Mythologies of the Ga-Adangbe Peoples

The Ga-Adangbe people came from a city in Egypt called Goshen. The group stayed there for some years before leaving during 672-525 B.C. The migration route of Ga-Adangbe saw them across Ethiopia and then down to Nigeria. They later migrated to West Africa and eventually stopped in Ghana, becoming their permanent home. The Ga-Adangbe people have a unique culture with many traditional economic and social benefits, which is still observed to date. Their children learn about this culture as they grow and are expected to stick to it regardless of their status in the future. The Ga people have many cultural beliefs related to Shamanism and Christianity. Shamanism was their first belief when they worshipped their ancestors and gods. Their original religion is associated with a spirit called ordzemawon. Like any other African tribe, the Ga-Adangbe tribe has hundreds of symbols with deep meanings and specific messages. They are also used to enforce particular virtues. Yet, the Ga symbols are held by some of the community elders. These symbols are considered sacred, and not everybody is allowed to view them.

The Ga-Adangbe people inhabit the Accra Plains. The Adangbe are found to the east, the Ga groups, to the west of the Accra coastlands. Although both languages are derived from a common proto-Ga-Adangbe ancestral language, modern Ga and Adangbe are mutually unintelligible. The modern Adangbe include the people of Shai, La, Ningo, Kpone, Osudoku, Krobo, Gbugble, and Ada, who speak different dialects. The Ga also include the Ga-Mashie groups occupying neighborhoods in the central part of Accra, and other Gaspeakers who migrated from Akwamu, Anecho in Togo, Akwapim, and surrounding areas. Debates persist about the origins of the Ga-Adangbe people. One school of thought suggests that the proto-Ga-Adangbe people came from somewhere east of the Accra plains, while another suggests a distant locale beyond the West African coast. In spite of such historical and linguistic theories, it is agreed that the people were settled in the plains by the thirteenth century. Both the Ga and the Adangbe were influenced by their neighbors. For example, both borrowed some of their vocabulary, especially words relating to economic activities and statecraft, from the Guan. The Ewe are also believed to have influenced the Adangbe. Despite the archeological evidence that proto-Ga-Adangbe- speakers relied on millet and yam cultivation, the modern Ga reside in what used to be fishing communities. Today, such former Ga communities as Labadi and Old Accra are neighborhoods of the national capital of Accra. This explains why, in 1960, when the national enumeration figures showed the ethnic composition of the country's population, more than 75 percent of the Ga were described as living in urban centers. The presence of major industrial, commercial, and governmental institutions in the city, as well as increasing migration of other people into the area, had not prevented the Ga people from maintaining aspects of their traditional culture.

Ga is the preferred name for the heterogeneous people of the Accra area who are closely related to the Adangme or Adangbe people to the northeast of Accra. The area is centered at approximately 2° W. longitude and 5° N. latitude. It is bounded on the west by the Densu River, on the east the Chemmu lagoon, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north by the Akwapim hills. The topography is largely flat and relatively dry, averaging 25 inches (65 centimeters) of rainfall per year concentrated in one season. Unlike most of the rest of the West African coast, the Accra plains are savanna, marked by large termite mounds after which the city was named. The Ga language is a western representative of the western Kwa subfamily of languages within the Niger-Congo family. It has a closer relationship to Yoruba in its tonality and cognates than to the immediately neighboring subfamily of Akan languages and an even closer relationship to its eastern neighbor, Ewe. Since English is the official language of Ghana and the Ga are a mixture of peoples concentrated in the capital who have had superior access to Western-style education, many first-language Ga speakers also know English, one or more of the Akan languages (Fante or Twi), and/or Ewe.

This ethnic group is made of two main ethnic groups. The Ga and the Adangbe where the latter is made up of the Ada, Krobo, Osuduko, Ningo etc. and the former are the people of Accra. The Ga-Adangbe migrated from Ile-Ife in south-western Nigeria led by powerful king Ayi-Kushi. In the 17th century, when they settled at Okaikoi near Nsawam, the Adangbe built the Ladoku kingdom. Presently the Ga-Adangbe live in the coastal plains west of the volta river.

The Ga-Dangbe, Gã-Daŋbɛ, Ga-Dangme, or GaDangme are an ethnic group in Ghana and Togo. Ga is the preferred name for the heterogeneous people of the Accra area who are closely related to the Adangme or Adangbe people to the northeast of Accra. It is bounded on the west by the Densu River, on the east the Chemmu lagoon, on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north by the Akwapim hills. The topography is largely flat and relatively dry, averaging 25 inches (65 centimeters) of rainfall per year concentrated in one season. Unlike most of the rest of the West African coast, the Accra plains are savanna, marked by large termite mounds after which the city was named.

