There’s a group of people that inhabit Ghana, Eastern ivory coast, and some parts of Togo called the Akan people. They are believed to be initially an ethnolinguistic grouping of the Guinea coast. They are the participants of the famous Akan religion. Ghana, ivory coast, Togo, and Guinea countries are countries situated in western Africa.
Akan religion is also and, most times, Akom; Akom is a twi word that means prophecy. The Akan people are people who speak the Akan languages, like many other religions, have different subgroups regarding their communications, and the groups are the Ashanti, Fanti, The akuabem, The wassa, the baoule, the anyi, and the abron. The twi language is believed to be their original language.
Many African traditional religions have a Supreme God that does not interact with humans and many little gods that interact and assist humans. So, the Akan people have this system of cosmology, the belief of a Supreme God that does not interact with humans. They revere to him as Nyame or Oyame, Nyakonkonpon, brekyirihunuade. The three names are depending on the region that is worshiping at a particular time. The names mean ‘almighty,’ some referred to him as Anansi kokuroko, which means ‘the great designer or the great spider,’ some refer to him as odomankoma, meaning ‘the great designer.’
Some Akan people believe that the Creator is part of a triad consisting of Nyame or Oyame, Nyakonpon, Oyakopon, and odomankoma.
The Supreme God, just like every other religion, is attributed to ominipresentism, omniscienctism, and omnipotent ism. It’s believed that he has a wife, called Asase Yaa, who is considered the second God and the mother of the earth, and they gave birth to two children; Bia and Tano
Just like the Yoruba’s Aborisa tradition and it’s Orisas. Just like Igbo’s odinana and it’s Alusi. Akan religion has Abosom, the lower deities, and spirits that help humans in their affairs. It’s believed that they draw their power from the Supreme God and connects to the world as it appears in its natural state. Abosoms have priests that serve them, priests that serve as a link between them and humanity. Traditional Akan people participate in daily prayers, which includes the Pouring of libations as an offering to both the deities and the ancestors called Nsamafo.
Its believed that the ancestors might demand sacrifice and offerings. The sacrifices are mostly human sacrifices in the past but not anymore again as they have a stool room where the stools, black stools of woods representing the ancestors, are anointed with human blood, gun powder, and spider webs. Given alcoholic drinks since human sacrifices are no longer made. The stools are symbols of unity between the dead lineage and the living lineage.
Many Akan now are Christians, they became Christians since the nineteenth century when the missionaries came with Christian education, but the kings still retain the traditional Akan practice practice
