2 - Oral Traditions about Individuals Enslaved in Asante

Summary

The state of Asante was founded in the late seventeenth century in what is now central southern Ghana. In one place an individual is recalled as a major figure in their community; in another location, that same person is remembered only because they became so prominent in Asante. This chapter addresses this question by focusing on the oral traditions associated with two individuals, Gyamana Nana of Takyiman and Kramo Tia of Gonja, captured by a conquering Asante state in the eighteenth century. It explains why Gyamana Nana and Kramo Tia were remembered differently in different locations, the oral traditions themselves raise a number of other questions about slavery and the public discussion of this institution in West Africa. Reasons for remembering in one place can constitute the very rationale for forgetting in another locale. Such is the case with the polity of Gonja.