WATCH THE WAVES OF THE SEA:

LITERACY, FEEDBACK, AND THE EUROPEAN

ENCOUNTER IN ELMINA
BAYO HOLSEY
DUKE UNIVERSITY
I
On 19 January 1482, a Portuguese fleet of ships under the command of
Captain Don Diego dAzambuja landed at Elmina (a small town on the
Gold Coast, what is now Ghana). DAzambuja immediately set up a meet-
ing with the king of Elmina. King Kwamena Ansa, dressed in all of his fin-
ery, met with the Portuguese captain, and during this meeting dAzambuja
asked for permission to build a permanent settlement. At first, Ansa denied
his request, stating that he should watch the waves of the sea. Just as they
come to the shore, reach the shore, and go back, so too should he continue
to come to Elmina, trade, and go back to Portugal. After persistent requests
however, Ansa finally agreed and allowed the Portuguese to build a fort
known today as Elmina Castle.
I first heard this story from men and women in Elmina during field
research there in 2001. When I asked people to tell me about the history of
the town and gave them free rein to discuss any topic of their choosing, this
was often the story that they chose to tell. Kwamena Ansa, it seems, is a
local legend. His fame has extended beyond Elmina however, and into
Western scholarship. In particular, David Henige has tracked the emer-
gence of Ansa within Elminas oral tradition. Henige argues that, while this
historical figure can be traced through written sources reaching all the way
back to the early sixteenth century, his recognition as a past king by local
residents in Elmina has a much shorter history. Indeed, Ansa first emerged
in kinglists dating back only to the 1920s and 1930s. During this time,
Henige argues, local residents began reading European texts about Elmi-
History in Africa 38 (2011), 79101
80 Bayo Holsey
nas history in order to negotiate colonial courts. The inclusion of Ansa on
kinglists represents, therefore, an example of feedback, which is the process
of the integration of information from the written record into the oral tradi-
tion.
1
While the story of Ansas legendary encounter with the Portuguese does
not appear in the court records analyzed by Henige, it emerged soon after in
collections of oral history written by nationalist authors in Ghana. We can
therefore greatly expand our understanding of the significance this historical
figure by considering these local renderings of the narrative. As I argue in
the pages that follow, nationalist writers were drawn to this story because
they could frame it as a story about Elminas early autonomy and about the
agency of an African king. In contrast to European narratives of the day that
described Africans as powerless in the face of Europeans, in this story, the
king had the power to act; he stood up to the Portuguese and told them that
they must leave. Nationalist writings have a long tradition of including his-
tories of autonomy and agency to make the case for decolonization into
which this story fits.
These collections of oral history came to constitute an official record of
the oral tradition. Thus, by examining these texts, I not only demonstrate the
nationalist impulse that undergirds the telling of this particular story; I also
explore issues concerning writing and the formalization of oral tradition
more generally. Through the process of putting it down in writing, local his-
torians, like colonial courts, have in fact, in some cases, reshaped the tradi-
tional history by introducing elements from written texts. I argue here that
for these nationalist writers, the distinction between oral and written sources
was not a particularly important one in their conceptualization of tradi-
tion. Rather than concern themselves with this distinction, they measured
the authenticity of a given traditional history by the degree to which it
focused on African agency. Their construction of tradition was a dynamic
one that could absorb many different outside influences, which was in keep-
ing with long-standing local understandings of history. Below, I examine
the story of Kwamena Ansas encounter with the Portuguese with attention
to the politics of writing. In addition, I consider the renewed salience of this
tradition today in the context of the contemporary popular history in Elmi-
na. Finally, I consider the broader literature on oral history, literacy, and the
construction of tradition. I begin, however, by providing background on the
1
David Henige, Kingship in Elmina before 1869: A Study in Feedback and the Tradi-
tional Idealization of the Past, Cahiers dtudes Africaines 55 (1974), 499-520.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 81
historiography of Elmina and a summary of Heniges insights with regard to
the figure of Kwamena Ansa.
II
Elmina, an ancient town on the coast of Ghana, served as a trading post
where Portuguese traders sold copper, cloth, as well as slaves shipped in
from other parts of West Africa in exchange for gold beginning in the mid-
dle of the fifteenth century. The Portuguese fort referred to above was the
first major European building in sub-Saharan Africa outside of Ethiopia.
The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch in 1637 who used the fort as
their base of operations in the Gold Coast during the Atlantic slave trade.
The castle contains dungeons where enslaved people brought in from over-
land slave routes were held prior to the Middle Passage. The Dutch handed
the castle over to the British in 1872 who declared the Gold Coast a British
colony two years later.
Since the sixteenth century, several European officials have written
exhaustively about the town. One of the earliest accounts of the town was
written by Joo de Barros, a Portuguese writer who was sent to Elmina by
King Joo III around 1522. He later became a factor at the colonial office in
Lisbon and published Da Asia in 1552, which includes a description of the
founding of Elmina castle. Other Portuguese accounts include Manuel de
Faria e Sousas Asia Portuguesa published 1630.
2
Drawing upon these
works, James Clarke wrote about the Portuguese in Elmina in The Progress
of Maritime Discovery in 1805.
All of these accounts mention Kwamena Ansa as a local leader at the
time of the arrival of the Portuguese. Yet, local kinglists recorded before the
twentieth century did not include him. Henige argues that before the twenti-
eth century, people in Elmina did not tend to recount the specifics of royal
succession in the town. While oral histories highlight Kwaa Amankwaa, the
founder of the town, details about succeeding kings were sparse. Some of
the oral accounts from the nineteenth century stated that Elmina was not
even an independent polity but rather was originally subject to Eguafo.
3
2
Paul E.H. Hair, The Early Sources on Guinea, History in Africa 21 (1994), 87-126;
Charles R. Boxer, Three Historians of Portuguese Asia (Macau, 1948).
3
Henige, Kingship, 503, n.12.
82 Bayo Holsey
Henige argues that by the 1920s however, local residents began to insist
that Elmina has had a centralized government since the time of its founding.
