Akebu (people)

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The Akebu (also called Akébou or Kebu ) are a people in the mountains of the southern central Togo . Like the Akposso , the Adele and others, they belong to the so-called Togo remnants .

The Akebu consider themselves autochthonous and call themselves Egbetebe. Their original village is called Kesengbe not far from Kougnohou (capital of the Akebou canton in Togo). There is a very old mud house that is the first to be preserved from the ancestors. These are said to have descended from heaven on a rope, say the Akebu.

The author of this article - Dr. Regina Peters-Abbey, married to a member of the Akebu people - in 1988, small polished stone axes observed lying on the ground. During a visit in 2014, the house no longer seemed to exist in its old form. There are still a few small houses nearby, which for cultic reasons can only be entered dressed in a pagne, a traditional African robe (and barefoot). The associated village of Kesengbe, which was right next door in 1988, has now been rebuilt a little further.

Most of the Akebu are believed to be of their original African religion. There are gods ("fetishes") and male and female priests. These are called by the gods. Some Akebu are Protestants, some also Catholics; first missionary efforts took place in the German colonial period. Lately sects, including evangelicals, have tried to Christianize them.

Settlements

The Akebu used to build mostly round houses with wooden posts, clay walls and conical thatched roofs. In between they erect small storage structures. The round construction of most houses differs significantly from the angular construction z. B. the Ewe in Togo . Today more and more the rectangular house construction is adopted. They are built from bricks made from dried clay and nowadays often have roofs made of corrugated iron instead of straw. Now and then you can see solar panels on it. Each village has its own quarters for the different family groups. Cooking takes place outside of the houses or in their own cooking huts.

economy

The Akebu are predominantly farmers and grow corn , yams , cassava , taro , fonio (a type of millet), bananas, beans, eggplants , peppers, peanuts and many other things. Cocoa and coffee cultivation are important. Goats, sheep, chickens and pigs are raised. They let the Peul , a nomadic pastoral people, breed and tend cattle . The Akebu do not tolerate milk and do not eat cheese or other dairy products.

In the area around Dzakpodzi ( Djakpedji ), an hour's walk from Kesengbe, and Kesengbe, piles of cinder can be seen everywhere, which probably testify to previous smelting activities. There used to be blacksmiths, but also weavers, but their professions are no longer practiced today.

The roads to and around Dzakpodzi are very bad, the transport options are limited, so that it is hardly possible to supply larger markets and earn something.

society

The Akebu have traces of matrilineal organization. Today patrilineal traits predominate .

In the past, a girl always married into another Akebu clan, and this then sent a girl back to the first clan as a bride when the opportunity arose. The custom is often no longer observed today. There are also mixed marriages with members of other peoples of Togo.

Kpelle, who are said to be related to the Ewe, immigrated to Dzakpodzi in the 19th century . These had once asked the Akebu for land and for the permission to settle, which was granted to them. In 2017 they forcibly claimed more land, unceremoniously buried one of their dead on Akebuland and threatened protesting Akebu.

language

Akebu (the Akebu call the language Kögbörikö) is not yet a written language. Recently, American evangelicals want to introduce a Latin writing system adapted to the Akebu language. A German / Akebu dictionary was created by Yao Koffi at the beginning of the 1980s at the University of Saarbrücken as part of a thesis. It was not published. A kind of glossary was created by a German named Wolf during the German colonial era. The affiliation of the Akebu to a language family has not been conclusively clarified.

religion

The Akebu believe in a high god they call Orokoe. He is not sacrificed and he has no special priests. There are also some other gods. The most important are Lempi and Tsentsi, who have their cult in Kesenge. Other gods were adopted by surrounding peoples. There are also fetishes. Today American evangelicals are trying to Christianize the Akebu and are building simple churches in the villages. The first missionaries took place under the colonial rule of Germany. They led to the fact that today there are Protestant and Catholic believers among the Akebu. However, their number is low.

Sources / literature

  • Members of the Akebou people, esp. Simon (Kodzo Kpegbadza) Abbey, b. 1952 in Badou / Togo
  • Franz Wolf: Grammar of the Kögbörikö (Togo) . In: Anthropos . tape 2 , no. 3 , 1907, pp. 422-437, 795 ff ., doi : 10.2307 / 40442207 .
  • Kebu . In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . tape II . Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, p. 258 ( uni-frankfurt.de ).
  • Robert Cornevin, Le Canton de l'Akebou, Etudes Dahoméens, VI, 81-132
  • Hans W. Debrunner, Godhead and primeval man among the remaining Togo peoples, Anthropos 63,64, 1968/69, 552, 556
  • Bernd Heine, The Distribution and Structure of the Togolese Languages, 1968
  • Curt von Francois, Without a shot through thick and thin, Ed. Götz von Francois, Idstein 1972, 65–69
  • Komla-Obuibé Bassa, Genèse et transformation d'une institution politique colonial, Journal des anthropologues 104-105, 2006, 109ff.
  • Edinam Kola, Enclavement et marginalité du pays Akébou dans l'ouest de la région des Plateaux aux Togo, Revue de Géographie Tropical et d'Environnement 2, 2010
  • Nicoué Gayibor (ed.), Histoire des Togolais. Des origines aux années 60. Tome 1. De l 'histoire de l'origine à l'histoire du peuplement (2011) 248ff.
  • Observations by the author of this article, Dr. Regina Peters Abbey