Akan Religion

The faith of the Asante and other Akan peoples, of the sky god Nyame, the earth Asase Yaa and the ancestors.

c. 1000 CE → · Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire · African & Diaspora

Akan religion recognises a distant creator, Nyame, and many abosom spirits who serve as intermediaries, while ancestors remain active in family life. The Golden Stool of the Asante is believed to hold the nation’s soul. Anansi stories travelled with enslaved Akan people to the Caribbean.

Key figures

• Nyame, the sky god
• Asase Yaa, the earth
• Anansi, the spider

Texts

• Oral tradition
• Adinkra symbols
• Proverbs

Beliefs

• A supreme god works through lesser gods (abosom)
• Ancestors (nsamanfo) watch over the living
• Every person carries a soul (kra) given by Nyame

Rituals

• Akwasidae, the ancestral festival
• Libation to the ancestors
• Priestly possession by the abosom

Grew from

• Animism & Shamanism

Connections in the atlas

• Sankofa
• Asanbosam (sasabonsam)
• Cape Coast Castle
• Trans-Saharan gold and salt road
• The Akan and the Asante
• The Trickster
• The Trickster
• Gye Nyame
• Elmina Castle
• The Middle Passage
• How Death Came Into the World