To do so, they began to name additional kings from this era and as a result,
to expand their kinglist. Henige attributes this shift to indirect rule. During
this period, British administrators adjudicated disputes over the office of the
king, or the stool as it is locally known, by considering evidence regard-
ing stool histories. Henige explains:
The witness who presented a coherent and full account of a stools traditional
history and one that seemed to conform in broad outline to printed sources
was credited with great traditional learning. Conversely the witness who
admitted that he did not know all of his stools tradition history was often
characterized as unwilling, unresponsive, or simply ignorant.
4
Local residents therefore had a motivation to master a deeper political histo-
ry than they had previously considered, demonstrating the invention of tra-
dition
5
at play. At the same time, Henige argues that European expecta-
tions of extended kinglists in Elmina and surrounding towns were height-
ened because several European and African writers had published books
that covered the towns early history. Of particular note are John Mensah
Sarbahs 1906 book, Fanti National Constitution
6
and W.W. Claridges
1915 book, A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti.
7
These books drew on
the early sources mentioned above, and expanded upon them. Colonial
authorities, who assumed the veracity of such texts, surmised that if they
had easy access to the towns history, the traditional authorities should cer-
tainly know it. A growing class of literate Africans meant that many could
effectively respond to the pressure to know their early history by reading the
same texts that Europeans consulted. In this way, the literate class gained a
distinct advantage in stool disputes.
Henige points specifically to a stool dispute heard in the colonial court in
the 1920s and 1930s between Condua, who was described as an educated
man, and Ntakudzi, a carpenter. Supporters of Condua , who were mostly
government employees and therefore literate, mentioned Kwamena Ansa in
4
Henige, Kingship, 519.
5
Eric J. Hobsbawm, and Terence O. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge,
1983).
6
John M. Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise on the Constitution and
Government of the Fanti, Asanti, and other Akan Tribes of West Africa (London, 1968).
7
William W. Claridge, A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti: From the Earliest
Times to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century (New York, 1964).
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 83
the stool histories they provided as testimony. On the contrary, Ntakudzis
supporters, who were mostly illiterate fisherman, did not. Henige concludes
that the former had access to the story through written sources including the
books by Sarbah and Claridge and that, as a result, the story of Kwamena
Ansas kingship, which was not widely recognized before this point,
became as a result of the dispute, enshrined in Elminas oral tradition.
8
While the inclusion of Kwamena Ansa in Elminas kinglist followed the
conventions of colonial court testimony, there are other aspects of his story
as told by Sarbah and other writers that one may consider. This information,
as the vignette with which I begin this article demonstrates, has also entered
into the sphere of oral tradition, which leads to the question, how and when
did this occur? Answering this question requires that we first examine the
precise nature of the expanded version of the story.
III
According to numerous written accounts, the Portuguese had been trading
in Elmina since the 1470s, but in 1482, king Joo II sent a fleet to Elmina
under the command of Don Diego dAzambuja with the task of establishing
a permanent settlement. Upon his arrival, dAzambuja arranged for a meet-
ing with the king. During their meeting, dAzambuja asked permission to
build a strong house for his trade goods and accommodations for his men.
In early Portuguese accounts, both Rui de Pina and Joo de Barros mention
that Ansa originally denied the request, providing accounts of his response.
Barros however provides greater detail of this refusal, which includes a
striking metaphor about the waves of sea. Despite the fact that this
metaphor, and indeed the entire speech that he attributes to Ansa, appear to
have been his invention, modern accounts have nonetheless retained both.
9
8
Henige argues in particular that Claridge was the first to write that Ansa was the king of
Elmina specifically and not just a local ruler, thereby supporting the idea that Elmina had
a centralized government at this time. Henige notes that in doing so, he clearly went
beyond any of his sources, suggesting that he invented this idea, which, if true, means
the idea that Kwamena Ansa was king of Elmina emerged from the written tradition, not
the oral one (Henige, Kingship, 504).
9
As Paul Hair notes: It was a tradition among earlier historians to put speeches into the
mouths of their leading characters, speeches that were invented by the historian although
expressing what might have been said, or at least silently thought, by the character on the
occasion. He further argues that elements of both Pina and Barross accounts ring true
and therefore suggest that the general drift of argument of truthfully reported. Paul E.H.
Hair, The Founding of the Castelo de So Jorge da Mina: An Analysis of Sources (Madi-
son, 1994), 8.
84 Bayo Holsey
The retention of this metaphor is in fact what allows us to identify Barros as
the original source of the story in later accounts. Barros describes Ansas
speech as follows:
[H]e asked him to deem it advisable that the ships should go and come as had
been their wont here, in this way always retaining peace and concord. For
friends who met from time to time treated each other with greater affection
than if they were neighbors. And this was the heart of man at work, just as the
waves of the sea beat against the reef of rocks which lies there; because of its
neighborly contact with the reef, and because the latter stops it from extend-
ing itself at will over the land, on contact the sea beats so violently that from
wildness and pride it flings its waves to the sky, this kind of fury causing the
two losses, one to itself as it rages, the other to its contact which it damages.
10
Barross metaphor describes a violent encounter resulting from the meeting
of the sea and the land. He includes this speech perhaps to demonstrate the
depth of Ansas concern with regard to dAzambujas request, which ulti-
mately, makes dAzambujas ability to persuade him to acquiesce and to
thereby establish a Portuguese settlement in Elmina all the more impressive.
As Hair notes, Barross description suggests a patronizing view that
Africans must be humored.
11
Drawing on Barross account, Clarke described the meeting in his 1805
book, but he recreates Ansas speech as a direct quotation. In his account,
Ansas reply includes the following passage:
Men of such eminence, conducted by a commander, who, from his own
account, seems to have descended from the God who made day and night, can
never bring themselves to endure the hardships of this climate; nor would
they here be able to procure any of the luxuries that abound in their own
country. The passions that are common to us all will therefore invariably
bring on disputes; and it is far preferable that both our nations should continue
on the same footing they have hitherto done, allowing your ships to come and
go as usual; the desire of seeing each other occasionally will preserve peace
between us. The sea and the land, being always neighbors, are continually at
variance, and contending who shall give way; the sea with great violence
attempting to subdue the land, and the land with equal obstinacy resolving to
oppose the sea.
