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The Royal African Society

The Akan Concept of the Soul Author(s): Sam K. Akesson Source: African Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 257 (Oct., 1965), pp. 280-291 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/720117 . Accessed: 06/10/2011 23:55
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The Akan Concept of the Soul


by Sam K. Akesson
AN'S STRUGGLE to understandhimself is universal. From primitive man to modern man, from ancient civilization to our modern rocketry, man has attempted to explore the mystery of the "self " within him, awarethat the physical substancedoes not explain his mysterious essence. Science has practically brought nature under man's control by penetrating into the many mysteries of his physical being; yet, despite the advances science has made, it has not in any way been able to say what the soul is. Surgeons can draw blood from many parts of the body, but no surgeon has made a soul bleed or heard it expostulate,as Dante has. Physicists have devised formulae for the vast and for the infinitesmal, able to harness nuclear energy and to measure the weight of an atom, but they have not attempted, as Plato has, to formulate or probe the indwelling spirit. The quest for the soul will probably never come into the province of science. The answers of Christian theology, as of other religions, are enshrined in mystery. Christian theology has refined man's ideas of pagan antiquity, especially in its notions of the effects upon the soul of sin and its consequences; but the mystery still remains, for the Christianexplanationof the ' soul does not say exactly what the 'personality" of the soul is. The old primitive belief that a soul has the personality of its owner, but can be separatedfrom the body (as experiencedin a dream), and that it is indestructible and survives and lives on forever when the organs of the body no longer function, is still a view widely, if not universally,held. This study intends to present the concept of the soul as propounded by the Akans of Ghana and to show the influence of this concept on the life and thought of the Akan peoples. The belief in immortality, in the soul's survival after death, is a concept Akans do not repudiate. It is natural for the Akan to hold the concept because the belief in immortality has its very origin in the word the Akan uses for soul. The Akan term for soul, KRA or OKRA (meaning " goodbye ") reflects the origin of the concept. Leaving aside for the moment the Akan idea that the souls of new-born children are either emanations of ancestral souls or reincarnatedformer lives, I would like us to examine further the connotations of the "goodbye" which attend the Akan word KRA for the soul of man. According to the Akan, the soul (KRA or OKRA) of a man existed with Nyame, God, long before it became incarnated. This soul may be the soul or the spirit of a kinsman or sometimes of another person, but one who belongs to the same tribe. In the past, marriage was strictly endogamous among Akans; therefore, if a child did not resemble somebody who died in the kinship group, that child might be regarded as a reincarnateof the husband's (the father's) kinship group. (My oldest daughter, for example,

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is believed to have the characteristicsof my paternal aunt.) Whatever line the soul may have come from, that soul existed with Nyame, God, and the day a person is born is the day on which he takes upon himself the human frame in order to make his existence real in the physical world of man. According to Christaller "when he [the soul] is thus dismissed in heaven, he takes with him his errand, i.e. his destination or future fate is fixed beforehand; from this the name KRA or OKRA seems to be drawn. In life the KRA is considered partly as a separate being, distinct from the person, who protects him (ME KRA DI MAKYI), gives him good or bad advice, causes his undertakingsto prosper or slights and neglects him and, therefore, in the case of prosperity, receives thanks and thank-offeringslike a fetish. When the person is about to die, the KRA leaves him gradually, before he breathes his last, but may be called or drawn back. When he has entirely left (whereby the person dies), he is no more called KRA, but SESA or OSAMANG."' In whatever way the concept might be explained, the general belief is that the soul is not the body one sees; it is a separate entity whose anatomicalenthronementthe Akan is not definite nor is he clear in his mind what the anatomy of the soul is. The best the Akan can say is that the soul permeatesthe system as if it were a drink of whisky.' The soul is a stuff of some kind; it is in the blood; in the breath; in the hair; in the finger and toe clippings ; it is in every part of the human body. To the Akan the soul is a life-force which animates the body; it is that which makes man a living person. If an Akan baby starts to yawn, his mother makes a funny, glottal sound to attract the soul to stay. Sometimes the mother gently covers the gaping mouth of the baby to keep the soul from taking its leave. Shouts are never allowed where children are resting. Shouts are believed to scare away or make the souls of children flee. Though the KRA is invisible, it is known through the activities of the living person. The nature of the soul is determined by the characterand the actions of the living person. Maxims such as ME KRA NNYE, which literally means "I have a bad soul" (I am not lucky), or ME KRA AYEW ME HO, meaning "my soul has fled away from me " when one becomes petrified with fear, are indicationsof the activities of the soul at such times. The label by which Nyame knows the living Akan is the natal name the person bears. A natal name is, therefore, the secret name an Akan would, in the past, not divulge to anyone. Since the soul of the living Akan existed with Nyame long before it became incarnated and since God is his father, for in the Akan concept of humanity it is only a father who gives names to children, the living Akan has the personality, the substance of Nyame's immortality. The Akan proverb NIPA NYINA YE YAME MMA OBI NYE ASASE BA meaning" All men are Onyame'soffspring; no one is the offspring SDictionary of the ASANTE and FANTI Language by the late Rev. J. G. Christaller (Second Edition). 2 William Howells, The Heathens.

