essay
Political and military roles of Akan women
Female and male in West Africa • London • Published In 1983 • Pages: 91-98
By: Arhin, Kwame.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article, Arhin discusses the political and associated military organization of the Akan and women's roles within them. Arhin writes that ‘Female stools complemented the hierarchy of male stools.’ Women had a place in the village and town councils and participated in legislative and judicial processes. The chief's wife, OHEMMA, had her own oath, court, and spokesman. She was also the foremost authority on genealogies and therefore played a major role in chiefly succession. Political marriage was an important strategy in uniting the Asante empire. Women played a supportive role in war, encouraging their men on by performing dances and songs behind the lines. One Asante heroine precipitated the 1900 British siege of Kumasi by defying the British governor's demand to take the Golden Stool.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Status, role, and prestige
- Clans
- Towns
- Chief executive
- Military organization
- Gender roles and issues
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Akan
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Scientist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ;1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- Not Specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1700-1900
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Ashanti; Ghana
- NotesAdditional notes
- Kwame Arhin
- For bibliographical references see source 56: Anonymous
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 82020767
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Akan (African people)