12
10
Translation from Hair, The Founding, 27.
11
Hair, The Founding, 9.
12
James S. Clarke, The Progress of Maritime Discovery: From the Earliest Period to the
Close of the Eighteenth Century, Forming an Extensive System of Hydrography (Cam-
bridge, 2010), 324.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 85
Here, the metaphor of the sea is somewhat tempered, yet it retains an
emphasis on the violence that the sea inflicts upon the land. This version,
which was the first detailed English account of the meeting, became the
source for most of the later accounts. In the nineteenth century, A.B. Ellis
and Carl Reindorf described the meeting but did not provide Ansas full
speech.
13
The speech does not appear again until John Mensah Sarbah
recorded it in 1906. Sarbah thus became the twentieth century source of the
story.
14
In Sarbahs account, Ansa appeared in full state, accompanied by
musicians, bodyguards, and subordinate rulers. Ansa himself was carried in
on a palanquin wearing a golden collar, and various other gold ornaments
adorned his arms and legs. It is clear from this account that the king present-
ed an impressive sight to the Portuguese. Sarbah provides the speech exact-
ly as it appears in Clarkes text. He then explains that the Portuguese coaxed
Ansa to comply, which he finally did, though only with great difficulty.
15
The story of this encounter has thus been available for some time. The
question then becomes: when and why did it become defined as part of the
oral tradition? What are the conventions of collective memory at play?
While a stool dispute in the context of indirect rule provided the impetus for
Conduas supporters to situate the detail of Ansas kingship into the oral tra-
dition, other catalysts and contexts have motivated attention to Ansas
encounter with the Portuguese.
The catalyst in this instance was, I argue, the development of nationalist
politics. Over the course of the twentieth century, African writers developed
an interpretation of the story that supported their political aims. This inter-
pretation began, in fact, with Sarbah, who was the first writer to provide an
analysis of the significance of the story. Unlike other authors who claimed
to be providing an uninterested preservation of history, he openly broadcast-
ed his political agenda.
Sarbah was one of the earliest African writers in the Gold Coast. Born in
1864 in Cape Coast, a town eight miles from Elmina, to a wealthy local
merchant, Sarbah was part of an African elite class that was concentrated in
13
Carl Christian Reindorf, History of the Gold Coast and Asante: Based on Traditions
and Historical Facts, Comprising a Period of more than Three Centuries from about
1500 to 1860 (Accra, 1895); Alfred B. Ellis, A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa
(New York, 1893).
14
For a discussion of Sarbahs account, see Bayo Holsey, Routes of Remembrance:
Refashioning the Slave Trade in Ghana (Chicago, 2008), 53-55.
15
Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise on the Constitution and Govern-
ment of the Fanti, Asanti, and other Akan Tribes of West Africa (London, 1968), 61.
86 Bayo Holsey
Cape Coast and Elmina. This class emerged from the slave merchants of the
eighteenth century, whose descendants continued to trade in palm oil and
other goods after abolition. Like many members of this class, Sarbah trained
as a lawyer in England. By the time of his return to the Gold Coast, colo-
nialism had entered into a new phase. Coastal elites who had previously
occupied many positions in the colonial administration were replaced by
Europeans. As a result, the educated African elite class found themselves
losing the benefits of their class status.
Facing political and economic disenfranchisement, members of this class
including Sarbah founded the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection
Society. This organization fought for increased autonomy for Africans with-
in the colonial structure and, in particular, the reinstitution of their class
privilege. Their writings were aimed at convincing the British that educated
coastal Africans on the Gold Coast should be given positions of authority.
While the community for which they fought did not include all Africans in
the Gold Coast, in making a case for the enfranchisement of coastal elites,
their cause represents a precursor to the nationalist movement.
16
In 1906, Sarbah wrote Gold Coast Native Institutions, in which he sought
to demonstrate that there were many long-standing local institutions that
remained viable and should be allowed to function under colonialism. It was
in this effort that he told the story of Kwamena Ansa. Rather than a celebra-
tion of the establishment of a Portuguese foothold in Elmina as it was for
Barros, in Sarbahs hands, Ansas speech has a contrary purpose. For him, it
serves to show that Elmina was an independent state under Ansas authori-
ty. Throughout his writings, Sarbah focuses heavily on the existence of
early Fante states with their own laws. In concluding his discussion of the
early history of the Gold Coast, he writes:
This brief review of ancient history will no doubt leave its impress, if indeed
it does not convince one, that the people are of an ancient race, with a national
constitution which hath existed from a time to which the memory of man run-
neth not to the contrary.
17
16
Roger Gocking, Creole Society and Revival of Tradition in Cape Coast During the
Colonial Period, International Journal of African Historical Studies 17 (1984), 601-22;
Roger Gocking, Facing Two Ways: Ghanas Coastal Communities under Colonial Rule
(Lanham MD, 1999); David Kimble, A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold
Coast Nationalism, 1850-1928 (Oxford, 1963), chapter 9; Kwaku L. Korang, Writing
Ghana, Imagining Africa: Nation and African Modernity (Rochester NY, 2003); Ray-
mond G. Jenkins, Gold Coast Historians and their Pursuit of the Gold Coast Pasts, 1882-
1917, PhD, University of Birmingham (1985).
17
Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution, 71.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 87
Sarbah stressed that earlier generations of Europeans recognized the legiti-
macy of African states and even saw in them similarities to their own soci-
eties. He argued that when the Portuguese navigators and other European
trading adventurers first appeared on the Gold Coast, they found an orga-
nized society having kings, rulers, institutions, and a system of customary
laws.
18
Discussions of the existence of early states became central to nationalist
writings throughout West Africa. Nationalists created a vindicationist histo-
riography that sought to demonstrate that African history was filled with
significant achievements. As Caroline Neale notes however:
Achievements were defined in Western terms, in the context of an evolu-
tion from more primitive political forms toward the modern nation-state,
which was seen as the culmination of mankinds progress to date. The cre-
ation of African self-respect was felt to rest upon repeated demonstrations that
Africans, too, had participated in and contributed to this development.