The Ga-Dangbe, Gã-Daŋbɛ, Ga-Dangme, or GaDangme are an ethnic group in Ghana, Togo and Benin. The Ga and Dangbe people are grouped respectively as part of the Ga–Dangme ethnolinguistic group. The Ga-Dangmes are one ethnic group that lives primarily in the Greater Accra of Ghana. Ethnic Ga family names (surnames) include Nikoi, Amon, Kotey, Kotie, Adei, Kutorkor, Oblitey, Lartey, Nortey, Aryee, Poku and Lamptey. The following are names derived from the ethnic Dangme and common among the Ningos Nartey, Tetteh, Kwei, Kweinor, Kwetey, Narteh, Narh, Dugbatey, Teye, Martey, Addo, Siaw, Saki, Amanor, Djangba. These are aligned to the ethnic Ga as well: Lomotey, Tetteh, Ankrah, Tetteyfio, Laryea, Ayitey, Okai, Bortey, Quaye, Quaynor, Ashong, Kotei, Sowah, Odoi, Ablor, Adjetey, Dodoo, Darku and Quartey. (Dawhenya royal family name: Darpoh) Under their great leader King Ayi Kushi (Cush) (1483-1519) they were led from the east in several states before reaching their destination in Accra. Oral traditions state the Ga came from the region of Lake Chad and reached their destination in the 16th century. It is also believed that by the 17th century they traveled down the River Niger and crossed the Volta to reach present day Ghana.This leader is the Moses of the Ga-Dangme people, with his seven puritan laws he gave them and that has formed the basis and philosophy of the state, making the state a friendly state recognised by all in respect to making Greater Accra Region the capital of the, then, Gold Coast in 1877. The Ga people were organized into six independent towns (Accra (Ga Mashie), Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, and Tema). Each town had a stool, which served as the central object of Ga ritual and war magic. Accra became the most prominent Ga-Dangme towns and is now the heartbeat and capital of Ghana. The Ga people were originally farmers, but today fishing and trading in imported goods are the principal occupations. Trading is generally in the hands of women, and a husband has no control over his wife's money. Succession to most offices held by women and inheritance of women's property are by matrilineal descent. Inheritance of other property and succession to male-held public offices are by patrilineal descent. Men of the lineage live together in a men's compound, while women, even after marriage, live with their mothers and children in a women's compound. Each Ga town has a number of different cults and many gods, and there are a number of annual town festivals. The Dangme people occupy the coastal area of Ghana from Kpone to Ada, on the Volta River and South Atlantic Ocean along the Gulf of Guinea and inland along the Volta River. The Dangme People include the Ada, Kpone, Krobo, Ningo, Osudoku, Prampram, and Shai, all speaking Dangbe of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages. The Dangme People have the largest Population among the two related Ga-Dangme People. About 70% of the Greater Accra Regional Land is owned by the Dangmes located in Dangme East and Dangme West Districts of Ghana. Also, in the Eastern Region and Volta Region of Ghana, about 15% of lands belong to the Dangme People. These are mainly in the Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo Districts of the Eastern Region.In the Agotime Area of Volta Region and the Dangme Area in the Southern part of Togo. Dangme occupations are fishing, trading and farming which is based on the Huza system. This was an early and innovative form of capitalism where an elaborate system of property ownership was established and subsequently shared. In this system a huge tract of land is acquired by a group of people but represented by a prominent member of the group, the group were usually members of an extended family; the land is subdivided among them according to the amount each has paid, and each individual thereafter has complete control of his own section. Negotiations with the seller are carried out by an elected Huzatse (“father of the Huza”), who later acts as the Huza leader and representative. Millet was formerly the staple food, but more common crops now include cassava, yams, corn (maize), plantain, cocoa, and palm oil. Lineage members generally return to the traditional lineage home from the Huza farms several times a year to participate in the festivals of their lineage gods. There are also many annual festivals. The Ga-Dangme are organized into clans based on patrilineal descent; the clans are subdivided into localized patrilineages, the basic units of the Ga-Dangme historical, political, cultural tribal group.

The Ga-Adangbe are one ethnic group that lives primarily in the Greater Accra of Ghana. Occupying the coastal area of Ghana from Kpone to Ada, on the Volta River, and inland along the Volta; they include the Ada, Kpone, Krobo, Ningo, Osuduku, Prampram, and Shai, all speaking variants of Ga-Adangme of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages. Under their great leader King Ayi Kushi (Cush) (1483-1519) the Ga-Adangbe were led from the east in several states before reaching their destination in Accra. Oral traditions state the Ga came from the region of Lake Chad and reached their destination in the 16th century. In the 17th century, they traveled down the River Niger and crossed the Volta to reach present-day Ghana. The Ga-Dangbe speak the Kwa languages Ga and Dangme and are a patrilineal people. Dangme is exclusively closer to the original Ga–Dangme languages than the Ga language. The Ga people were organized into six independent towns Accra, Ga, Mashie, Osu, La, Teshie, Nungua, and Tema.