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of earth " or NYAME NWU NA M'AWU or NYAME BEWU NA MA WU meaning "If God could die, I would die,"3 is a justificationof the nature of immortalitythe Akan believes in. Dream-life may be said to be a contribution to the concept of the immortality Akans hold. Dead friends and relatives reappearto the Akan in dreams. In his dream-lifethe Akan holds conversation with his dead relative but "this conception of a posthumous life to the experiences of dreams"' is only additional fact to make the primary factor, the " goodbye " concept-the pre-existence concept--more positive, more real and meaningful. Days are not only a measure of time by which Akans are able to reckon weeks into months and months into years. They are not only the means by which the Akan determineshis age, but they are like gateways or entrances through which the soul of the Akan takes his place in the arena of the living people. Each day has, therefore, a specific name for the Akan according to the day on which he entered the world through birth. As already indicated, that name is not only secret but is also sacred, for it is the name the Akan worships; it is the name by which the Akan is known to Nyame and the gods, the tutelar deities. In the past, when Christianitywas first introduced in Ghana, candidates for baptism were given names from the Bible. Those names were names by which pastors and members of the Christiancommunity called the people. Many Akan Christians,in these days, prefer to go by their clan names, last names. The natal name an Akan bears is his godly or religious name, so to speak. The natal name carries similar meaning as the name a Christian may bear. There are seven souls (or natal names) corresponding to the seven days of the week. Like the names in the Bible, each natal name has a strong appellation or honorific. I was born on Thursday. My natal name is YAO (YAW) or KWAW and I am a child of Jupiter (THOR, JOVE). My honorificis ABERAWwhich signifies STRENGTH. I cite below the table of natal names and their significancein Akan life and thought :'
Day English Sunday Monday Tuesday Akan Kwasida Dwoda Benada Male Kwasi Kwadwo Kwabena Kwaku Natal Name Female Akosua Adwoa Abena Akua Tutelar Awusi Awa Abena (ben) Aku (Okuning) Aberaw Afi Amen Honorific **Child of

AkanSense ClassicSense Sun (under) the sun moon peace fire or heat Mars (war) fame strength growth Most ancient (seasoned) Mercurywoden) Jupiter(Thor)(Jove) Venus (Freya) Saturn(Amonof Egypt)

Wednesday Wukuda Thursday Friday Saturday Yaoda Fida Memenda

Yao (Yaw) Yaa Afua Kofi Ama Kwame

3J. B. Danquah, The Akan Doctrine of God.

SWilliamHowells, The Heathens. 5J. B. Danquah, The Akan Doctrine of God.