19
Nationalist writers argued that throughout African history, one can witness
processes of centralization and expansion. Rather than a period of stagna-
tion in which Africans simply awaited European intervention, they insisted
that pre-colonial African societies demonstrated early tendencies toward
statehood. These examples would then serve as evidence that Africans
could govern themselves.
20
The figure of the African king in particular pro-
vided a powerful image of African autonomy that could then be contrasted
to the recent and therefore aberrant, so nationalists argued, burden of
European exploitation known as colonialism.
The second important element of this story is Ansas refusal. The empha-
sis on this detail might seem odd in light of the fact that Ansa ultimately
agreed to let the Portuguese settle in Elmina. However, in Sarbahs telling,
Ansas refusal is used to tell the reader that the land was not open for the
taking, which disrupts the legitimacy of later European rule. Ansa felt fully
entitled to maintain control over his land suggesting that he believed him-
self to be on equal footing with Europeans, if not positioned above them.
The Portuguese, furthermore, both recognized the authority of the king and
18
Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution, v, in: Korang, Writing Ghana, 120.
19
Caroline Neale, Writing Independent History: African Historiography, 1960-1980
(Westport CT, 1985), 1.
20
Christopher C. Wrigley, Historicism in Africa: Slavery and State Formation, African
Affairs 279 (1971), 113-24.
88 Bayo Holsey
refrained from the use of force, likely recognizing that they could not sus-
tain a settlement without the willing cooperation of the local authorities.
21
Sarbah remembers this moment then, in order to depict a time in which
African kings had agency, a time when they could say no. Remembering
such a time allows him to create a critique of his present in which colonial-
ism had dismantled this agency. In the preface of his book, he bemoans the
disenfranchisement of Africans under colonialism. He notes that even those
with an English education are denied the opportunity to rise from a condi-
tion of mere passive subjugation to a capacity for the discharge of ones
legitimate responsibilities, public or municipal.
22
DAzambujas response provides a third important aspect of the story.
His response seems to be an attempt to assure Ansa that the Portuguese have
no imperial designs on Elmina; rather, they only desired a more strict
union and peace () that surely, had they any sinister design, they would
not venture their lives and property in a strange country, at such a distance
from their own, from which they could get no assistance.
23
Here then, we
get an account of the early European encounter in which Europeans
promised not to be aggressors. It suggests that African leaders had an expec-
tation of an equal partnership and that Europeans ultimately betrayed them.
Indeed, the later imposition of colonial rule by the British might be read
then as an unfortunate departure from this early pattern of European-African
interaction. Read together, these elements contest the legitimacy of colo-
nialism by attesting to the autonomy of Elmina and recalling the Portuguese
pledge not to challenge it.
IV
As I demonstrate below, since the publication of Sarbahs text, nationalist
writers have picked up the story. They responded to the next wave of
nationalist activity that began in the 1920s.
24
If nationalist fervor provided
the catalyst for the telling of an expanded version of the story, schools pro-
vided the context. The period after the First World War saw a proliferation
21
The respect shown for Ansas authority fits with the historical evidence of the nature of
the African-European encounter. See John K. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Mak-
ing of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge, 1998), chapter 2.
22
Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution, xii.
23
Sarbah, Fanti National Constitution, 61.
24
See Kimble, A Political History, chapter 10 for discussion of this wave of nationalism.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 89
of schools throughout West Africa. Scholars have examined the process and
effects of this development in the Gold Coast,
25
Nigeria,
26
Sierra Leone,
27
and French West Africa
28
where school officials engaged in similar process-
es that involved adopting the idea of an Africanized history syllabus.
Instead of only addressing European history as colonial schools had previ-
ously done, they began to focus on African histories. Few written histories
of Africa were available, however. As a result, colonial officials began to
collect oral history and folklore as a source for African history and to write
textbooks using these sources.
In the Gold Coast, these writers were challenged by African elites who
argued that some of these books were racist: they may have focused on
Africans but they painted a negative picture of their supposed backward-
ness.
29
These elites therefore started a movement to open independent
schools in which Sarbah himself was involved.
30
They also began to write
their own accounts of traditional history that they used as textbooks.
31
This generation of African educators was interested in creating a history that
could support the nationalist cause. Indeed, David Kimble argues that the
awakening of national consciousness was part of the reason for the growing
interest in local history during this period.
32
Their accounts positioned
Africans as active participants in the making of history. The focus on
African agency would become a cornerstone of nationalist projects through-
out the continent.
33
Because the reason for the turn to oral history was to
find evidence of African agency, a process of selection occurred by which,
it appears, only stories that fit this description were included. These authors
25
Kimble, A Political History, chapter 2.
26
Toyin Falola, and Saheed Aderinto, Nigeria, Nationalism, and Writing History
(Rochester NY, 2010); Philip S. Zachernuk, African History and Imperial Culture in
Colonial Nigerian Schools, Africa 68 (1998), 484-505.
27
Daniel J. Paracka, The Athens of West Africa : A History of International Education at
Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone (New York, 2003).
28
Gail P. Kelly, Interwar Schools and the Development of African History in French
West Africa, History in Africa 10 (1983), 163-85.
29
Ray Jenkins, William Ofori Atta, Nnambi Azikiwe, J.B. Danquah and the Grilling of
W.E.F. Ward of Achimota in 1935, History in Africa 21 (1994), 171-89.
30
Kimble, A Political History, 85-86.
31
Examples of the textbooks written during this period are J.B. Anamans Simple Stories
from Gold Coast History, J.B. Danquahs Akim Abuaka Handbook, and J.W. de Graft
Johnsons Historical Geography of the Gold Coast. See Kimble, A Political History,
527-28.
32
Kimble, A Political History, 523.
33
Neale, Writing Independent History.
90 Bayo Holsey
also culled European sources for information that supported their vision of
African agency in history. They combined these different elements to create
what they called traditional history, which was in effect, as the examples
below demonstrate, a history that was free of colonial biases.
One of the most important textbook writers of this period was E.J.P.
Brown. Born in 1872, Brown was a lawyer, author and politician in Cape
Coast. Additionally, he was a member of the Board of Governors of
Mfantsipim School, a boys secondary school in Cape Coast, where he also
taught. Brown wrote several textbooks for use in Gold Coast primary and
secondary schools including a 1929 history textbook entitled Gold Coast
and Asianti Reader in which he recounts the story of Kwamena Ansa.
