Great Akan

Great Akan, also known as Arcania, Haccany, Acanny, Accanisten, Arcany, Akan Kingdom, Kingdom of Akkanez, or the Kingdom of the Akani, refers to a 15th–17th century complex of inland polities in what is now southern Ghana, described in early Portuguese and Dutch sources. The polities were united by shared language, religious beliefs, and gold-based commerce.

"Arcania" is interpreted by historians as a European term for the Akan-speaking gold producers of the Ofin, Pra, and Birim basins. The existence of Akani in European and African sources has led to different interpretations.^[1] Some historians describe Akani as a loose trading confederation.^[2][3] Others argue it may once have been a unified inland kingdom that later fragmented into distinct polities under both external and internal pressures.^[4][5][6]

In Twi, the word Akan-ni means “an Akan person,” formed from Akan plus the suffix -ni (person). The plural form is Akanfoɔ (“Akan people”), using the suffix -foɔ (people), which also appears in names like Eguafo (“people of Egwa/Komenda”) and Twifo (“Twi-speaking people”).^[7]

K. Y. Daaku recorded in 1969 that Adanse informants explained Akan as “the Twi-speaking people.” When asked why the term Akanfoɔ (“Akans”) was preferred over Twifoɔ (“Twis”), they replied: “after God created the earth, he created the Akans. Thus Akan signifies people.” In Twi the root kan means “first,” so Akanfoɔ literally translates as “the first people.” In the nineteenth-century Gold Coast this was often rendered in English as “pioneers” or “aborigines.”^[8]

The earliest European reference to the Akan appears in the writings of Portuguese navigator Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who, between 1505 and 1508, identified the Haccanys among various interior merchant groups in his geographical treatise Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis. He writes:

“The merchants belong to various tribes: the Bremus, Haccanys, Boroes, Mandinguas, Cacres, Andese, or Souzos… They bring their gold to be bartered at the Castle of São Jorge da Mina and at the fortress of Axem.”^[9]

These groups are believed to correspond to interior communities involved in the early gold trade. "Bremus" refers to Abrem, "Haccanys" to the Akan, "Boroes" to the Bono, "Mandinguas" to the Mandinka, "Cacres" to Akrokerri, and "Andese" or "Souzos" to Adansi.^[10] J. D. Fage’s similar analysis further aligns "Cacres" with Inkassa (Akrokerri) and identifies the "Souzos" as possibly Jalonke or Soso.^[11]

Early records confirm that the Haccanys (Akan) were already leading inland gold traders before the construction of forts like São Jorge da Mina.^[4] By 1515, Portuguese records from Elmina document sustained trade with Akani merchants. In 1517 and 1519, envoys from the inland king arrived at the coast, followed by reciprocal gifts in 1520, reflecting formal diplomatic ties.^[11][12] Around the same period, an Akani merchant named João Serrão, allied with the king of Fetu, led a revolt aiming to expel the Portuguese from the coast.^[13]

By 1548, sources described "civil wars among the Akani," indicating awareness of multiple competing factions or states within the region. Mid-16th-century sources recognized territories such as Nkran (Accra) and surrounding regions as part of what they called “Cara” or “Akani.” A 1557 letter by Governor Afonso Gonçalves Botafogo distinguished the coast into two zones: from Axim to Elmina, and from Elmina inland toward “Cara,” a term used for the Akani interior.^[14] Multiple references were made to inland rulers known as "kings of the Acane Grandes and Acane Pequenos," reflecting early European awareness of political fragmentation within the Akani world.^[15] Dutch records from the early 1600s continued to identify the inland Adanse territories as key centers of commerce and leadership.^[16]

In 1602 the Dutch trader and writer Pieter de Marees documented one of the earliest Dutch descriptions of the inland Akani, which he refers to as the Accanisten.

In his accounts, Marees describes the Accanisten as dominant inland intermediaries who regulated gold trade routes between Elmina and other coastal forts. He emphasizes their cultural sophistication, observing that the inland Accanist language served as the basis for "Fantijnsch" (Fante), which was widely spoken on the coast — a detail that underscores their linguistic and cultural prestige. Their chiefs, he notes, traveled with adorned swords, wore gold jewelry, and were accompanied by servants. Compounds were organized with reed fences, courtyards, and symbolic stools, illustrating early signs of political centralization. These descriptions are reinforced by Marees’ accompanying illustrations, which portray inland nobles with gold regalia, ceremonial swords, and woven attire.^[17][18]

By the early 17th century, Dutch cartographers had begun refining their understanding of the Gold Coast interior. A 1629 map distinguishes three inland labels, "Akan", "Acanij", and "Great Acanij". Adu Boahen interprets these labels to refer, respectively, to Akyem Kotoku, Assin, and Akyem Abuakwa.^[19]

By the late 17th century, the label "Akani" (also rendered Arcany or Accany) became increasingly associated with the Assin state, particularly the polity centered at Kushea under the leadership of Agyensam.^[20] The Akani War of 1693–96 began as a conflict between Assin and Etsi (also known as Cabess Terra), but quickly expanded into a broader regional struggle as the inland Assin sought to secure trade access to the coast.

