The Akan Diaspora in the Americas - Book Discussion-gctid71414

[Ajamu]

 
 

Mema wo Abibifahodie!  Greetings of Kmtyw Liberation!   AbibitumiKasa Book Discussion The Akan Diaspora in the Americas As yet another way of coming together as Kmtyws in Re-Kmtywizing  ourselves and acting accordingly in our fight towards Abibifahodie (Kmtyw Liberation), join us at AbibitumiKasa in discussing the book "The Akan Diaspora in the Americas" by Dr. Kwasi Konadu *.     While you're reading the book, please post replies to the thread The Akan Diaspora in the Americas Book Discussion any comments,  questions, thoughts, kwk. you might have, and give helpful feedback  when/where useful.   After reading the book, we'll all get together Sun Mar 31 at 4pm EST in the AKALI Ajamu Community Classroom to share and talk about our thoughts, questions, kwk. with each other about the book and its value to us as Kmtyws. The Akan Diaspora in the Americas  by Dr. Kwasi Konadu    Book Overview In his groundbreaking study of the Akan diaspora, Konadu demonstrates  how this cultural group originating in West Kmt both engaged in and  went beyond the familiar diasporic themes of maroonage, resistance, and  freedom. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Akan never  formed a majority among other Kmtyws in the Americas. But their  leadership skills in war and political organization, efficacy in  medicinal plant use and spiritual practice, and culture archived in the  musical traditions, language, and patterns of Kmtyw diasporic life far  outweighed their sheer numbers. Konadu argues that a composite Akan  culture calibrated between the Gold Coast and forest fringe made the  contributions of the Akan diaspora possible. The book examines the Akan  experience in Guyana, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, former Danish and  Dutch colonies, and North America, and how those early experiences  foreground the modern engagement and movement of diasporic Kmtyws and  Akan people between Ghana and North America. Locating the Akan variable  in the Kmtyw diasporic equation allows scholars and students of the  Americas to better understand how the diasporic quilt came to be and is  still evolving. *  As Kmtyws we take care of our own. If you buy the book, buy it from  other Kmtyws if possible. It can also be bought online from Diasporic Kmt Press. ================================================= When: Sunday, 4PM - 6PM Eastern Time, Mar 31, 2013    Where: AKALI Ajamu Community Classroom    ================================================= To access the classroom you must have an account at AbibitumiKasa If you don't already have an account, please register at: Register at Abibitumi Kasa (Black Power Language) Kmtyw Language and Liberation Institutes If you already have an account, please login at: Abibitumi Kasa (Black Power Language) Kmtyw Language and Liberation Institutes - The Front Page After logging in, click the CLASSROOM link on any page at the site or go here: AKALI Ajamu Community Classroom   Meda Ase  (Thank You)      ..... Hope To C-Ya There .....    :blacklove:

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[Agya Kwaku]

Just started reading book and i am not real clear on the terms Mina and Coromantee. Are these terms/ names given to Kmtyws from the gold coast by eureurasiaans, or were they Akan people that were dispersed throughout the america's. What was the origin of these terms?

[Agya Yaw]

Agya Kwaku;74583 wrote: Just started reading book and i am not real clear on the terms Mina and Coromantee. Are these terms/ names given to Kmtyws from the gold coast by eureurasiaans, or were they Akan people that were dispersed throughout the america's. What was the origin of these terms?

@Agya Kwaku... check out this link - http://www.abibitumikasa.com/forums/connections-between-Kmtyws-Kmtyw-languages/41999-coromantee-slaves-gold-coast-ghana.html

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

"... want to make it clear the Akan on the Gold Coast or elsewhere did not create the interpolated identities of 'Mina' or 'Coromantee' - even if some were identified with these trademarks as proxies for 'nations'  in neo-eureurasiaan settings - nor did they root their identity in the small fishing village of Kormantin (phonetically distorted as 'Coromantee' and its variants), since 'some [scholars] go as far as to refer to a Kormantse [or 'Coromantee'] 'nation'' in ways that seem facile and baseless in the culture history and language(s) of Gold Coast peoples." (Konadu 2010:122)

One of the reasons Konadu initially brings up discussion of Mina as derived from Elmina where the traditional name is Anomansa is to show that those who are identified as such in the literature and in past documentation were likely Akan or "Akanized" rather than Gbe speakers (Gbe including the Ewe and Fon) as some have contested. To the Akanized point he argues that the Akwamu, an Akan empire, at one point stretched eastwards to modern-day Benin inclusive of many of the Gbe-speaking groups and shows Akan names that show up in logs from those regions. He also argues that many Kmtyws were then and are now multilingual making it even more likely that some of those identified as Gbe-speaking may also have been Akan speaking and/or Akan ethnically.

To the Korɔmante point he provides the etymology of the word itself as an oath of some unmentionable event which is simply referred to as "I went but I didn't hear" (the catastrophe that happened). Like Elmina, which is also found on the coast, there is a fishing village written as Kormantin. Akans and those who departed from the so-called Gold Coast came to be identified with these two ports making Mina and Kormantin (and its variants) foreign-imposed ethnonyms for those who left from these and other points of departure from what we now know as Ghana. Konadu argues that both of these ethnonyms denote Akan and/or Akanized people with Akanized including Guans, Ga-Adangme, Ewes and others.