Brown describes Part One of his book as a collection of stories from tra-
ditional history,
34
yet the meaning he attributes to this phrase accords with
the definition discussed above. While he conducted interviews with tradi-
tional authorities, he also admits to relying at times on written histories. In
this way, he actively seeks to place written material that had previously
been part of a European and elite African historiography into the local his-
torical tradition. In retelling the story of Kwamena Ansa, for instance, he
actually quotes Sarbah at length. But Brown not only gets the story from
Sarbah, he also adopts his political agenda and, in particular, his critique of
colonialism. In his book, he ties the story to a critique of colonialism in
explicit terms. He writes that Ansas reply was truly a prophetic vision of
European partition and domination of Africa which we see around us to-
day.
35
After Brown, one of the most important writers of local history was J.
Sylvanus Wartemberg. Wartemberg was a native Elminan and the head of
one of the towns clans. As such, he could express not only the general sen-
timents of disenfranchised coastal elites, but the specific sentiments of
Elminas literate class. At the time of Wartembergs publishing career,
Elmina had faced decades of decline. The advent of colonialism in Elmina
had severe consequences. The British in fact burned part of Elmina to the
ground after taking it over from the Dutch because of local opposition to
their authority. After that, they largely abandoned the town, failing to estab-
lish any major industries. Its shipping industry, which had been small since
the departure of the Dutch, came to an end with the closure of the port in
1921. Most of residents today are fishermen or petty traders. Residents trace
34
Emmanuel Brown, Gold Coast and Asianti Reader (London, 1929), viii.
35
Brown, Gold Coast and Asianti Reader, 18.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 91
the origin of their marginalization to the departure of the Dutch. Indeed, the
arrival of the Portuguese and the departure of the Dutch serve as bookends
of an era in which Elmina was a site of commerce and opportunity.
It was in this context that in 1950, J. Sylvanus Wartemberg wrote a book
on the history of Elmina that is today considered by many local residents to
be the definitive study of the towns traditional history. When Harvey
Feinberg, who wrote a history of European and African contact in Elmina,
attempted to collect oral traditions that might fall outside of the written
record, he found it to be a fruitless effort, in part because the publication of
Wartembergs text. He writes: Few informants could get beyond Wartem-
bergs book because they were familiar with its contents and only repeated
those points
36
which indicates the centrality of this text to local under-
standings of the oral tradition.
Like Brown, Wartemberg also consulted both written sources and oral
histories. In his book, he argues that while acknowledging foreign writers
contribution which can be gleaned here and there from valuable publica-
tions of the general history of the Gold Coast, the need for an independent
record of the traditional history and the part the town has played is
evident.
37
For him, as for Brown, the benefit of the creation of a record of
traditional history is to demonstrate African agency, or the part the town
has played in history.
Wartemberg introduces his discussion of the early history of Elmina by
establishing the historical significance of the town. Clearly a proud citizen,
he asserts that the matchless patriotism and heroism of its people remain
indelible treasures and constitute the priceless heritage of its citizens.
38
Writing of the European encounter, he, like Sarbah, insists that the earliest
adventurers found the town in a degree of civilization contrary to their most
sanguine expectations.
39
Later in the text, he argues that Elmina has been
an organized state since the beginning of the fourteenth century, and
traces a kinglist that begins with Kwaa Amankwaa and continues through
Kwamena Ansa and into the present.
36
Harvey M. Feinberg, Africans and Europeans in West Africa: Elminans and Dutch-
men on the Gold Coast during the Eighteenth Century, Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society 79-7 (1989), i-186, xiii.
37
J. Sylvanus Wartemberg, Sao Jorge dEl Mina: Premier West African European Set-
tlement: Its Tradition and Customs (Ilfracombe/Devon, 1950), 9.
38
Wartemberg, So Jorge dEl Mina, 13.
39
Wartemberg, So Jorge dEl Mina, 14.
92 Bayo Holsey
In telling the story of Kwamena Ansa, Wartemberg adds his own specu-
lation that [t]he adroitness of the speech of Kwaamena Ansa revealed the
sanity of his deduction and dispelled the strangers preconceived notions of
the ignorance of the people; on the contrary they were found alert to their
vital interests.
40
In this way, he describes the high esteem in which the Por-
tuguese held the people of Elmina. Finally, Wartemberg concludes the book
with a chapter entitled Reconstruction, which provides suggestions for the
reclamation of Elminas past glory. In it, he notes the decline that has result-
ed from colonial rule. He tells his readers: The spirit of the age is a clarion
call to all. It is awakening the spirit of nationalism; a sense of duty for the
preservation of the best in African culture; a unification of forces of local
industry and the combination of disunited elements.
41
This statement
serves as a declaration of his nationalist agenda and provides the context for
his particular historical analysis.
Because of their use in schools, Brown and Wartembergs accounts of
the story were widely read in Elmina beginning in the 1930s and 1950s
respectively and accepted as part of traditional history. The growing
nationalist sentiments among Elminas professional class during this period
explain the appeal of their versions of the story. Readers of these books in
Elmina would readily contrast the seeming respect that the Portuguese
showed Ansa with their treatment at the hands of the British. The story
allowed them to argue that their current treatment is unjust, and that in the
past, a different relationship between themselves and Europe seemed possi-
ble.
V
As mentioned above, I frequently heard the story while conducting field-
work in Elmina on local understandings of history. The most detailed ver-
sion of this story was relayed to me by the head or supi of one of the Asafo
Companies. When I asked him about the relationship between local resi-
dents and the Europeans he said: During that time, there were interactions
between the people, but at first, King Kwamena Ansa of Elmina did not like
the Portuguese to come and stay. He told them to watch the waves of the
sea; the waves come to the seashore, bank on the seashore, and go back.
40
Wartemberg, So Jorge dEl Mina, 23.
41
Wartemberg, So Jorge dEl Mina, 163.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 93
You must also come, trade, and go. So upon persistent request for a place to
build, the area of the castle was shown to them. This story may have been
passed down orally to the supi who, as a traditional authority in Elmina,
would have access to such knowledge. The use of the metaphor of the sea
points however, to feedback from the written tradition occurring at some
point in its transmission.
