
Akwamus expansion started between 1629 1710 and this took them to places like the whole Akuapem area including Kyerepon and Larteh, Denkyera, Ga-Adangbe, the Ladoku states of Agona, Winneba, Afram plains, Southern Togoland and finally Ouidah in present Benin. The powerful king Nana Ansa Sasraku l annexed the Guans and took over the traditional areas of the Kyerepons and ruled over them until Asonaba Nana Ofori Kuma and his followers after a succession dispute in their effort to form their own State engaged them in a fierce war after which the Akwamus were driven away from the mountains.
These Asona family members and their followers then were given a piece of land from the original settlers the Guans, Kyerepons, to form the Akuapem state. However, most of the present Akuapems still have their roots at Akwamufie especially those bearing the names Addo and Akoto or from the Aduana family.
Nana Ansa Sasraku also played an important role in the life of the King Osei Tutu of Asante. He protected him from the Denkyiras and when he was called to take over the Kwaaman stool Nana Ansa Sasraku provided him with 300 Asafomen from Akwamu to guide him to Kwaaman. When Nana Osei Tutu arrived, he gave all the men to Kwaaman Asafohene and they became citizens of Asafo and that won the Kumase Asafohene the title Akwamuhene of Kumase. According to oral tradition, the whole structure of the Asante army that was started by Nana Osei Kofi Tutu l and helped the Asantes through many wars, was a replicate of the well organised Akwamu army.
Nana Osei Tutu was also assisted by the Anumfuo (later Adumfuo) who accompanied him from Akwamu, in execution cases. A large number of the Asantes of today originated from Akwamu especially, people from Asafo and Adum as well as sections of people from Bantama and Barekese.
After the death of Nana Ansa Sasraku, he was succeeded by two kings collectively, Nana Addo Panin and Nana Basua. It was during this time that the Akwamus took over the possession of the Danish Castle at Christianborg or Osu.
Because of the cordial relationship that existed between Akwamu and Asante, during the 19th century expansion of Asante, the Akwamu unlike most states after war, was never annexed by Asantes but rather the Akwamu Stool became the husband of the Asante Stool during the reign of Nana Odeneho Kwafo Akoto l. That is the reason why during the Golden Anniversary of Nana Kwafo Akoto ll Nana Opoku Ware ll crossed the Pra river to spend two days at Akwamufie.
At the peak of their power the Akwamu state had embraced much of the Eastern part of the Gold Coast and traditionally Between 1677 and 1681 the Akwamu state conquered the states of Ladoku, Agona and Whydah as well as the Ewe people of the Ho region.. The Akwamu also conquered the Ga people and occupied the old Ga Kingdom.
In 1693, the Asimani of Akwamu lead a raid and seized Osu Castle (currently the seat of the Ghanaian government), from the Danish colonists. The Akwamu thus controlled many of the trade routes from the interior to the coast in the eastern half of what is now Ghana and created a capital at Nyanoase. In the 1720s a civil war in the Akwamu state caused the state's disintegration. Most of the King's allies were sold away as slaves and transported to the Caribbean island of St. John. In 1733 they fomented a slave revolt there.
In 1734 the Akwamu were defeated by the Akyem and, the previously illustrious empire was put to an end. The Akwamu were pushed to Akwamufie which is the location of their current capital.
width="18%" | Tenure | Incumbent | Notes |
colspan="3" | Akwamuhenes (Rulers) | ||
''c.''1480 to ''c.''1500 | Agyen Kokobo, Akwamuhene | Founder of Twifo-Heman | |
''c.''1500 to ''c.''1520 | Ofusu Kwabi, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1520 to ''c.''1540 | Oduro, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1540 to ''c.''1560 | Ado (Akan ruler)>Ado, Akwamuhene | ||
colspan="3" | Akwamu | ||
''c.''1560 to ''c.''1575 | Otumfo Asare, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1575 to ''c.''1585 | Akotia, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1585 to ''c.''1600 | Ansa Saseraku I>Ansa Saseraku, Akwamuhene(Ansa Saseraku I) | ||
''c.''1600 to ''c.''1620 | Ansa Saseraku II>Ansa Saseraku, Akwamuhene(Ansa Saseraku II) | ||
''c.''1620 to ''c.''1640 | Ansa Saseraku III>Ansa Saseraku, Akwamuhene(Ansa Saseraku III) | ||
''c.''1640 to ''c.''1660 | Abuako Dako, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1660 to ''c.''1680 | Afera Kuma, Akwamuhene | ||
''c.''1680 to 1702 | Manukure, Akwamuhene | ||
1702 to 1726 | Akwano Panyini, Akwamuhene | ||
1726 to 1734 | Dako Booman, Akwamuhene | ||
1734 | ''Conquest by the Akyem peoples'' |
Category:History of Ghana Category:History of the United States Virgin Islands Category:Slave rebellions
de:Königreich Akwamu es:Akwamu lt:Akvamu no:Akwamu nn:Akwamu pl:AkwamuThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.