Adanse

The name Adanse derives from the Akan word adanseɛ, meaning “builders”. Traditions and historians explain that Adanse earned this name because they were the first Akan people to construct permanent homes and shrines, remembered as “those who build houses”.^[14][15]

Adanse is described as a spiritual and cultural origin of Akan civilization, associated with the place where the art of building began and as the first organized Akan state, from which other polities learned the art of government from.^[16] Its first capital, Adansemanso was an ancestral settlement and one of the oldest Akan towns in the forest interior. According to oral and archaeological evidence, the site was settled by 393 CE,^[17] and continuously developed from the 9th century CE onward.^[18] In traditions it was known as the first among the “five original great towns of the Akan”.^[19]

In the 9th century Adansemanso was very populous, and by the 13th century, it was a large and complex settlement. It was described by archaeologists as “probably the largest ancient town in the central forest area of Ghana”, with its ruins being one square kilometer .^[5] More excavations revealed evidence of collapsed houses in rows over 100 meters long with multiple superimposed clay floors, which indicate long-term rebuilding.^[20] Research revealed its peak was between the 13th and 15th centuries. Kea situates Adansemanso within a wider regional city-state culture that took shape from the 9th to the 15th centuries that was anchored in craft production and long-distance trade.^[21]

Early 16th-century sources such as Duarte Pacheco Pereira refer to interior gold traders identified as Haccanys (Akani), Cacres (Akrokerri), Andese, and Souzos, linked to the forested gold zones later associated with Adanse. Europeans called these traders “Accanists” and the region “Accany” or “Arcania”, praised for pure gold known on the coast as “Akan sica”.^[22] In 1517 envoys from a “King of the Akani” visited Elmina regarding conflict with neighbors, and by 1548 officials recorded “civil wars among the Akani”. A 1629 Dutch map labelled “Acanni” and called its people principal merchants.^[23] Later Dutch accounts use forms like “Accanien” and identify “Alance”, read as Adanse, within a “Kingdom of Arcania”.^[24] Several scholars place “Accany” in the Pra-Ofin basin.^[25] Although absent from early European accounts, Daaku identifies Adanse as one of the principal states of the Akani confederacy.^[26]

Prior to archaeological investigations, historians such as F. K. Buah and K. Y. Daaku placed the centralization and decline of Adanse under Awurade Basa at Adansemanso in the 16th or 17th century.^[16][27] Findings later revealed that Adansemanso slowly declined until it was abandoned in the late 16th to early 17th century before the height of Atlantic trade.^[28] Ray Kea links the decline to the migration of wealthy abirempon families who established new centers of power elsewhere.^[19] A variant of Adanse traditions collected by Ivor Wilks claim that after the death of Awurade Basa, centralized authority fragmented into smaller autonomous states like Ayaase, Dompoase, Edubiase, Fomena, and Ahinsan.^[29]

Denkyira traditions describe the Adanse states of the Ofin–Pra basin as the dominant power in the first half of the 17th century. Abankeseso was founded by refugees fleeing Akrokerri's control and later became Denkyira's capital.^[30] From the 1630s onward, the influx of firearms through European trade “sharpened competition” among the Akani states, including Adanse, and hastened the disintegration of the wider Akani confederacy.^[31] Adanse was traditionally said to rely on “the wisdom of its great God Bona and not on force,” which left it ill-equipped for this new militarised era.^[32] Akyem Abuakwa oral accounts reccount commercial rivalries and succession disputes weakened Adanse internally, while mounting pressure from Denkyira deepened the crisis. In the 1640s, Denkyira incursions combined with the rise of the early Asante power destabilised the region and spurred migrations of Asona and other Adanse groups eastward. ^[33]

In 1659 a Dutch report described wars in the “distant districts of Adansee” that nearly annihilated the state, noting that “Adanse had quietly disappeared”.^[34][30] Oral traditions credit the decisive victory to Denkyira under Wirempe Ampem, though some accounts attribute it to Boa Amponsem I.^[34] The defeat marked a major reversal, as Denkyira had earlier been subject to Adanse.^[30] Adanse persisted as a polity, overshadowed by Denkyira until the rise of Asante in the late 17th century.^[35]