People who mentioned this story not only used the same descriptive lan-
guage as the historians described above, they also applied the same nation-
alist interpretation to it. In my interviews, I found that many of these indi-
viduals stressed that Elmina was an independent state when the Portuguese
arrived. One young man told me: It happened that when the whites first
came to Africa, or let me say West Africa, they landed here first and Elmina
was on its own, it was a state, it was flying its own flag. In addition to this
however, many individuals also emphasized the particular nature of the
European-African encounter. Indeed, some pointed to this encounter as the
most important moment in their history. When I asked what she considers to
be the most important part of the history of the town, one woman respond-
ed: How the white man came to see them. She then explained: They
asked for land to build the castle, thats very important because they knew
that this was theirs.
42
Though she does not mention the Portuguese specifi-
cally, her focus is on their request to build Elmina castle.
The continued circulation of this nationalist story today, a half-century
after the achievement of independence is a curious phenomenon. However,
recent shifts in the conventions of public history have led to its re-popular-
ization. In the past twenty years, the Ghanaian state has taken up the ques-
tion of how to present one consequence of the European encounter: the
Atlantic slave trade. Within the construction of this history, Elmina once
again has become a crucial site. As a result of the UNESCO designation of
Elmina Castle as a World Heritage site as well as the growth of the diaspora
tourism industry over the course of the past two decades, the history of the
slave trade has become central to Elminas international image. With the
help of many international organizations, Elmina castle has been conserved
and has become a major tourist destination. The new global interest in
Ghana as the site of former slave ports has also led to a spate of local news-
paper stories, television documentaries, and dramatic performances devoted
to the history of the slave trade. Finally, the annual celebration of Emanci-
42
For a fuller discussion of these accounts of the story, see Holsey, Routes, 110-12.
94 Bayo Holsey
pation Day in Ghana sponsored by the Ministry for Tourism has ensured the
high visibility of the history of the slave trade.
The focus on the history of the slave trade has led to a reconsideration of
the encounter between Africans and Europeans more generally. In this con-
text, some cultural producers have once more taken up the story of Kwame-
na Ansa, which has come to represent the beginning of this encounter. A
theater group in the region regularly performs a play at the Center for
National Culture in Cape Coast and at Cape Coast Castle during Emancipa-
tion Day celebrations, which includes a reenactment of the encounter. In it,
Europeans arrive on the coast and are met by the king and his full
entourage, just as in the accounts described above. The Europeans ask for
land to build the castle, explaining that they only want to trade and desire
peace. The king first rebuffs the Portuguese, but ultimately, is convinced by
their gifts and promises of peace. In the very next scene, the Europeans
begin to hunt down local people and to rape and imprison them. The play
ends with a scene of the captives in chains, bound for slavery in the Americ-
as.
43
The message that this play conveys is that Europeans tricked African
authorities: they gained their trust only to ultimately exploit and enslave
their people. In this telling as in the ones described above, Ansa remains
innocent. The positioning of the story of Kwamena Ansa within a discus-
sion of the slave trade is significant given the role ascribed to African kings
within many competing narratives about this institution. Within the latter,
African kings are cast as partners with Europeans who willingly sold them
slaves. Indeed, in 1998, the Ministry for Tourism organized a ceremonial
apology by African traditional authorities for their predecessors involve-
ment in the selling of slaves. More recently, it has sponsored a healing cer-
emony during the Emancipation Day celebrations designed to mend the rift
between Africans and African Americans said to have been caused by the
formers participation in the slave trade.
44
In the context of the states increasing attention to African collusion with
Europeans in the selling of slaves, the depiction of Ansas skepticism of the
Portuguese gains critical purchase. Even though Europeans and Africans
43
I attended this play in 2001 at the Center for National Culture in Cape Coast. A version
of it appears in the DVD Danny Glover (narrator), The Forts and Castles of Ghana
(Chatsworth CA, 2003).
44
The healing ceremony was part of the Joseph Project. See Bayo Holsey, Rituel et
Mmoire au Ghana: Les Usages Politiques de la Diaspora, Critique Internationale 47
(2010), 19-36.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 95
would ultimately become trading partners, the idea that during this crucial
early encounter, Ansa attempted to turn the Europeans away like the tide
allows for a recuperated image of African leaders. They are presented not as
slave dealers, but rather as protectors of their people who were unwittingly,
and tragically, duped.
45
The interpretation of the early European encounter that this play provides
has influenced local understandings of the European encounter and
explains, at least in part, the re-popularization of the story of Kwamena
Ansa. In addition to its recuperation of the image of African kings, the
storys focus on African agency appeals to local residents in the context of
continuing economic marginalization. Even with the development of the
tourism industry, Elminas economy has seen little growth. The national
economy, in addition, continues to struggle. Despite the high hopes of the
nationalist era for economic growth, a series of political coups along with
the falling prices of Ghanas main export goods led to an economic crisis
beginning in the 1970s. This crisis was followed by the nations adoption of
a structural adjustment program. To date, however, the economy continues
to exhibit slow growth, and poverty rates remain high. Many individuals in
Elmina blame neoliberal economic reforms for their economic woes, which
they interpret as a form of Western domination. For instance, in 2001, when
Ghana signed onto the Highly Indebted Poor Countries initiative, many
local residents complained that this was a sign of their second-class status in
the global economy, while some even compared it to slavery.
46
Indeed,
some people argue that the government is too willing to bow to Western
interests. Given this complaint, it is little surprise that local residents recon-
struct a king who stood up to the Portuguese as the hero of their past. Doing
so allows them to imagine a different set of relationships in the global order.
VI
Considered more broadly, the story of Kwamena Ansa provides a window
into the use of historical data as resources in the creation of particular politi-
cal projects. The earliest oral historians sought simply to find evidence of
the pre-colonial past for which there are few written records.
47
Jan Vansina
45
See Holsey, Routes, chapter 4, for a fuller discussion.
46
Holsey, Routes, 226.
47
Jan Vansina, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology (Chicago, 2006).
