Most Black Americans, Caribbean people are Northerners, not Ashantis – Lawyer Anokye Frimpong

Historian and lawyer, Anokye Frimpong, has shared some perspectives on happenings in the history of Ghana during the era of slavery and colonisation.

Speaking in an interview on Max TV on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, the historian made a correction about where Black Americans and Caribbean people who trace their ancestry to Ghana are truly from.

He said that there was a pact between an Ashanti chief, Osei Kojo, who help a Dogomba chief, Gariba, win a war in the current Northern Region, for the Dogomabas to be sending slaves and animals to the Ashantis every year.

“… There was an agreement between the Chief and the Dagombas that every year they would give the Ashantis 1000 slaves, 1000 cows, 1000 goats, 1000 guinea fowl and 1000 fowl.

“This led to Gariba (the Dagomba Chief) attacking other tribes in the Upper East, Upper West and other areas. It was the people from this region that were being given to Ashantis and the Ashantis also would sell them to the coastal states for them to be sold into slavery abroad,” he narrated in Twi.

The lawyer said that because Black Americas are taught the History of the Ashanti Kingdom in the United States of America, they all wrongly think they are Ashantis.

“But if you see the African Americans and our brothers and sisters from the Caribbean most of them are northerners. But when they come back home, they want to be Ashantis.

"You hear them saying I am an Ashanti man because they learnt the history of the Ashantis and they what to be Ashantis. But the truth is that when want to talk about the people who were enslaved, Northerners are like 80 per cent,” he said.

He added that it was later that Fantis, Akans and other tribes in the coastal areas were also sold to countries like Jamaica.

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