After Asante defeated Denkyira at Feyiase in 1701, Adansi declared for Asante and became part of the state.^[9][36][37] Adanse lay within metropolitan Asante and hosted nkwansrafo highway police at the Kwisa post under central authority. In 1839 Thomas Birch Freeman was detained at Kwisa until permission arrived from Kumase, with the Adansehene coordinating with officers there.^[38] After the Katamanso war in 1826, Adansi opened peace contacts with the British due to safer passage to the coast.^[39] In 1831 the Asantehene rewarded negotiators, including the Fomenahene Kwante and Gyamera Kwabena, with regalia to constitute their own akyeame.^[40] In February 1872 Fritz Ramseyer recorded a Kumase council in which the Adansehene supported release of captives or, failing that, war against the British.^[41]

In 1873 the Adansi chief Kobina Obeng sought independence from Asante, encouraged by proximity to British protection north of the Pra. British forces invaded Kumasi in 1873, deposed Kofi Karikari, and compelled negotiations. Mensa Bonsu restored control over most dependencies, with the exception of Kwahu.^[42] The Treaty of Fomena in February 1874 imposed a 50,000-ounce gold indemnity on Asante and renounced claims over several southern territories.^[43] Although Adansi had seceded, it fought with Kumasi in the 1900 War of the Golden Stool due to the stool's religious significance.^[44] In 1933 the Adansehene of whom him and his people were described as "true Ashanti" wrote a letter to the British government swearing an "oath that he was certainly prepared to call and serve Nana Prempeh as Asantehene; indeed, he felt sorry that ignorant people should refer to such a great man as 'Kumasihene and not as Asantehene." and in the 31st of January 1935 they re-joined the re-established Asante Kingdom.^[45]

Adanse occupied the central forest belt and was located north of the Pra–Ofin river confluence.^[46] According to Ray Kea's analysis, Adanse contained thirty-two towns, with seven of them were paramount.^[47] Major towns included Fomena, Akrokerri, Dompoase, and Edubiase, with ancestral sites being Ayaase, Abadwam, and Kokobiante. They were confederation of autonomous city-states but were subordinate to the Adansehene. An Akan proverb was used to describe the loose structure: “Adanse nkotokwa, obiara ne ben o am,” meaning “the towns were like little crabs, each ruling its own hole.”^[48]

Adansemanso was the first capital of the Adanse state and is associated with Awurade Basa of the Asenee clan. ^[49] It was remembered in Akan cosmology as the center of the universe.^[19] Archaeologists have described it as a large and complex town that engaged in iron and gold production, with possible but inconclusive evidence for glass production. ^[19]

Akrokyere (Twi:Akrokerrɛ) is believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest settlement in Adanse. It was ruled by the Asakyiri clan where traditions credit rulers like Asare Nyansa with town-building and the establishment of councils (Abagua).^[14] Awurade Basa of Adansemanso according to tradition, was the son of Asare Mintim, the ninth King of Akrokyere.^[49] According to James Anquandah, Akrokerri specialized in iron production, making weapons and agricultural tools.^[50]

Ayaase was an town ruled by Bretuo clan.^[51] Bretuo royals migrated from Ayaase and Ahensan to establish Kwahu and the pre-Asante state of Mampong.^[48]

Bodwesango (Bogyesango) was an ironworking town founded by the Agona clan. According to Asantehene Prempeh II, the Agona and Toa lived in Bogyesango and Ahuren, before establishing Kingdoms of Denkyira, Akyem Kotoku, and Akyem Bosome.^[52][50]

Dompoase is identified in oral traditions as one of the Adanse paramount city-states. It was associated with ironworking and was ruled by the Asenee clan, whose lineage played a role in the political organization of the Adanse area.^[51][50] It was one of the capitals of Adanse prior to Fomena.^[53]

Edubiase was another significant Adanse settlement tied in tradition to ironworking and migrations of ruling lineages. James Anquandah referred to it as the “Birmingham of old Adanse”.^[50] Edubiase along with Abadwam were the early homes of the Oyoko clan.^[54] According to Kofi Darkwah, the founders of the Asante Empire, took old Adanse practices to new environments when they migrated. ^[55]

Fomena became the permanent capital after Bonsra Afriyie of the Ekona clan secured custody of the sword and kept by not marrying outside of his clan in Fomena.^[27]

Kokobiante was the place of origin for the Asona clan who founded Akyem Abuakwa as well as the pre-Asante states of Edweso, and Offinso.^[54] Oral traditions recall, Akyem founders carrying sacred institutions into the east.^[33]