96 Bayo Holsey
attempted to develop a method of analysis of oral histories that could sepa-
rate historical data from both the politics of the present and the context of its
performance. Though Vansina recognized that both of these things were
aspects of oral traditions, some scholars took a fundamentalist approach
in which they viewed oral histories to be straightforward accounts of the
past.
48
This view led to the idea of conveyors of oral histories as unimagi-
native and uninventive, and too unmodern to be thought to use the past as a
way to criticize the present.
49
These scholars had to eschew narratives in which outside influences can
be easily discerned. Indeed, it was in this context that Henige first theorized
feedback from the written record as a problem.
50
Henige quickly began to
view feedback less as a problem than as a ubiquitous process within oral
history, however. He notes that oral data continuously adopt and adapt
whatever new, relevant and interesting materials come their way in not very
differentthough decidedly less visible ways from those that written data
have always done.
51
Yet, his own case studies suggest even more than this.
They point not only to the nature of oral history but also to the actions of
specific actors who choose to turn to the written record at particular
moments for specific reasons. Other historians have also recognized the
inventive work of conveyors of oral history and have in fact made this work
the primary object of study. They have noted that rather than simply a
process of parroting, quite often, the retelling of such histories involves
complex processes of selection, contextualization, and reinterpretation.
52
These scholars have helped us to understand conveyors of oral history as
themselves scholars of history, who do not simply report the past but rather
interpret it.
53
In this view, literacy is a fascinating component of collective
48
For a discussion of this literature, see David Newbury, Contradictions at the Heart of
the Canon: Jan Vansina and the Debate over Oral Historiography in Africa, 1960-1985,
History in Africa 34 (2007), 213-54.
49
Luise White, Stephan Miescher, and David W. Cohen (eds.), African Words, African
Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History (Bloomington, 2001), 14.
50
David Henige, The Problem of Feedback in Oral Tradition: Four Examples from the
Fante Coastlands, The Journal of African History 14 (1973), 223-35.
51
David Henige, Truths Yet Unborn? Oral Tradition as a Casualty of Culture Contact,
The Journal of African History 23 (1982), 412.
52
See especially White et al., African Words.
53
Carolyn A. Hamilton, Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the Voices From
Below, History in Africa 14 (1987), 67-86; Karin Barber, I Could Speak Until Tomor-
row: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town (Edinburgh/London, 1993); David
W. Cohen, The Undefining of Oral Tradition, Ethnohistory 36 (1989), 9-18.
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 97
memory. When people retell stories and information they have read, they do
so for particular reasons. Individuals and societies actively choose to draw
upon written records because those records offer something of value that
can enhance their oral traditions.
54
Henige pioneered the study of the trans-
formations that occur in oral traditions as a result of literacy, providing us
with a methodology that can analyze such phenomenon.
A further step in this argument is to consider the circumscription of his-
tories that are clearly the product of both written and oral sources as tradi-
tional history. Scholars have examined the invention of tradition with
regard to both the objectification of custom under indirect rule and the cir-
cumscription of culture in nationalist movements.
55
Scholars have also
begun to explore the invention of traditional history as a political pro-
ject.
56
I argue then that by considering not only the nature of oral histories
but also their designations as such, we can begin to understand the forma-
tion of imagined communities,
57
a formation that is particularly salient to
nationalist periods.
Attention to the process of circumscribing traditional histories can also
shed light on excluded stories. It is here that anthropologists have provided
the most guidance. In recent years, a growing body of scholarship has
developed that explores the politics revealed by the choice of whether or not
to talk about a given history. In her discussion of the memory of colonialism
in Madagascar for instance, Jennifer Cole notes that the violence of the
colonial past is not evident in local discourse. She develops the idea of
deliberate forgetting, to describe the process by which groups may choose
not to discuss particular histories in order to distance themselves from
painful pasts.
58
54
Janet Ewald, Speaking, Writing, and Authority: Explorations in and from the King-
dom of Taqali, Comparative Studies in Society and History 30 (1988), 199-224; Stewart
Brown, The Pressures of the Text: Orality, Texts and the Telling of Tales (Birmingham,
1995); Paul B. Irwin, Liptako Speaks: History from Oral Tradition in Africa (Princeton
NJ, 1996).
55
For discussions of the production of culture in Ghana in the late nineteenth century
Gold Coast, see Kimble, A Political History, 517-520; Gocking, Creole Society. For an
example of the production of culture in the contemporary period in Ghana, see Cati
Coe, Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism, and the Transforma-
tion of Knowledge (Chicago, 2005).
56
Derek Peterson, and Giacomo Macola (eds.), Recasting the Past: History Writing and
Political Work in Modern Africa (Athens OH, 2009); Paulo F. de Moraes Farias, Self-
Assertion and Brokerage: Early Cultural Nationalism in West Africa (Birmingham, 1990).
57
Benedict R.O. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism (London, 2006).
58
Jennifer Cole, The Work of Memory in Madagascar, American Ethnologist 25
(1998), 621.
98 Bayo Holsey
In recent years, many scholars have explored societies in which there are
similar processes of deliberate forgetting. The slave trade provides a key
example of this process. The politics of memory in many parts of West
Africa discourage discussion of this history. Rosalind Shaw demonstrates
that in Sierre Leone, while the slave trade is rarely discussed openly, evi-
dence of collective memories of the slave trade nonetheless appears within
arenas such as in implicit references in proverbs or in ritual practices. This
variability allows some memories to survive outside of explicit narrative
form.
59
Using the insights from these works, we might consider the selection of
stories from the written record as a process of deliberate remembering. Cer-
tainly, in the case of the story of Kwamena Ansa, written records provided
resources for community members looking to shift the nature of historical
discourse in response to contemporary pressures. In this process, the
demonstration of purely local origins was not an important criterion.
Instead, local scholars have reshaped the traditional history by introduc-
ing stories that they deemed reflective of local values rather than of a colo-
nial worldview. The selection of stories that originated outside of local oral
history is far from a problem from the perspective of these writers and
their audiences then, but rather, a valuable strategy. Using this same logic,
we as scholars should recognize such tactics as a reflection of the modernity
of tradition.
