Kingdom of Gyaman

Gyaman , historically also Djaman , Jaman or similar spellings, was a state in West Africa that existed between the 17th and 20th centuries in what is now Ghana and what is now the Republic of Ivory Coast . It emerged from the historic Banda Kingdom at the end of the 17th century.

Banda as a precursor state

Banda as an empire arose around the city of the same name around 1400. The actual founders of Banda were Akan , more precisely the ethnic group later known as the West Brong . They came from the north and they came as conquerors who, in their early days, systematically subjugated the Kulango , Nafana , Ligbi , Hwela and other groups that were already settling here.

The initial Banda Empire extended in the north of what is now Ghana between the northern rainforest border and the southern bend of the Black Volta with its core area in the region where the Banda Hills are broken by the Nyimpene River. In the west, its territory was in what is now the Republic of Ivory Coast. Despite constant wars, at the end of the 19th century Gyaman's sphere of influence extended from the Comoë River in the west to the Black Volta in the east and from the savannah in the north to the northern border of the rainforest belt in the south.

As a result of the events in the upper Niger in the 16th century and the associated triggering of larger flows of refugees from these areas, Banda also experienced a larger wave of immigration, mainly from Dioula (Islamic Malinke traders) and other Mandé groups, first the economic and later the took over political power in the Banda empire and formed Banda into a centrally administered and territorially uniform state.

However, the actual capital Banda lost its importance from the 1680s, at the latest with the emergence of the Ashanti state , as the Islamic Diuola rulers blocked the so-called Banda path, one of the most important caravan routes between the western Gold Coast and the trans-Saharan trade routes which start in the upper Niger . The most important export goods from the Gold Coast at that time were cola nuts and gold , both of which were in great demand on and north of the Niger.

Gyaman

With the Gold and Kola rivers from the Gold Coast hinterland to the Niger cut off, the city of Banda fell into insignificance and the need for a new capital grew as a center of both political power and trade. At the same time, however, the Brong (Abron) succeeded in regaining political power and the Islamic Dioula traders lost their position of political power as rulers of Banda. Soon after, d. H. Around 1690, the city of Gyaman (located near Bondoukou ) was founded as the new capital of Banda by a man named Tan Date in the south-western part of the empire . Tan Date is also considered to be the first Gyamanhene. Soon, "Gyaman" became the national name for the previous banda.

The political power in Gyaman was officially in the hands of Gyamanhene, who had his residence first at Amanvi, then later at Erebo (Herebou). The Gyaman was provided by the Akan people of the Brong (Abron), who were ethnically a minority in Gyaman, but through a clever combination of diplomacy and strength they were able to assert dominance over the numerically most numerous Kulango as well about the previously politically ruling Islamic Dioula traders.

The economic base of the Kingdom of Gyaman lay mainly in the rich gold deposits near Assikasso and in the long-distance trade between the coast and the upper Niger, with iron, copper, cola, animal skins, cattle, sheep, salt, ivory, European firearms, Gunpowder, cotton cloth and various other textiles were traded. Gyaman's main trading place was Bondoukou, which was dominated by the Muslim Diuola traders who had come over from Begho, although they did not hold political power here either. Here, as in other Akan regions, they were regarded as guest settlers.

Gyaman under Ashantic rule

Banda-Gyaman was first conquered by the Ashanti in 1740 and has been ruled by an Ashantin governor ever since. Gyaman was later used as a "support state", i.e. H. as a province, incorporated into Greater Asante.

The conquest was preceded by two wars, which were fought between the archenemies Akim and Asante, and which on the part of Akim had the goal of breaking the power of the ever stronger Ashanti Union. An anti-Ashantic warrior alliance from Denkira and the areas of the later Sefwi and Akwapim had also joined the Akimers on these campaigns. The two wars were very bloody, once even Kumasi was conquered, but finally the Ashanti succeeded in smashing their hostile alliance and won the day. In the counter-campaigns started by the Ashanti Army in return, the neighboring states of their previous enemies were not spared, and so Tekyeman, Banda-Gyaman and Gonja came under Ashantic rule. In 1744–45, Ashantine forces even subjugated Dagomba, northeast of Gonja.

