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Ghana The Ewe
The Ewe occupy southeastern Ghana and the southern parts of
neighboring Togo and Benin. On the west, the Volta separates the
Ewe from the Ga-Adangbe, Ga, and Akan. Subdivisions of the Ewe
include the Anglo (Anlo), Bey (Be), and Gen on the coast, and the
Peki, Ho, Kpando, Tori, and Ave in the interior. Oral tradition
suggests that the Ewe immigrated into Ghana before the midfifteenth century. Although the Ewe have been described as a single
language group, there is considerable dialectic variation. Some of
these dialects are mutually intelligible, but only with difficulty.
Unlike the political and social organization of the Akan, where
matrilineal rule prevails, the Ewe are essentially a patrilineal
(see Glossary under
"patrilineage") people. The founder of a
community became the chief and was usually succeeded by his
paternal relatives. The largest independent political unit was a
chiefdom, the head of which was essentially a ceremonial figure who
was assisted by a council of elders. Chiefdoms ranged in population
from a few hundred people in one or two villages to several
thousand in a chiefdom with a large number of villages and
surrounding countryside. Unlike the Asante among the Akan, no Ewe
chiefdom gained hegemonic power over its neighbor. The rise of Ewe
nationalism in both Ghana and Togo was more of a reaction to the
May 1956 plebiscite that partitioned Eweland between the Gold Coast
and Togo than to any sense of overriding ethnic unity.
Substantial differences in local economies were characteristic
of the Ewe. Most Ewe were farmers who kept some livestock, and
there was some craft specialization. On the coast and immediately
inland, fishing was important, and local variations in economic
activities permitted a great deal of trade between one community
and another, carried out chiefly by women.
Data as of November 1994
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