KONNUROKUSEM - KINSHIP AND FAMILY IN THE HISTORY OF THE OYOKO-KOKOO DYNASTY OF KUMASE

This paper is concerned with a vitally significant - but hitherto larg ely unrecovered - feature of the pre-colonial African past. Historians of Africa commonly pay conventional lip service to the idea that the structural and affective dimensions of kinship are of great, and even shaping, importance in the past of many of the societies that they stu dy. However, such acknowledgements remain in the realm of generalizati on, and hardly any scholarship exists that seeks to historicize kinshi p in any detail. This paper tries to redress this situation. It goes b eyond synchronic ethnographic commonplaces, and offers a historically documented analysis and interpretation of the operation of kinship wit hin a specific pre-colonial context. The subject matter is the West Af rican forest kingdom of Asante (Ashanti), now located within the Repub lic of Ghana. In specific terms, the paper addresses the structural ch aracteristics and the interpersonal dynamics of kinship within the his tory of the Kumase Oyoko Kokoo abusua (the ruling dynasty of Asante) b etween, very broadly, the 1760s and the 1880s. The discussion is centr ed on the evolving history of relations between individuals - most cen trally the Asantehene Kwaku Dua Panin and the Asantehemaa Afua Sapon - within a particular pyafunu koro (uterine group or stirp; 'family') t hat was a componential part of the royal dynasty. The core of the pape r is an analytic reading of the konnurokusem, a complex dynastic confl ict that involved the individuals named and that occurred in the 1850s . In sum, this paper argues that the reconstruction and analysis of th e field of kinship relations within African societies - such as the ex ample of pre-colonial Asante discussed here - places an extremely impo rtant, if hitherto neglected, tool in the hands of historians. The int erpretation of events, the understanding of actions and motives, and t he overall deepening of comprehension are all enriched by the use of t his tool. The enrichment thereby attained - it is argued - pays approp riate and overdue attention to specifically indigenous readings of the Asante (and African) past.