Ewe people

The Ewe people (/ˈeɪ.weɪ/; Ewe: Eʋeawó, lit. "Ewe people"; or Mono Kple Amu (Volta) Tɔ́sisiwo Dome, lit. "Between the Rivers Mono and Volta"; Eʋenyígbá Eweland) are a Gbe-speaking ethnic group. The largest population of Ewe people is in Ghana (6.0 million), and the second largest population is in Togo (3.1 million). They speak the Ewe language (Ewe: Eʋegbe) which belongs to the Gbe family of languages. They are related to other speakers of Gbe languages such as the Fon, Gen, Phla/Phera, Ogu/Gun, Maxi (Mahi), and the Aja people of Togo and Benin.

Ewe people are located primarily in the coastal regions of West Africa: in the region south and east of the Volta River to around the Mono River at the border of Togo and Benin; and in the southwestern part of Nigeria (close to the Atlantic Ocean, stretching from the Nigeria and Benin border to Epe). They are primarily found in the Volta Region in southeastern Ghana, southern Togo, The Ewe region is sometimes referred to as the Ewe nation or Eʋedukɔ́ region (Togoland in colonial literature).

They consist of several groups based on their dialect and geographic concentration: the Anlo Ewe, Ʋedome (Danyi), Tongu or Tɔŋu. The literary language has been the Anlo sub-branch.

The Ewe people were formerly known as the Dogbo. The ancient history of the Ewe people is not recorded. They may have migrated from a place vividly recalled in their oral history called Ketu or Amedzofe (Amejofe), a town now in the republic of Benin, in the region that is now the border between Benin and Nigeria; and then, because of invasions and wars in the 17th century, migrated into their current locations. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Ewe people likely had some presence in their current homelands at least as early as the 13th century. This evidence dates their dynamism to a much earlier period than previously believed. However, other evidence also suggests a period of turmoil, particularly when Yoruba warriors of the Oyo Empire ruled the region. Their own oral tradition describes the brutal king Agɔ Akɔli (or Agor Akorli) of Notsie (a formerly walled town in Togo), estimated to have ruled in the 17th century. The high-handedness of King Agor Akorli culminated in the escape and dispersal of the Ewe to their present locations.

They share a history with people who speak Gbe languages. All Gbe speaking people regard the Adja as the mother tribe. These speakers occupied the area between Akan land and Yorubaland. Previously, some historians have tried to tie them to both Akan and Yoruba ethnic groups. More recent studies suggest these are distinct ethnic groups who are neither Akan nor Yoruba, though they appear to have both influenced and taken influence from those groups.

The Ewe people had cordial relations with pre-slave trade and pre-colonial era Europeans. However, in 1784, they warred with Danish colonial interests as Denmark attempted to establish coastal forts in the Ewe and Yoruba regions for its officials and merchants. Nestled between powerful slave-trading kingdoms like the Asante, Dahomey and Oyo, the Ewes not only were victims of slave raiding and trade, but also sold their war captives to the Europeans. After slavery was abolished and the slave trade brought to a halt, the Ewes flourished in their major economic activities of cotton and rice farming, palm oil and copra production and exports. Their region was divided between the colonial powers, initially between the German and British colonies, and after World War I, their territories were divided between the British and a British-French joint protectorate. After World War I, the British Togoland and French Togoland were respectively renamed Trans Volta Togoland and Togo. Trans Volta Togoland later voted in a United Nations-supervised plebiscite to join the newly independent Ghana. French Togoland was renamed the Republic of Togo and gained independence from France on April 27, 1960.

There have been efforts to consolidate the Ewe peoples into one unified country since the colonial period, with many post-colonial leaders occasionally supporting their cause, but ultimately none has been successful.

The sophisticated theology of the Ewe people is similar to those of nearby ethnic groups, such as the Fon religion. This traditional Ewe religion is called Vodun. The word is borrowed from the Fon language, and means "spirit". The Ewe religion holds Mawu as the creator God, who created numerous lesser deities (trɔwo) that serve as the spiritual vehicles and the powers that influence a person's destiny. This mirrors the Mawu and Lisa (Goddess and God) theology of the Fon religion, and like them, these are remote from daily affairs of the Ewe people. The lesser deities are believed to have means to grant favors or inflict harm.