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There is more to the natal means than one might imagine. Each of the natal day names has its own attributeor secret name. The Akan is addressed on the talking drums or on the horns during religious ceremonies by his secret name and not his clan name or surname. My surname is AKA which the missionary who baptized me when I was an infant unfortunately Anglicized into Akesson. The suffix " son" indicates that I am the son of AKA. At a religious ceremony I would not be addressed as AKA, for that is the name created for me by the living. I would be addressed by my secret name YAO (or YAW) and its appropriate attribute PEREKO, "The Aggressor" or " Eager for War ". A natal name is the name with which an Akan comes into the world from the spirit-world of Nyame. It is the name which belongs to the soul of the Akan. It is the name with which the soul of the Akan could be conjured or harmed by his enemy. The following is the list of the attributes: 1. Sunday child KWASI is known as BODUA, " Tail of the Beast." 2. Monday child KWADWO is known as OKOTO, " Suppliant." 3. Tuesday child KWABENA is known as OGYAM, "The Compassionate." 4. Wednesdaychild KWAKU is known as NTONI, "Champion " or " Vicarious Hero ". 5. Thursday child YAW is known as PEREKO, " The Aggressor" or " Eager for War." 6. Friday child KOFI is known as OKYIN, " Wanderer." 7. Saturdaychild KWAME is known as ATOAPOMA, " Ever-Ready Shooter" and also OTUNANKADURO, "Maker of Serpent's Antidote." The fact of immortality, as the evidence of Akan religion shows, is well established in the relationship between each natal day name (each soul) and its correspondingdeity. The incapriciousnessand the constancy of the cycle of the days of the week may have contributed to the knowledge of which Akans are aware that death is not a complete but a temporary annihilation or cessation of life. We have seen that there are seven human souls in the Akan world for either sex. We have also seen that the souls of new-born children are largely those of the ancestral souls. In other words, souls are emanations of dead kinsmen or those souls themselves reincarnated. " But ", as ErmileDurkheim has stated, " in order that they may either reincarnatethemselves, or periodically give off new emanations, they must have survived their first holders." We would surmise, therefore, that Akans explain the existence of the living by postulating the theory of the survival of the dead. Since there are seven souls for each group of sex, Akan God does not appear to be able to create additionalsouls out of nothing.

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Ridiculous as this may seem, does it not indicate a completion of creation which the Bible story of Creation affirms? Almost every creature repeats itself in one way or the other. In the animal world each species either repeats itself or becomes extinct through some natural catastrophyor through uncontrolledhunting (of game animals) for human consumption. In the plant world each species of plant repeats itself. Akans who are born into the Akan world can only be those who have existed before; "they are new forms of those who have been."' Put briefly, the belief in the immortalityof the soul, as is held by Akans, explains a major factor in Akan life; it is the concept which explains the perpetuity of the clan, the tribe. Individuals may die, but that does not affect the group ; the clan lives on; it survives death. Death, to the Akan, is incapable of making void the existence of the Akan clan, for "though the group may not be immortal in the absolute sense of the word, still it is true that it endures longer than the individuals and that it is born and incarnatedafresh in each new generation."' According to the Akan all AKRA, souls, are equal in quality, in substance, and in form for all AKRA come from one source, NYAME. But when the KRA enters the world of the living he assumes a physical and social role appropriatefor him in the Akan tribal or clan hierarchy. That KRA could be NANA, PROGENITOR or grandfather. Since there is a hierarchy in Akan life, it is obvious that all Akra are not equal in status. Akans, therefore, distinguish between two sorts of souls, namely, the souls of those of the ancestors and those AKRA of individuals who may die without ascending to the throne created for the post of NANA. These latter souls compose the active body of the clan, the tribe in the life and history of Akan peoples. The souls of Nananom, ancestors,survive death; they live on forever for they are uncreated. They do not perish for they live in the shrines (clan-stools). The living Akan serve them with food and drink and worship them. According to the doctrine of the Akan, each soul upon departing from the living, i.e. upon death, returns to God by whose permission he came to live among the living. In other words, each Akan soul goes back to the source from which he came, but not all souls live on forever after they have thus reported themselves to Nyame. A maternal cousin of mine died about ten years ago. He left behind him three children (sons) and nephews and nieces in the maternal line, but never have I seen any of them offering him a drink of wine. My cousin did not rise to the office of Nana; therefore, since he is not remembered by the living he is extinct. Akans make their supplications to the spirit of ancestors; those souls who held positions in the hierarchy of Akan life. The following pattern of Akan prayer explains more fully what I have indicated above :
6

'

Emile Durkheim, ElementaryForms of Religious Life. Ibid.

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" TwaduampongKwame, Begye nsa nom. Nananomnsamanfo, Mommegyensa nom. Asase Yaa, Begye nsa nom, etc., etc."

" God on whom men lean And do not fall ; Whose day is Saturday, Receive this wine and drink. Spirits of the ancestors, Receive this wine and drink. Spirit of the Earth goddess. Receive this wine and drink, etc., etc."

