Akan Legal Systems
Henry Meredith explores the legal systems of Akan-controlled cities like Appolonia, now in modern Ghana.
Location: Appolonia, Ghana
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa by Henry Meredith, 1812.
The government along the coast partakes of various forms. At Apollonia it is monarchical and absolute. In the Ahanta [Ashanti] country it is a kind of aristocracy. In the Fantee country, and as far as Accra, it is composed of a strange number of forms; in some places it is vested in particular persons, and in other places lodged in the hands of the community. In the Fantee country they very often change their forms of government on certain occasions, and unite, for their general safety, under particular persons, to whom implicit obedience must be paid. When the cause of this union is annulled, they recede into their accustomed form of government.
The laws of the Gold-coast are particularly strict. At Apollonia, where the whole authority is vested in the king, there are no subordinate tribunals: his power is absolute. In other states, the laws differ according to the nature of the government. During the slave-trade, they all agreed in their ultimate tendency, that of slavery: for a trifling offence a man lost his liberty, if he were incapable of paying a sum adequate to the injury.
The laws of Apollonia require, sometimes, a more severe atonement than that of slavery; for here every man, excepting the heir-apparent, is at the mercy and disposal of his sovereign. In other particular districts, the severity of the law is mitigated in some cases: but this is confined to its own inhabitants. In the Fantee country, the laws in general are more rigorous than in any other part of the coast; inasmuch, as a very trifling and accidental act will be examined with as much severity, as if a matter of consequence, or done by design. Murder may be commuted for seven slaves, or by their value, besides the customary rites of burial. But if the person murdered should have been of consequence, the lex tallionis is resorted to, which causes much effusion of blood before satisfaction is acknowledged. If a person be found in the act of committing the most trifling theft, he forfeits his freedom: if the article stolen were of value, the family becomes involved. If a man, by accident or design, kills a hen, goat, or hog, or any other animal, he loses his liberty, unless he plies the injured party with presents; which, if received, even the most trifling, take off the severity of the punishment.
The law against witchcraft is particularly severe, inasmuch as it generally extends to all under the same roof; as it is supposed they possessed some portion of the malign influence.
Henry Meredith, An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa: With Brief History of the African Company (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1812).
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