35

N O T ES

THE NEW MIM OATH

Meka Osagyefo  Ffodo se mene wo nni osem biara  : that  is,  'I  swear by

Osagyeto's  Friday thar  I am at peace with you7.

This oath was sworn by a man and his wife  at the end of an arbitration
by the elders of Mim at which  I was present.  Subsequent enquiries showed
that  it had a widespread usage.

It  is well  known that among the Akans of Ghana oaths used to be  instituted
to commemorate untoward events  in chfefdoms: military defeats, violent deaths
of kings and chiefs,  outbreaks of famine and epidemics were recorded,  dated
and so immortalised  in oaths which became,  so to speak,  legal 
and writs of summons binding on king,  chief and subject.

injunctions

Oaths thus chronicled the fate of the chiefdom. 

It  is therefore not

surprising that the people of Mim  in the newly created region,  Brong-Ahafo,
have a new oath as stated above.

Osagyefo's,  Osagyefo the President's,  Friday  is an allusion to a  Friday
in June,  1949,  when the President,  then Secretary of the United Gold Coast
Convention,  is said to have wept at a meeting at Saltpond when he broke from
the Convention and formed the Convention  Peoples' Party.  By the oath,  the
people of Mim commemorate what they consider an eventful and fortunate
decision.  This is a departure  from tradition since oaths of old were allusions
to disasters.

Unlike  the oaths of old,  also,  this oath does not presage  litigation

as in any case the swearing of oaths no longer forms part of legal processes
in this country.  The oath merely establishes two sets of related factsrrrrhe
ascendancy of the President as the supreme authority  in this country and Ahafs's
local  independence of Ashanti.

Hence the oath,  unlike  in the days of old,  has no legal, but merely a
It  is used among friends and relatives who are among the

social sanction. 
Party faithful.

K.  Arhin