The soul of the individual non-Nana is not mentioned in the prayer. In supporting the importance of the immortality of the ancestors, Emilie Durkheim writes that the ancestors " are the only ones whose immortalityis necessary to explain the permanenceof the group ; for it is upon them, and upon them alone, that it is incumbent to assure the perpetuity of the clan, for every conception is their work."' Emile Durkheim goes on to say that "in this connection, the others have no part to play. So souls are not said to be immortal except in so far as this immortality is useful in rendering intelligible the continuity of the collective life."' This is the extent to which Akan sociological aspect of the soul can go. We will now try to examine another important feature of the soul, namely, the conscious and the subconscious personality aspects. In our examination of the Akan concept of immortality we saw that in Akan theology the soul has some of the spiritual substance of the Supreme Being, Nyame, for the word KRA which connotes "goodbye " has its origin in the pre-existence concept the Akan has of the soul. Since Nyame is perfect, the perfection of the soul before entering into the material world, through birth, is well established. The following Akan expression establishes the fact of God's perfection : ODOMANKOMA BOO ADEE NO, KRONKRON ABOO NO KRKRONKRON By translation this means " The Creator (God) created the " thing" holy (perfect)." The inference is that because Nyame is himself perfect, he could not create anything imperfect. The " thing" to which the Maxim refers is the KRA, the soul. The Akan concept of man seems to run parallel to the Hebrew conception of man, namely, that " God breathed into the nostrils of man and man became a living soul." What seems to be obscure in the Akan concept of man is the origin of the human body into which the Okra enters. In the Hebrew account of creation it is clearly stated in Genesis 2 :7 that God made man out of clay. In other words, the origin of the human body is accounted for even though it is not accepted as scientific fact. It does seem, however, that the world of the ancestors has all the
8 Emile Durkheim, ElementaryForms of Religious Life. 9Ibid.

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bodies of dead kinsmen and the soul of the Akan who is given permission by Nyame enters into one of those bodies to reappear or take his abode among the living. Whatever way one may explain the origin of the Akan concept of the human body, one thing is clear. Like the Hebrews, Akans postulate that man is composed of three elements : the HONAM (the body), the SUNSUM (the spirit, personality, the ego), and the KRA (or OKRA), the soul. Of the trichotomythe first is most distinguishable,namely, the body. But the distinction between the KRA and the SUNSUM is not quite clear nor is it easy to follow. The origin and meaning of the Soul is well established in the connotations of "goodbye" for the KRA's departure from Nyame. That the KRA is closely bound to the human body and that it is ordinarily a prisoner there in the body but at the same time is profoundly distinct from it since it can enjoy a large degree of independence, is what Akans believe. But when we come to examine the activities of the KRA and the SUNSUM there we find Akans using the two terms interchangeablyand synonymously. However, the following hypothesis throws some light on the distinction between the life-soul (the KRA) and the personality-soul(the SUNSUM) in the minds of Akans. We stated earlier that the KRA is closely connected with the parts of the organs of the body especially the blood. This is true of the Akans of Ghana who inherit through the matrilinealline and thereforebelong to the ABUSUA or the blood-clan-the vessel of the KRA. With this assumption, there is found a distinction between the KRA and the SUNSUM. The latter seems to be a functional element after the KRA has taken its residence in man. The Sunsum, in a sense, belongs to or exists in the material world and it become a functional part of man only when man has become a living soul. Sunsum is therefore a conscious counterpartof the soul of the Akan. KRA is worshipped; is given offerings. Among some of the Akan tribes each person has an altar for his KRA. Sunsum is not worshipped. Sunsum is that part of the Akan which fights the evils which try to contaminate the KRA. Sunsum tries to conquer the weaknessesto which the Akan is exposed. This, as Dr. Danquah observes, leads "to the Akan postulate of the Okara as standing over and other than the Sunsum, the one in the spiritual world readyto enter the personalityfor heightenedmental action, the other, (Sunsum) in the material world, charged with the duty of preparing for the entry of the Okara-To the Akan, then, Sunsum is a form of consciousnessor embodies one, but it is very partial and inadequate expression of the full capacities of the Okarawho, or which, remainsbeneath or above the gates of consciousness ever waiting for the door to be opened for entry."'0 In his description of the Sunsum, Dr. Busia writes, "A man's Sumsum is his ego, his personality, his distinctive character-a father transmits his Sunsum to the child; this is what moulds the child's personality and disposition-the Sunsum (is) the personal power, the cast of countenance, or

toJ. B. Danquah : Akan Doctrine of God.