The sacred sword Afenakwa was used to unite the Adanse and served as the central symbol of political authority.^[56] The sword was first associated with Awurade Basa of Adansemanso, then passed to successors in Bretuo and Asenee lineages at Ayaase and Dompoase. According to local traditions, whoever held the sword lead Adanse in times of war but in peacetime the leader was not given special privileges.^[1] The Adansehene ruled with the advice of divisional chiefs and elders, while defined offices carried specific responsibilities: the Akokyerehene served as chief soul washer (Akradwarefohene), the Ayaasehene as chief executioner, the Akrofuomhene as treasurer, the Edubiasehene as spokesman, and the Dompoasehene as Gyaasehene or steward.^[57][58]

According to Ray Kea, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, mmusuatow (abusua companies) emerged in Adanse as corporate bodies that managed obligations of credit, labor, and rituals among elites. Kea interprets them as instruments for incorporating dependents into urban households and for coordinating extraction and redistribution throughout the state. ^[59] Adanse and states maintained administrative hierarchies in which major towns that controlled smaller subordinate ones.^[60]

Adanse authority was based on shared ritual practices to its principle oracle rather than on military power.^[46] Thei tutelary deity Bona, was worshipped at Patakoro and served as the main spiritual focus of the state.^[61] The Bona priesthood and the Bonahene led annual ceremonies, including a yam festival in late August or early September and a year-end dance. At the events, sacred water (Bonasuo) from the Bona cave was used to purify the stools of chiefs and the community.^[62] Each town also kept a Bonsamboɔ stone for sacrifices and other rituals to the Bona cult.^[57] The shrine at Patakoro strengthen political legitimacy, with leaders turning to its oracles during disputes or crises.^[63] Alongside the Afenakwa sword, the Bona cult provided a second source of cohesion, one sacred and one political.^[63]

Local traditions identify Adanse as the first Akan group to develop durable architecture in mud and clay, which later Akan states adopted.^[64] Archaeology at Adansemanso showed planned rectangular compounds and long-term occupation.^[65] Palace compounds contained sacred items like the Afenakwa sword, royal stools, and forms of regalia.^[66]

From the 12th century onward, gold extracted in the forest belt sustained regional exchange.^[67] In Adanse, mining was conducted under royal authority: the Adansehene retained rights over all discovered nuggets and received one-third of gold from stool lands, while the Sanaahene managed state revenue and the royal treasury.^[66]

By the 16th century the Pra–Ofin basin, including Adanse, was among the most productive gold zones in West Africa, supplying over half of the gold exported through both coastal ports and inland savanna markets.^[68] During its time as the capital, Adansemanso was as a center of kola trade.^[53] Adanse's traders were advantageous due to access to Mande markets at Begho in the north and to European forts on the coast. The state was an intersection of trans-Saharan and Atlantic routes.^[35] By the late 16th and 17th centuries, rising European demand for gold and ivory expanded the consumption of imported goods in the forest belt. Gold trade caused population growth, causing many migrations, competition and sharpened rivalries among Adanse and its neighbors.^[69][35]

Adanse occupied a central position in long-distance commerce. Akan producers exchanged gold with Wangara merchants at towns such as Begho, linking the forest zone to Sahelian and trans-Saharan markets.^[70] Traded goods included salt, cloth, copper alloys, and enslaved persons.^[70] Caravan routes connected Adanse to coastal ports and interior markets by two main arteries: the Twifo road and the Arcania road.^[71] On the Arcania route, tolls were collected at border posts such as “Atchersee” on the Assin–Adanse frontier before caravans moved further north.^[72] Brokers based in Adanse, Kaase, Kwabre, Tafo, and Akyem extended their operations as far as Bighu and Bono Manso.^[73] By the mid-17th century, Akwamu merchants were also active, conducting regular trade in Adanse and Manso.^[74] Inland wars, like the struggles between Adanse and Denkyira in the later 17th century, disrupted the gold trade to the coast. Between 1668 and 1676 the Dutch received only 3,150 marks of gold.^[75]

Adanse is remembered for its role in gold production and as a civilizational origin for several Akan states. Today, Adanse is a traditional area in the Ashanti Region, bounded to the south by the Pra River, to the east by Banka and Asante Akyem, and to the west by Denkyira.^[76]

• Akan people
• Akan Clans
• Akani (Arcania)
• Akyem Kingdoms
• Assin
• Denkyira
• Asante Empire
• Asante Traditional Buildings

6°29′00″N 0°11′00″E / 6.4833333°N 0.1833333°E / 6.4833333; 0.1833333