References
Anderson, Benedict R.O., Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin
and Spread of Nationalism (London, 2006).
Barber, Karin, I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past
in a Yoruba Town (Edinburgh/London, 1993).
Boxer, Charles R., Three Historians of Portuguese Asia (Macau, 1948).
Brown, Emmanuel, Gold Coast and Asianti Reader (London, 1929).
Brown, Stewart, The Pressures of the Text: Orality, Texts and the Telling of
Tales (Birmingham, 1995).
Claridge, William W., A History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti: From the
Earliest Times to the Commencement of the Twentieth Century (New
York, 1964).
59
Rosalind Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in
Sierra Leone (Chicago, 2002).
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 99
Clarke, James S., The Progress of Maritime Discovery: From the Earliest
Period to the Close of the Eighteenth Century, Forming an Extensive
System of Hydrography (Cambridge, 2010).
Coe, Cati, Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism, and
the Transformation of Knowledge (Chicago, 2005).
Cohen, David W., The Undefining of Oral Tradition, Ethnohistory 36
(1989), 9-18.
Cole, Jennifer, The Work of Memory in Madagascar, American Ethnolo-
gist 25 (1998), 610-33.
Ellis, Alfred B., A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa (New York,
1893).
Ewald, Janet, Speaking, Writing, and Authority: Explorations in and from
the Kingdom of Taqali, Comparative Studies in Society and History 30
(1988), 199-224.
Falola, Toyin, and Saheed Aderinto, Nigeria, Nationalism, and Writing His-
tory (Rochester NY, 2010).
Feinberg, Harvey M., Africans and Europeans in West Africa: Elminans
and Dutchmen on the Gold Coast during the Eighteenth Century,
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 79-7 (1989), i-186.
Glover, Danny (narrator), The Forts and Castles of Ghana (Chatsworth CA,
2003).
Gocking, Roger, Creole Society and Revival of Tradition in Cape Coast
During the Colonial Period, International Journal of African Historical
Studies 17 (1984), 601-22.
, Facing Two Ways: Ghanas Coastal Communities under Colonial Rule
(Lanham MD, 1999).
Hair, Paul E.H., The Early Sources on Guinea, History in Africa 21
(1994), 87-126.
, The Founding of the Castelo de So Jorge da Mina: An Analysis of
Sources (Madison, 1994).
Hamilton, Carolyn A., Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the
Voices From Below, History in Africa 14 (1987), 67-86.
Henige, David, The Problem of Feedback in Oral Tradition: Four Exam-
ples from the Fante Coastlands, The Journal of African History 14
(1973), 223-35.
, Kingship in Elmina before 1869: A Study in Feedback and the Tradi-
tional Idealization of the Past, Cahiers dtudes Africaines 55 (1974),
499-520.
, Truths Yet Unborn? Oral Tradition as a Casualty of Culture Contact,
The Journal of African History 23 (1982), 395-412.
100 Bayo Holsey
Hobsbawm, Eric J., and Terence O. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition
(Cambridge, 1983).
Holsey, Bayo, Routes of Remembrance: Refashioning the Slave Trade in
Ghana (Chicago, 2008).
, Rituel et Mmoire au Ghana: Les Usages Politiques de la Diaspora,
Critique Internationale 47 (2010), 19-36.
Irwin, Paul B., Liptako Speaks: History from Oral Tradition in Africa
(Princeton NJ, 1996).
Jenkins, Ray, William Ofori Atta, Nnambi Azikiwe, J.B. Danquah and the
Grilling of W.E.F. Ward of Achimota in 1935, History in Africa 21
(1994), 171-89.
Jenkins, Raymond G., Gold Coast Historians and their Pursuit of the Gold
Coast Pasts, 1882-1917, PhD, University of Birmingham (1985).
Kelly, Gail P., Interwar Schools and the Development of African History
in French West Africa, History in Africa 10 (1983), 163-85.
Kimble, David, A Political History of Ghana: The Rise of Gold Coast
Nationalism, 1850-1928 (Oxford, 1963).
Korang, Kwaku L., Writing Ghana, Imagining Africa: Nation and African
Modernity (Rochester NY, 2003).
Moraes Farias, Paulo F. de, Self-Assertion and Brokerage: Early Cultural
Nationalism in West Africa (Birmingham, 1990).
Neale, Caroline, Writing Independent History: African Historiography,
1960-1980 (Westport CT, 1985).
Newbury, David, Contradictions at the Heart of the Canon: Jan Vansina
and the Debate over Oral Historiography in Africa, 1960-1985, History
in Africa 34 (2007), 213-54.
Paracka, Daniel J., The Athens of West Africa : A History of International
Education at Fourah Bay College, Freetown, Sierra Leone (New York,
2003).
Peterson, Derek, and Giacomo Macola (eds.), Recasting the Past: History
Writing and Political Work in Modern Africa (Athens OH, 2009).
Reindorf, Carl Christian, History of the Gold Coast and Asante: Based on
Traditions and Historical Facts, Comprising a Period of more than
Three Centuries from about 1500 to 1860 (Accra, 1895).
Sarbah, John M., Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise on the Con-
stitution and Government of the Fanti, Asanti, and other Akan Tribes of
West Africa (London, 1968).
Shaw, Rosalind, Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical
Imagination in Sierra Leone (Chicago, 2002).
Thornton, John K., Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World,
1400-1800 (Cambridge, 1998).
Literacy, Feedback, and the European Encounter in Elmina 101
Vansina, Jan, Oral Tradition: A Study in Historical Methodology (Chicago,
2006).
Wartemberg, J. Sylvanus, Sao Jorge dEl Mina: Premier West African
European Settlement: Its Tradition and Customs (Ilfracombe/Devon,
1950).
White, Luise, Stephan Miescher, and David W. Cohen (eds.), African
Words, African Voices: Critical Practices in Oral History (Blooming-
ton, 2001).
Wrigley, Christopher C., Historicism in Africa: Slavery and State Forma-
tion, African Affairs 279 (1971), 113-24.
Zachernuk, Philip S., African History and Imperial Culture in Colonial
Nigerian Schools, Africa 68 (1998), 484-505.