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personalityof man." In Akan psychology, therefore, the life-soul comes from the Abusua, the blood-clan of the maternal ancestors of the Akan and the personality-soul, the Sunsum, from the father. Rattray defines the Akan personality-soulin these words : the Sunsum is "that spiritual element in a man or woman upon which depends not life, i.e. breath, for that is the KRA-but that force, personal magnetism, character,personality,power, soul, call it what you will, upon which depend health, wealth, worldly power, success in any venture, in fact, everything that makes life worth living."" The following Akan expressions throw more light on what Akans conceive to be the Sunsum, the personality-soul. If a person has a " strong personality" the Akan says : "NE SUNSUM YE DURU " meaning his personality-soul is heavy or " NE SUNSUM YE DEN " meaning his personality-soulis strong. The feeble, frail physique of a person is an indication of a weak KRA but not a weak personality-soul. The well being of the Akan depends, to a large extent, on the right relationship between the KRA, the life-soul, and the SUNSUM, the personality-soul. If there is a conflict between the two, in other words, if the equilibrium is disturbed as a result of a sinful act or wrong-doing, the life-soul may decide to evacuate its casket. I have known some Akans who have withered or pined away because of a disturbed conscience. A little worry, some mental disturbance is sure to make the Akan become ill. The awareness the Akan has of the purity of the KRA makes him become sensitive to wrong-doing. Dr. Debrunner has concluded that "anger, bitterness, and resentment against others, especially if allowed to rankle without finding speech, are commonly recognized causes of illness. It is believed to be hopeless to expect health in the presence of rancorous thoughts. That some consciences are tenderer than others is expressed by saying that if a man has a good KRA and he disgraces it, he often dies.""2 I propose now to make a comparison among the three spiritual entities in the Akan world of thought. It is interesting to note that Akans confine the KRA only to human beings. Animals have organs like men; they have blood ; they breathe; and in many respects they act as human beings ; yet, Akans do not ascribe souls to animals. These attributes, personality-souland life-soul, belong to the realm of human beings only. But, as we shall presently see, animals have SASA and the SASA concept is shared by man also. 'Sasa ", writes Rattray, " is the invisible spiritual power of a person or animal, which disturbs the mind of the living, or works a spell or mischief upon them, so that they suffer in various ways. Persons who are always taking life have to be particularlycareful to guard against Sasa influence, and it is among them that its action is mainly seen, e.g. among executioners, hunters, butchers and, as a later development-among sawyers-who cut down the What the psychologist great forest trees (believed to be abodes of spirits).""3

: 11Rattray
12

Ashanti, p. 46. Dr. Debrunner, Witchcraftin Ghana. 3Rattray: Ashanti.

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would label as remorse which might make a murderer confess to the crime he committed the Akan would attribute a similar effect to the influence of the Sasa spirit of the murdered. The Sasa of a deceased person is that part of his spirit which is conscious of the cause or nature of his death. As I have already mentioned, the Sasa spirit is hostile to the living, and until the appropriatemedicine or fetish has been applied, the Sasa of the deceased is believed to haunt this "enemy ", the murderer. As a matter of fact, Sasa has no form like a ghost-soul which we shall presently examine. Sasa causes the remorsewhich comes upon the person who shed the blood of his neighbour or killed the big wild game, namely, the Elephant, the Bongo, the Lion or the Leopard, or felled the great forest tree, e.g., the Odum or Odii tree which is believed to be the abode of a tutelar deity. It is the source of the uncanny feeling which incapacitatesthe executioner,the murderer,or the hunter. The feeling brings dread in its train and very often makes one collapse or makes one go made, or commit suicide. The Akan expression, NE SASA ANNYA NO, meaning, literally, "his revengeful spirit has got him or his Sasa has renderedhim weak ", describes the inability of the " enemy" to exert himself on account of the strange atmospherethe Sasa spirit has produced. We have examined this part of the Akan concept of the spirit in order to show the importanceof the KRA concept which is the propertyof man alone. In our discussion of the Akan concept of man we saw that Akans believe that man has a triple nature. In life, an Akan is Kra (soul), Sunsum (personality-soul), and Honam (the body). Upon death when the Kra becomes disincarnated the Akan becomes Osamang with ethereal body. The three aspects, namely, Kra, Sunsum, and Osamang of man have slight shades of difference. In the first, the life-force, Kra, returns to Nyame from whence it come as soon as man ceases to breathe. Kra is not like the Sunsum, the personality-soul which, though residing in the body may leave at will and have independent experience in free space as in dream-adventures. The life-soul does not seem to have influence over other souls as the Sunsum. In its terrestrial life the main function of the KRA is to animate man to function and to enable him to accomplishhis daily tasks. Since the vegetative organism of man is the garb for the KRA, the KRA is the great reservoir of strength, the life-principle which makes the body capable of casting a shadow upon the reflection of the sun, the moon, or a light. The KRA, therefore, makes the individuality of the Akan recognizable; hence, it is forbidden to tread upon, or to hit, or to harm or disturb the shadow of the Akan. A shadow is not a reflection of the human frame but is Sunsum, a spirit, and thereforehas the senses and is susceptible to pain. The Sunsum, the duplicate of the body of the Akan, ceases to be a shadow when the vegetative organism cease to function. The Sunsum then becomes actualizedthrough the ethereal body, the ghost-body. Upon the death of the Akan, the Sunsum does no longer depend upon the body for its existence. A ghost-soul is therefore the Sunsum with an ethereal body; it is believed to be the exact form of the human body of the deceased. Put briefly, Osamang is an aparition,a spectre, and is a name used for the activities of the dead but not the living person.

