XVIIᵉ siècle
Aowin kingdom and Assini, Ghana region
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ano Asena was a seventeenth-century clan chief associated with the Ndenye traditions. After a war in the Aowin kingdom at the end of the seventeenth century, he reportedly left with his followers and settled around Assini. Later traditions transformed him into a mythical ancestor credited with bringing law and teaching agriculture, illustrating how migration memories could be recast as origin myths.
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Le récit
Ano Asena appears in Ndenye traditions as the ancestor who led the people to their present settlement. These traditions place their earlier homeland in Anyanya, in eastern Ghana, and describe Ano Asena as a bringer of law and agricultural knowledge. He is associated symbolically with the banana and yam, as well as with a copper basin descending from heaven on a chain.
Cross-checking several oral traditions with written and archaeological evidence led Claude Perrot to place Ano Asena in the seventeenth century, with European documents dating him around 1690. The extract cautions against treating the mythic details as direct evidence for a remote antiquity. Instead, they appear to preserve and reshape memories of a migration and settlement.
At the end of the seventeenth century, war broke out in the Aowin kingdom. Ano Asena, described as a clan chief, left the country with his men and settled around Assini, the later habitation of the Ndenye. The community subsequently reconstructed an ancient origin myth around him, assigning distant and supernatural significance to events that preceded their migration.
XVIIᵉ siècle
Aowin kingdom and Assini, Ghana region
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Ano Asena was a seventeenth-century clan chief associated with the Ndenye traditions. After a war in the Aowin kingdom at the end of the seventeenth century, he reportedly left with his followers and settled around Assini. Later traditions transformed him into a mythical ancestor credited with bringing law and teaching agriculture, illustrating how migration memories could be recast as origin myths.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
Ano Asena appears in Ndenye traditions as the ancestor who led the people to their present settlement. These traditions place their earlier homeland in Anyanya, in eastern Ghana, and describe Ano Asena as a bringer of law and agricultural knowledge. He is associated symbolically with the banana and yam, as well as with a copper basin descending from heaven on a chain.
Cross-checking several oral traditions with written and archaeological evidence led Claude Perrot to place Ano Asena in the seventeenth century, with European documents dating him around 1690. The extract cautions against treating the mythic details as direct evidence for a remote antiquity. Instead, they appear to preserve and reshape memories of a migration and settlement.
At the end of the seventeenth century, war broke out in the Aowin kingdom. Ano Asena, described as a clan chief, left the country with his men and settled around Assini, the later habitation of the Ndenye. The community subsequently reconstructed an ancient origin myth around him, assigning distant and supernatural significance to events that preceded their migration.