Gyaman openly rebelled against the Ashantine rule in 1752, 1764, 1799 and 1818. However, it was not successful, at least not permanently. Only after the defeat of the Ashanti by the British in 1874 did Banda or Gyaman regain full independence in 1875.

Colonial times

After their victory over Asante, the British pursued the main goal of bringing Gyaman's trade from and to the upper Niger under their control. They also made use of some anti-Ashantic Gyaman chiefs, including primarily the then Gyamanhene Agyeman, to further weaken and undermine the authority of the Ashantin government in Kumasi. The British benevolence used Gyaman for a strong territorial expansion of his sphere of influence, a period that lasted until about 1886. Knowing that his anti-Ashantic stance would not be forgiven and foreseeing that the new Asantehene Prempeh I , who ascended the throne in March 1888, had the firm intention of regaining control of the former northwestern provinces, turned to Agyeman to the British with a request for a protection contract.

Before the British negotiators arrived in Gyaman, however, the French Africa explorer Marcel Treich-Laplène had appeared in Bondoukou. He had previously concluded numerous protection treaties with local rulers in the north of what is now the Republic of Ivory Coast and so he managed to persuade Gyamanhene Agyeman to do so. On November 13, 1888, the treaty was signed and ratified by Capitaine Louis-Gustave Binger, representing the French government, at the beginning of January 1889. Gyaman was now a French reserve.

For Gyaman, however, this treaty was of little use, because when Samori 's troops invaded the country in 1895 , there was not a single French military post in the entire kingdom of Gyaman that could possibly have resisted Samori.

The occupation of Gyaman by Samori alarmed the French, who then advanced with massive military force and had recaptured the western part of Gyaman by 1897. This in turn alarmed the British, who then occupied the eastern part under the pretext of a joint fight against Samori's murderous gangs, in order to prevent further penetration of the French into the hinterland of the British sphere of influence.

In a British-French border commission in 1902/03, the two colonial powers finally agreed on the demarcation between their two areas of interest from the coast up to the 11th parallel, which is essentially the current border between Ghana and the Republic of Ivory Coast. Gyaman has since been divided into an eastern part and a western part.

Footnotes

1. ↑ The so-called Banda path ran from Cape Coast on the coast through Assin and Adansi to Tafo (later one turned in between to Kumasi) and from there through Wenchi to Begho. After the destruction of Begho, the route led to Namasa, a town near the ruins of Begho, and from here, merging with the "old west route" via the town of Banda (a little northeast of Bondoukou), and on via Kong and Bobo-Dioulasso to Jenne on the Niger. An age-old alternative route seemed to have led from Banda via Bouna to Bobo-Dioulasso.
2. ↑ King of Gyaman
3. ↑ In the literature you can sometimes find the representation that Gyaman and Banda were two separate, neighboring states. This is probably due to the fact that in historical times the Banda state was also called "Inkoransa" (cf. the regional capital Nkoranza .) In the past, the area around the city of the same name Nkoranza formed an independent Ashanti province in contrast to Gyaman which, however, only existed as such from the Ashantine conquests in the 19th century.

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• Basil Davidson, West Africa before the Colonial Era - A history to 1850 , London, New York 1998, pp. 219-229
• Akbar Muhammad, The Samorian occupation of Bondoukou: an indigenous view , in: The International Journal of African historical Studies , 10 (2), 1977, pp. 242-258
• Ivor Wilks, The Northern factor in Ashanti history: Begho and the Mande , in: Journal of African History , 2 (1), 1961, pp. 25-34
• Maurice Delafosse , Les frontières de la Côte d'Ivoire, de la Côte d'Or et du Soudan , Paris 1908