When Fetu, allegedly influenced by the Dutch, blocked Assin merchants from reaching Cape Coast, the Assin allied with Asebu and received military assistance from the English at Cape Coast Castle. Their forces invaded Fetu, expelled the pro-Dutch king, and installed a new ruler loyal to the English.^[21] Despite this apparent victory, conflict with Etsi continued for another two years, disrupting trade routes and drawing in Fante allies on the side of Assin.^[22]

The war culminated in 1696 with the formal submission of Etsi to Fante leadership. In a diplomatic ceremony at Mankessim, Etsi rulers swore never to obstruct inland traders or act independently of Fante authority.^[23] This agreement ended the conflict and secured Assin merchants' access to the coast, affirming the growing military and commercial influence of both the Assin and the Fante during the late 17th century.

The largest of the Akani states was Adanse, located north of the Ofin and Pra rivers. In Akan cosmology, the Adanse region is also where the deity Odomankoma began the creation of the world and the formation of clans, kinship structures, and political customs.^[24][25] Many of the Akan ruling clans trace their lineage to settlements such as Adansemanso, Akrokerri, Ayaase, Ahensan, Dompoase, and Sodua.^[6][3] After a major conflict in 1657–1658 with Denkyira, Adanse became a vassal state, and lost control of its gold supplies ^[26]

Akyem was identified as Great Akani on the 1629 Dutch map and was regarded by traders as a wealthy inland state. ^[27] During the seventeenth century, Akyem did not function as a unified polity. Its leadership became unstable, and was divided between two states, Abuakwa and Kotoku. The division weakened Akyem and allowed rival states, like the Akwamu, to take advantage of internal disagreements. By the early eighteenth century, pressure from neighboring powers pushed the two divisions toward closer cooperation.^[28]

Assin appeared in seventeenth-century sources as part of Akani and was associated with Twifo beyond the Pra River. Assin oral traditions recall long-distance trade connections with Tekyiman, Berekum, and Salaga. It functioned as an important intermediary in the regional gold trade until 1698, when it was defeated by the Denkyira after periods of conflict. The defeat reduced Assin’s political influence and its role in gold production and exchange. An Assin proverb, Enam sika pesɛw na Asinman boɛ, which refers to the role of gold in the state’s downfall.^[29]

Denkyira was at first a subject state of Adanse, and little was known of the state until the war of 1657-58 when they defeated Adanse.^[29] By the late seventeenth century, Denkyira had become the most powerful inland state in the region. It forced tributary demands on neighboring states like the Wassa, Sefwi, Aowin, Assin, and the early Asante states, drawing heavily on their gold resources to sustain its military expansion. Its heavy tribute demands generated widespread resentment among subordinate states. In the late seventeenth century, resistance to Denkyira rule increased, resulting in its defeat by Asante between 1699 and 1701.^[30]

European sources described Akanist merchants as both traders and social elites. They often came to the coast with large groups of enslaved porters and armed followers, wearing fine cloths over their shoulders and carrying ceremonial swords or staffs. They exchanged high-quality gold for imported iron, brass, textiles, and liquor. Observers noted that they relied on interpreters from Accra, adjusted weight systems to their advantage, and sometimes drank heavily before returning inland.^[31]

Akani captains and brokers lived in large, well-furnished houses in the coastal ports, some built of stone or clay with wide courtyards and guarded entrances.^[32] They displayed their wealth at public festivals. At the Akwasi festival in Afutu, brokers paraded their families, slaves, and riches before large crowds in elaborate processions.^[33]

According to Ray Kea, the fortunes of leading captains were immense. Jan Clasen Cutterique, captain of the Cape Coast Akani in the 1660s, reportedly paid a fine of 522,240 dambas of gold to the Afutu king without difficulty, a sum equal to the yearly wages of thousands of artisans.^[34] Captains earned money from brokerage fees, customs dues, stipends paid by European companies, and direct trade profits, making them among the wealthiest men in seventeenth-century coastal society.^[35]

