if- 4 NOTES 91. NTORO AND NTON The two sociological terms, Ntoro and Nton in Akan, have been summarily treated as though they were one and the same thing. It has been suggested that "synonymous terms for Ntor© are Nton, Sunsum, or bosom"!; but a further study of Ntoro has revealed that Ntoro is not synonymous with Nton. The writer of the statement quoted above must have been led into that error by a previous writer whose definition of Ntoro was not explicit enough. In that definition, an example under one of the various meanings was given as follows: "Me nton or me ntoro.ni"* , and the meaning vaguely given was "we are of the same ancient family, worshipping the same fetish." This writer's difficulty can be appreciated as his informants must have confused him by stating that "in Akuapem, Ntoro is both patri- lineal and matrilineal."' The Twi Spelling Book also equates Ntoro with Nton.4 There has been a long standing confusion between the two terms, which in turn has resulted in real dif- ficulties, even among some Akans, regarding the meaning and character of the terms. What then are Ntoro and Nton? We shall begin with Ntoro. Ntoro is the general term applied to the spirit, in most cases totemic, of each of a number of patrilineages of the Akans. The spirit is passed on from father to son or daughter. The Ntoro which is passed on to a daughter *• Rattray: Religion and Art in Ashanti: Page 318, footnote. Christaller: Dictionary of the Asante and Fante language: Page 529. Christaller: Dictionary of the Asante and Fante language: Page 529. * Twi Spelling Book: Twi Nsem NkorenkoTt Kyer«wbea: Pages 136, 138. 92. NOTES is not transmittable from her to her issues: at death, the daughter's Ntoro goes back to the spirit source which in all cases but one5 is with a river-god. Sons dis- tribute part of their Ntoro to their children. The Ntoro therefore is spirit - a part and parcel of every child. It should not be confused with the "Okra," the soul. One child may have a combination of several spirits: the spirit of the father, the spirit of the person after whom he is named, the spirit of a great grand-parent of the mother's lineage, and sometimes the spirit of a god related to the child.6 These are sometimes referred to in Twi as "mmoaa" or vital parts, as in "ne ho mmoaa adwane": his spirits have fled out " of him, that is, he is extremely terrified. The com- ponent spirits of a person may manifest themselves in what may be described as personality, unusual achieve- ment in a special subject in which a dead relation shined, the gift of second sight, a close resemblance of an ancestor, etc.7 Note the expressions? "owo sunsum": he is great-spirited; "ne sunsum ye duru": he is full of personality; "ne sunsum ye den": he is a man of strong will; "sunsummire": the dark-spirited one; "n'anim ye hare": he is without personality; "n'anim ye duru": he is imperious; "n'anim ye nyam": he is glorious etc. These are not spoken of the soul. The "sunsum" or "mmoaa" may be said to be the guard of the soul. When a person's spirit has been chased away or has disappeared - "ne sunsum adwane" or "ne ho mmoaa ko!" - then the soul, according to the Akans, becomes susceptible to capture or expulsion, (cf. "Yeakyere ne kra": his soul has been T Bosomkrete: a shrine-god in Aburi, Akuapem. Rattray: Religion and Art in Ashanti: general notes on Sunsum) Page 154 Rattray: Ashanti: Page 46. NOTES 93. arrested; "Honhom nni me mu bio": No vital breath is in him any more). This perhaps justifies the use of "Honhom" in the Twi Bible to mean the God-spirit part of Himself, and that in men called the soul.8 The "Okra" therefore is virtually the "Honhom" personified. * Of the dirivation of the word Ntoro only a little can be said. The original meaning is lost, and it is only the method of plausible deductions which is here employed. An informant, born about 18809, told me that Ntoro is an Ancient term, and that it is a cognate of "to", to die. This may be true. There are two established Twi words spelt •'ntOTo'V One is the variant of "utoto" or "ftofo": a lie, as found in "eretwa ntoro / atoro/«torb"jhe is telling a lie. The other an« is "ntoro": spirit, with which we are concerned here. That this word is traceable to "to": to die, cannot be gainsaid. In Asante Twi, one could say: , "Ebi reko na ebi reba", and "Ebi reto na ebi reba." It is more rhetoric to say "Ebi rekoro na ebi reba", and "Ebi retoro na ebi reba." So the form "tor©" as a cognate of the verb root "to" is possible. It may be noted that there exist the Twi i. Genesis 2 verse 7 ii. Rattray: Religion and Art in Ashanti:Chapter xxix. 9. Opanin Ahunuyea of Wawase, Kwabere 3, Ashanti: inter- viewed in 1953. v 94. NOTES words "korobae": that which does not change its form •when going or when coming1, and "korebeaniagye ": he who is happy wherever he finds himself. These also are cognates of "ko": to go. I am sensible to one or two points against this deduction, but those points are not indismissable. Again, the pattern of "ntoro" can be found in words like (i) Ntumi: the name of a man from Akuapem, meaning "the one against whom you cannot prevail", and (ii) Mpusu: the name of a fetish and of a man in Ofinsu, meaning "the unshakable." The investigation of the origin of "Ntoro" continues. But from the foregoing points. It can be argued that it is not peculiar that a term like "ntoro" should be formed by the sages of old to mean "that which does not die": the imperishable, which in fact is the connotation of the term "ntoro": the spirit which lasts as long as sons exist. The term "Nton" seems to have meant an "aTch" though it does not by itself mean so today. We find the term in the names of some (.plants which have arched blades; examples are: the NtonlO pia nt with which the ntonkete(mat) is made; and the Twit on plant.11 Nton is also in the Twi word Aninton w M ch means "the arch of the eye." There is again the Nyankoton, "the-sky-arch" or rainbow. The generic ter* Nt»n therefore appears to denote the "arch" which has stretched over the centuries and reached to the present: an "arch" which not only con- nects the past with the present, but it also embraces all in it as members bf one family. That is why Nton is ex- ogamous, and though the members forming it may come from different and distant places, they come under the same "family arch": wobo nton koro. 10The Nton plant: Pandanus sp.: See Irvine: Plants of t he Gold Coast: P.320 11The Twitcn plant: Sansevieria sp: See Irvine: Plants of the Gold Coast: P.375. * *• NOTES 95. Syntactically, another line can be drawn between the two terms Nton and Ntoro. When one wants to know to which extended family you belong, one would ask: "wobo nton ben?" The emphasis is on the verb "bo" which en- quires whether or not you "join" or "belong to" the "abusua", the extended family. On the other hand, the verb used in agreement with Ntoro is "dware", to bathe. Hence the enquirer would say,"Wodware ntoro btn?" "In which spirit (river) do you bathe?". The Akans, parti- cularly the Ashantis, believe that when a person is at the point of dying, his or her Ntote flies off and plunges itself into its agnate river.12 Often it does, so with a shout: "Hu*u-u-u!" and then a splash I and dis- appears. If the river-god does not order it to go back at once but welcomes it, then the soul left alone in the body also leaves it. This point of the Ntoro spirit reporting back to the river-god is the idea re- flected in the expression "kowuakra." Ketwu-a-kra is ' a sentence-word referring particularly to the Ntoro of Bosomtwe. The full meaning of it is, "you to whom people send their Ntoro to say goodbye before they dietH13 The classic expressions to which I have tried to call attention are "bo nton" and "dware ntoro." To sum up. the generic term Nton which is con- nected with the Akan matrilineage embraces such clan groups as Oyoko, Aduana, Agona, Asona, Ekoona, Bretuo, Asennec and Asakyiri. There are two points to be noted about them: the first is that each of the Nton may have subdivisions, as in the case of Aduana which has Aduana, Atwea and Aberade under the one major group known as ADUANA. The second point is that the Nton groups may 12 & 13 See a similar account in Rattray: Ashanti: Page 55 (Same page - footnote - gives reference to Bossman.) 96. NOTES have different nomenclature at different areas; for ex- ample, oyoko and Bretuo in Ashanti are the Anona and Twidan respectively in Fante.14 The Ntoro divisions traced patrilineally include Bosompra (River Pra), Bosomtwe (Lake Bosomtwe).Bosommuru (a river in Bodwescanwo in Adanse), Bosomnkatia (the Sea), Bosomdwer«be,Bosomakom, Bosomafi, Bosomayensu (River Ayensu), Bosomkonsi, Bosomsika, Bosomafram (River Afram), and Bosomkrete (a shrine at Aburi). These also divide up into several sub-divisions; in some areas, it is a sub- division which has persisted; for example, of Bosomnkatia it is the Adomakodee subdivision which is better known in Ashanti. Among the very well-known subdivisions of the Ntoro are the Aboade and the Adufude of the Busummuru major group.15 N T ORO is certainly different from NTON. A.C. Denteh. 14 i. ii. 15 i. ii. Rattray: Ashanti: Pages 47 ff Mensah: Asantescm ne Mmebus«m Bi (1966): Page 36. Busia: The position of the chief in the modern political system of Ashanti: pp.1-2; 127 Christaller: Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Languages pp.600-601 (Appendix D ).