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But considering the existence of the spirits of the ancestors, it appears Akans ascribe to them not only ethereal bodies, but the exact corporeal structure which was visible to the living when they were in the material world. This accountsfor the reason why food and drink are offered to them. In his account of the ancestors, Dr. Danquah writes : " it is upon the standardof morality set by the manner of life of the good spirit, called Nana, that members of his family and his descendants look for guidance in that moral life. It is also to this spirit that offeringsare made, for whom purification ceremonies are performed, to whom prayers are directed, librations poured and mashed yams offered." Westermandescribes ancestor worship in the following way: " not only do those who have died live again; they live together as they did here, and so the whole community is guaranteed survival in death, as are individuals who make it up. Much more than this, however, ancestor worship puts before the people the importanceof their community life-it makes them feel that their ancestors are interested in them, and in what they are each doing to maintain the village; it presents them with a means of feeling the importance of responsibility and the goodwill of each man for the common weal."" The belief in the materiality of the ghost-soul is evident in the conscious awareness of the physical activities the living Akan has of the departed. It is gratifying to note that the disembodied soul is not ostracised from nor forgotten by the society to which he belonged when he was in the materialworld nor is he regardedas alien in his new sphere of existence. The departed is a citizen of the new world, the ghost-world, as well as the old, the world of the living Akans. He is believed to have knowledge of his past and of his descendants,for he benefits from their ministrations. This pervades the popular thought of the Akans. In the preceding discussion, it was shown that Akans appear to be clear in distinguishing between the KRA, the life-soul and the ghost-soul, Osamang. The KRA is the impersonal, vital basis of life which comes directly from Nyame and which retracesits steps back to God when it is disembodied. When the KRA becomes liberated from the body, the Sunsum, the personality-soul or the spirit, the duplicate of the animated body, becomes a personal factor actualized in the material body of which he was the shadow at one time. The Sunsum thus becomes Osamang, a ghost-soul. It enjoys two powers, namely, bodily (material) and ethereal (inmaterial) powers. It enjoys, not partially, but the whole of the mental faculties with which the living person is endowed. In that capacity the Sunsum is less substantial and less strictly subject to limitations of time and space. The Akan word OSAMANG is descriptive of the privileged powers which death grants the ghost-soul of the deceased Akan. Th2 root word SA means "to run after "; the suffix MANG means " the body of inhabitantsof a country united under the same govern4 Westerman

: The African Today and Tomorrow.