Religion played a role in Akani trade. Captains and brokers often relied on asuman charms to protect caravans and secure profitable exchanges. In 1668, the Akani captain Akuma asked a priest to prepare a charm to bring a well-supplied ship to the Danish fort at Amanfro. When a vessel arrived soon afterward, the success was credited to the ritual.^[36] Most brokers kept their own spiritual objects, and captaincies sometimes sponsored collective rituals, showing how trade, wealth, and religion were closely linked in Akani society.^[36]

Akani authority depended on their ability to project political influence and military power. European companies occasionally hired them in coastal conflicts. In 1670, the king of Fetu secured Dutch backing at Elmina Castle to employ Akani and Twifo troops against Asebu.^[37] During the Komenda Wars of the 1690s, Akani forces attacked Fetu after disputes over caravan taxation, bringing them into wider coastal struggles.^[38]

Their settlements functioned as buffer zones in alliance politics, alternately siding with Fetu, Aowin, Wassa, or Twifo depending on trade conditions.^[39] Both Denkyira and later the Asante Empire sought to extract tribute in gold and slaves from Akani merchants, but observers noted that such payments could only be secured through coercion, underscoring their resistance to outside domination.^[40]

The Akani captaincies in coastal towns such as Elmina, Mouri, Cape Coast, and Anomabo also played quasi-political roles. Their leaders negotiated directly with European companies over customs dues, shipping levies, and the prices of imported goods, sometimes suspending commerce or redirecting caravans to rival forts during disputes.^[41] Captains commanded sizable retinues of brokers, porters, and armed retainers, and their wealth gave them leverage in local politics. Jan Clasen Cutterique, captain of the Cape Coast Akani, was fined more than 500,000 dambas of gold by the Fetu king in 1667.^[34]

The military role of Akani captains and brokers was closely tied to this economic power. They mobilized militias from their trading retinues, supplied firearms purchased from Europeans, and occasionally served as intermediaries in coastal wars.^[42] By the early eighteenth century, however, the expansion of Denkyira and Asante undermined their autonomy. The dissolution of the captaincies around 1705–1707 marked the eclipse of Akani political independence, as merchant guilds gave way to militarized states that prioritized tribute collection and slave-raiding over caravan trade.^[42]

Gold was the foundation of Akani wealth. Observers estimated that Akani merchants supplied as much as two-thirds of the gold exported from the coast.^[43] Alongside gold, textiles formed another important commodity. The so-called “Akanny cloth” was produced inland and traded widely across the Gold Coast. These cloths also carried diplomatic value; in 1725 Opoku Ware I presented one to Dutch officials at Elmina, where it was valued at fifty bendas (about £1 sterling).^[43]

Their income came from brokerage fees, customary payments, and regular allowances from European companies. These were paid in gold, cloth, liquor, or livestock, and were intended to keep the Akani engaged in the coastal markets.^[35] Commissions on caravan sales could reach several thousand dambas a year, concentrating wealth in the hands of prominent merchant families.^[44] In addition to imported textiles, Akani-made cloth circulated through inland networks and coastal markets, where it was exchanged for metals and firearms.^[45]

According to Timothy F. Garrard, settlements such as Akrokerri and Asantemanso may have functioned as centers of brass casting, towns like Ahinsan produced terracotta figurines during the seventeenth century.^[29]

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Akan forest zone was already connected to trans-Saharan routes through the Wangara. Polities along the Ofin and Pra supplied gold northwards to centers such as Begho, Gonja, and Salaga.^[2] By the late fifteenth century this trade was reoriented toward the coast, and by the seventeenth century a group of merchants known as the Akani or “Akanists” dominated the movement of gold between the inland markets and the Atlantic forts.^[46]

European accounts describe the Akani as caravan leaders who carried trade through territories such as Wassa, Twifo, Abrem, and Akyem, relying on diplomacy rather than conquest to secure safe passage.^[47] Their activities helped spread the Twi language across the forest and coast, making it the lingua franca of the gold trade.^[48][49][19]

Caravans traveled along well-defined roads such as the “Assin path” that linked the Pra–Ofin basin to Cape Coast and Anomabo. Markets were spaced along these routes: forest-edge towns like Twifo-Hemang, and further north, major gold-producing districts such as Tafo and Bighu.^[50] The flow of trade followed a “forty-day calendar,” with caravans timed to arrive during “lucky” days.^[51]

In the coastal towns, Akani merchants formed semi-permanent communities. Many became “Akani captains,” employed by European companies to regulate trade and negotiate with caravan merchants.^[52] These captaincies functioned like guilds, mediating between inland caravans and European factors.^[53] According to Pieter de Marees in 1602,

