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Ethnic Identity and Religion on the Upper Slave Coast

© Jessica Powers

When Europeans first explored Africa, they declared that it had no religion. The absence of religion allowed the colonizers to de-humanize "the natives." The British eugenicist Francis Galton, for example, wrote that his dog was more intelligent than the African "natives" (Chidester 7). It is no wonder, then, that Europeans failed to make accurate observations about African culture and society.

Instead, they surveyed the religious practices of Africans and defined it as "primitive magic." They placed magic on a continuum with science, and suggested that as "savages" advanced toward "civilization," they would replace their superstition with an understanding of science. This "savage" mentality was also attributed to children, women, criminals and the insane back in Europe (Chidester 4).

However, Africans did indeed have religion and, unlike the European mentality, they did not divide the secular and the sacred. Religion permeated their cultural customs.

The history of the Anlo-Ewe in Ghana demonstrates the important link between religion and ethnic identity in many African cultures.

The Anlo-Ewe, historically, have been divided into "insider" clans who have rights to land and "outsider" clans who do not. The five "insider" clans are considered to be the "first" clans of the Anlo-Ewe; their rights to the land, according to their cultural traditions, indicate that they arrived on the upper slave coast before the "outsider" clans arrived.

The Amlade clan is the only "insider" clan who has no land rights. Historian Sandra Greene argues that this is because they belonged to an "outsider" clan until they were incorporated as one of the "first five" clans because of their god, Togbui Egbe, who had a reputation for severely punishing those who offended it, usually by inhabiting a snake and manipulating it to bite the intended victim (Greene 62).

The Amlade's chance to become one of the "first five" happened when the god of the "insider" Lafe clan lost its reputation for protecting the Anlo during battle. The Lafe had always had the privilege of praying to their god during war, but during the seventeenth century, their god seemed to give the Anlo little success.

In 1769, the Anlo won the first battle they had won since for over fifty years (Greene 57). They attributed their success to the god who belonged to the "outsider" Dzevi clan. Soon, the Lafe clan became the target of jokes because their god, apparently, was not very powerful.

Greene argues that the Lafe aligned themselves with the Amlade and their god because Togbui Egbe was known to be particularly powerful (64).