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ment, a nation,tribe, people or state."'"The name OSAMANGcould be understood the personfrom the body of inhabitants as who run after the violatorof the customs. The prefix"0 " is the thirdpersonsingular the in Akangrammar.The ghost-souls the spiritsof the dead watchthe affairs or of the state with keen eyes, and it is well knownthat they do not let a who may breaka taboo go unpunished.Literally memberof a community runs after those who violatethe customslaid down by speaking, Osamang the ancestors. Dr. Danquah's of of conception ASAMAN(HADES) description the Akans' the clarifies detailthe stateof the Nether-world, natureof its citizens,and in the extent of their influence." Death", writesDr. Danquah," is a painful from an unhappymaterial world to a spiritualghostly processof transition world called ASAMAN (HADES); equallyunhappy,but where the unhappinessis renderedtolerableby thz enhancedfreedomof thought and that a man was subject power. In Asamanthere is the self-samemonarchy to when clad in his mortalself, and a persondies only to find his immortal whose successorshad self in the clutchesof those judges and magistrates of and ruledhim when clothedin that outergarment the soul. It is judged to easy, according Akanbelief,for the spiritof a deadpersonto demandthe presenceof a living personin Asasamfor the settlementof an outstanding betweenthem; it is easy, in due season,for spiritsto materialize controversy with their living relationsin either a bodily form or in and communicate an invisiblebut audiblespiritual phenomenon- . The spiritsof the dead and over the will and thoughtsof the living (ateasefo), they can havepowers eitherdirecta living personto mischief,preventa living personfrom doing fromfallinginto impending of or mischief, guardthe footsteps a livingrelation danger."'" The traditional part of man is concept of the soul as the supernatural held by men of almostevery religion. What is peculiarto the Akan widely which the soul, the KRA, undergoesto becomea conceptis the transition the to to and ghost-soul still continues give guidance the ATEASEFO, living, of the in the new capacity, etherealform,he assumes. The introduction the into Honam(body), Sunsum(spirit),and of humanpersonality trichotomy if KRA (life-soul)makesthe Akanconcepta soundtheological not scientific the theory. Despite its corporeality, ghost-soulis capable of displaying
vanishing feats according to the Akan belief. This requires further examination. In life, the KRA clads itself with the earthly garment, the body. Without the vegetative organism, the KRA does not exist. In life, therefore, the lifesoul uses the body for its activities; hence, it is a distinct entity, separate from the body. But upon the death of the Akan the KRA discards the veil " J. G. Christaller,Dictionary of ASANTI and FANTI LANGUAGE, Second Edition.
't Dr. Danquah, The Gold Coast Akan.

THE AKAN CONCEPT OF THE SOUL

291

and the Sunsum, the shadow, which is a reflection of the body in life, replaces it. This Sunsum, the ghost-soul, does not inhabit the body, is not a separate entity distinct from the body as the KRA, but has a dualistic personality,a two-fold entity, namely ethereal and corporeal. In other words, the dualism of man, physical and spiritual, does not break down at death. The Akan is still a dual personality : body and soul (with the spirit as the " child " of the soul in life) and ghost-spirit at death. Upon the death of the Akan the body ceases to be the veil of the soul; the body becomes energized with ethereal substance capable of making its entrance into or exit from closed doors. Is this awareness Akans have of the ghost-soul not a projection of their own imagination motivated by the impressions made on them by the dead while in the flesh ? The fact that the dead appears to his relations in the consanguine group and to those who knew him intimately is, to me, an indication that the whole phenomenon of the soul's becoming ethereal substance with a corporealbody is a projectionmade possible by the impressions the dead made on the living. The life span is three score and ten; therefore, human beings live a long time. In the orbit of man's life, the combination of the qualities of characterand mind, the personality,does not cease to make itself felt by impressing upon the sympathies of those of his equals and those relations of his with whom he shares traditional beliefs. The constancy of man's relationshipwith friends and relatives make the latter adapt themselves to his familiar form-they may either love or hate him according to how his disposition may be. Death suddenly breaks the relationship and makes the effect on his circle not merely a sorrowful one but a real psychological amputation. The family, the clan, the whole group loses the protection it enjoyed and the security it got from the deceased kin. The Akan expression : ODUPON ATUTU meaning "The great tree is fallen" is descriptive of the feeling of hopelessness and loss which the death of the Akan brings upon the people. The elaborate and lengthy funeral ceremony prolongs the feeling of bereavementpreoccupyingthe bereaved with the one who has disappeared. This preoccupationso works upon the imagination of the bereaved that the bereaved feel the disembodied presence. "The body ", writes Howell, "no matter how beautifully it might be mummified, is no real comfort; what we have lost is the person himself. It is practically beyond belief that anything so alive as his personality, so highly organized, so valuable to us, perhaps so learned or so gifted, has in a moment disintegrated. Somehow it must still exist, as it was. We abhor to think otherwise.""

"1 William Howell, The Heathens, pp. 146 - 147.

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