"The Accanisten are the cleverest of all those bordering the Gold Coast, possessing a land that can be reached from the coast in three to four days. They have, for many years, controlled the trade from the Castle of Elmina to Cormantin, and have managed to exclude their neighbors from it."^[54]

Dutch Director-General Valckenburgh echoed this view in 1659, calling the Akani “the fountain from which the trade in gold must flow.”^[55]

By the late seventeenth century, this dominance began to erode. The conquests of Denkyira in 1698 and the rise of the Asante Empire after 1710 reshaped the commercial order.^[56] With warfare and the slave trade taking precedence, the long-distance gold caravans declined.^[57][56] Danish records from the 1670s still referred to “Akanist” traders as a recognized guild carrying gold to Fetu and Accra,^[58] but by the early eighteenth century their networks had collapsed. Their role was taken over by coastal caboceers such as the Fante, who emerged as the new intermediaries in the Atlantic trade.^[59]

By the late 1600s, references to "Accany" or "Great Akan" declined in European records, as formerly associated polities such as Akyem, Assin, Denkyira, and Adansi emerged as distinct and often rival states.^[49] As these new power centers consolidated control over trade corridors and inland territories, observers increasingly referred to them by specific names rather than the broader label "Akani" or "Accany."^[60]

The meaning of “Akani” (also written as “Accany” or “Arcany”) in early European sources has been widely debated. Rather than denoting a single state, most scholars interpret it as a term used by Portuguese and Dutch writers to describe a broad network of Akan-speaking polities connected through kinship, trade, and cultural ties. Adu Boahen argued that 17th-century European maps and records reflected three major divisions: Great Akani (Acanes le Grand), identified with Akyem Abuakwa; Little Akani (Acanes Pequeno), representing the Assin states of Apemanim and Attandansu; and a third group associated with Akyem Kotoku. He based these identifications on maps, oral traditions, and references to rulers such as “the King of Acanis le Grand.”^[61] Boahen rejected earlier views by Wilks and Dickson that placed “Little Akani” in the southern Assin region, arguing instead that it originally referred to the northern Pra–Ofin area before later migrations.^[62]

Scholars such as Fynn and Daaku described Akani as a loose confederation of gold-trading Akan polities in which Adanse played a formative role. Some traditions recorded by J. K. Fynn maintain that the Fante originally formed part of the old Akanny kingdom before migrating south to the coast. In 1752, a Fante public orator recalled before English officials that the Fante had left "Arcania" for the coast as a single people.^[63] He equated Akanny with the old Adanse kingdom, “the first seat of the Akan nation where God first began the creation of the world,” and placed its borders across Adansi, parts of Akyem and Denkyira, and southern Ashanti, with the Pra River as its southern frontier.^[64] Some historians deny Akanny’s existence as a unified state, but Fynn argued that it was an inland power until the late 17th century, when it fragmented under Denkyira and Asante pressure. Robert Addo-Fening associated the origins of Akyem Abuakwa with the Acanny confederacy, describing it as a confederation of Abusua settlements in the Adanse area, united by kinship and the deity Bona.^[3] Kwasi Boaten argued that Adansi was the spiritual homeland where clan identity and political customs originated before the 17th-century fragmentation.^[6]

Some scholars argue that Akani was a decentralized polity. Rebecca Shumway notes that Albert van Dantzig described the Akani as an “independent association of traders” of diverse origins who used Akan as a lingua franca.^[1] Robin Law suggested that references to “Akani wars” imply at least temporary cohesion among these trading groups.^[1] Ray Kea interprets the decline of the Akani network within the wider seventeenth-century transition from gold to slave trading. He argues that, unlike Denkyira or the Asante Empire, Akani never developed a militarized state capable of protecting its trade routes or coercing dependents, which left it increasingly vulnerable in an era of violent commercial competition.^[42] He also adds that the guild captaincies, while effective in managing gold caravans and coastal brokerage, could not withstand the pressure of imperial expansion.^[65] Fage writes that “Accany” (or “Arcany”) referred not to a single state but to a network of Akan-speaking merchant communities that controlled both inland and coastal trade routes.^[66] Konadu further emphasizes that the Portuguese used "Accany" to describe a broad gold-rich region, not a single polity.^[7]

Akan people

Adanse

Kingdom of Twifo

Akwamu Empire

Denkyira

Akyem Kingdoms

Kingdom of Assin

Kwahu

Aowin

Kingdom of Sefwi

Asante

History of Ghana

Portuguese Gold Coast

Dutch Gold Coast

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• Wilks, Ivor (2005). "The Forest and the Twis". Journal des africanistes. 75 (1): 19–75. doi:10.4000/africanistes.188. Retrieved 14 August 2025.