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The Enigmatic Akan Witchfinder: Sei Kwaku

Any witch found must be killed and property confiscated! – Sakrobundi 

Are witches and wizards real? What do they do? How did the Akan people of West Africa deal with them? How did the people protect themselves from their operations? These and many other questions inspired this blog. In one of my travels to Kumasi in late 2023, I came across the story of a witchfinder among the Akans called Sei Kwaku. This is what I found out about him.

Sei Kwaku was born in Welekei in the territory occupied by the Abron kingdom of Gyaman around the 1840s. The Abron Kingdom lies in the northeastern of today’s Ivory Coast and northwestern Ghana. The Abron Kingdom was between the Komoe River and the Black Volta on the border of the savannah and the forest.

The Abron Kingdom of Gyaman was founded in the 1690s at a strategic location near Begho (a central commercial area). Gyaman developed into a multicultural community due to its proximity to Begho.  Most of its residents could speak Twi, Naafa and other popular languages.

Sei Kwaku grew up in Welekei. In his early days, he associated with Naafa men who travelled into Gyaman and sold charms to help protect people against witches and sorcerers. These Naafa men also performed witch-finding masquerades in many communities in this region of West Africa. Many multicultural communities in the Abron Kingdom of Gyaman adopted witch-finding culture.

Sei Kwaku, an ardent follower of these Naafa men, developed a famished desire to possess these charms. According to oral tradition, the Naafa men Sei Kwaku associated with were werewolves who sometimes killed their victims at night and feasted on their blood.

The Encounter

Sei Kwaku’s desire for these charms transformed into visions. These visions directed him to find a traditional medicine called dufa to combat evildoers. Detection of evildoers mostly took place in an assembly of people.

Sei Kwaku during performances to identify evildoers wore a Bongo Antelope mask. These performances took place during community gatherings. Evildoers were pointed out from the crowd by Sei Kwaku and dealt with mercilessly unless they confessed and drank Sei Kwaku’s Dufa medicine. The victim’s refusal to take the medicine led to mob beating, for which some died; those who confessed were rehabilitated. However, persistent offenders were banished from their respective communities.

Witch-hunting had become common in the Abron Kingdom of Gyaman in the 1800s as the Naafa and Kulango settlers practised them. These practices were developed by Gur, Senfo and Muslims who interacted with the Abron people. Witch-hunting also became prevalent during this period and were hated by Akan communities to the south but also practiced.

The Abron Kingdom of Gyaman had been under Asante Hegemony since 1730s, following Asante expansion in the early 1700s. After the defeat of Asante in 1874 by the British, Gyaman gained its independence, and eventually broke away from Asante Hegemony.

After Gyaman’s independence, its political organization was thrown into disarray. Gyaman witnessed competition in the process of revising political arrangements. The struggle for political power happened at all levels, and people sought evil powers to achieve their respective interests. This struggle for political power led to the intensification of witchcraft in the region. Sei Kwaku travelled out of this need travelled with men from Welekei and acquired the Sakrobundi charm for witch-hunting and to provide assistance to political actors competing for political powers.

Sei Kwaku and the Sakrobundi Charm

Go straight. The road is cleared for you- Sakrobundi.

Sakrobundi is an Akan word which literarily translates as ‘repent from evildoing’.

Sei Kwaku and the people of Welekei travelled and acquired Sakrobundi from Dangabo, a man who lived in a town called Kandia, north of today’s Bondoukou, Ivory Coast. The inhabitants of Kandia were Gonja and Tampolensi. They returned to Welekei with Dangobo, who gave instructions on how to use and serve the witch-hunting fetish, Sakrobundi.

According to oral tradition, Sei Kwaku was chosen by Dangobo to serve Sakrobundi due to his experience with charms in his early days, and intelligence. He was given two masks and a medicine, which were kept in a shrine. Sei Kwaku declared that Sakrobundi was a blessing of peace and prosperity to every town by destroying witches.

Sei Kwaku on every Friday wore one of these masks and performed Sakrobundi masquerade witch-hunting among the Welekei people. The Sakrobundi, through Sei Kwaku, identified witches among the people and killed them instantly. Even people who died outside this performance were sent to the shrine in a custom called Afunsoa. This ritual involved interrogating corpse by Sei Kwaku to be declared a witch or wizard before burial. Those who admitted to being witches were given Sakrobundi fetish to cleanse them.

Mask [Sakrobundi/bedu] Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 29 January-1 March 1970

This witch-hunting grew popular in independent Gyaman owing to its efficacy and was accepted. Gyamanhene Kwakye Agyeman acknowledged Sakrobundi as it came when the people needed it the most. Sei Kwaku became extremely popular among Akan communities. Sei Kwaku also became wealthy as he kept the wealth of all victims.

The Spread of Witch-Hunting in the Akan World

Sei Kwaku made Welekei the headquarters of Sakrobundi. People came from far and near to acquire Sakrobundi in Welekei. According to T.C. McCaskie, during the 1890s, Sakrobundi’s popularity reached areas north of Gyaman, into Kulango, Nassian to Komoe River basin, through Duadaso to Takyiman and northwestern Bron villages. Sakrobundi was discussed by British officials in the Eastern Province of the Gold Coast.

Sei Kwaku began to travel to most communities in and around Gyaman and established Sakrobundi upon request of the chief and his people. Witch-hunting became widespread and accepted among most Gyaman communities. Incidentally, Sei-Kwaku and his Sakrobundi also became the most famous witch-hunters among the Akan.

Sakrobundi and Sei Kwaku faced serious crisis in their operation in these areas. There was unrest in these areas of West Africa around the 1900s. The unrests were the effects of the second defeat of Asante by British in 1901, and Samori Toure’s rage over Gyaman and neighbouring communities. The popularity and efficacy of the Sakrobundi festish dwindled after these unrests as Sei Kweku went into hiding. This led Kweku Sei to seek a new supernatural power called Aberewa.

The combination of Sakrobundi and Abrewa made Sei Kwaku’s medicine powerful and increased his popularity.

Sei Kwaku and his trained priests extended their operations into Asante in early 1900s, after the unrests in the area. Sei Kwaku amassed wealth among the Asante through his trained priests.

The next post on witch-hunting will explore the use of Sakrobundi and Abrewa in Asante.

Sources

McCaskie, T.C., Sakrobundi ne Aberewa’: Sie Kwaku the Witch-Finder in the Akan World.
Mask. n.d. Wood, 146; centimetres. https://jstor.org/stable/community.

A.A. Baidoo, The Life of Sei Kweku taken down from his own words’- Recorded by A.A. Baidoo and T.E. Fell. Sunyani, May 1907.

Terray, E. (1979). Un mouvement de réforme religieuse dans le royaume abron précolonial: le culte de Sakrobundi. Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 19(73/76), 143–176.

Written By

Stephen Baidoo is a writer who loves to research about Ghana's past. He brings Ghana's history to life with each unearthed fact and forgotten narrative, transforming dry dates into passionate stories.

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