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Opinions of Sunday, 9 May 2010

Columnist: Amponsah, John

Akan and Ewe histories of Ancient Migration

By John Amponsah

I have been aware of Nana Banchie Darkwa's book "The Africans who wrote the Bible", as well as other books connecting Akan people not only to the Ancient Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhai but also going as far back as Ancient Egypt. Now I have recently come across a youtube video that asserts that Ewe people migrated not only from the Ancient middle East but even further afield, from Asia! (check out -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUDrLCB0wQk). I found this to be quite interesting, especially because it was told by an African rather than not. It is not the first time I am hearing about Ewe people being linked with the Middle East (what I knew of before was a link with the Semitic peoples of the Middle East such as the 'Israelites').

Migration stories and their details are not only limited to the Akan and the Ewe but also with other groups in Ghana such as the Ga and others. Africans such as Cheik Anta Diop and Theophile Obenga have previously written about ancient connections between pre-dynastic Egypt and current African cultures.

In New York City (and elsewhere in the world), the Ausar Auset society is an esoteric group that practises a mixture of ancient (pre-dynastic) Egyptian religion as well as native African traditional practises. Their leader, Ra Un Nefer Amen (born Rogelio Alcides Straughn) appears to be very interested in forming links between Ausar Auset and West African cultures like the Akan and the Yoruba. He is apparently intimately connected with (Asante-Akyem) Agogo.

In the modern world we live in where information is in abundance, it seems to be more and more the case that "there are no more secrets". Although there is so much information available now, that which was previously only accessible to a few is now potentially accessible to anyone interested. The Internet has revolutionized information exchange, yet in spite of this it is easy to get overwhelmed with an unwanted barrage of advertisements and sometimes worse. Yet every so often, one comes across interesting bits of information, which is how I classify the above youtube video.