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correct, his ancestors built a hamlet on Asukwa land and started to clear<br />
it more than 500 years ago. It seems more likely, however, that at that time,<br />
i.e. the end of-the-14th centmy,-the-Mborbor Mfantseto which-theAbura' s<br />
(or Aburafo), the founders of Abura State belonged, came down from the<br />
savannah in Northern Ghana (where they are alleged to have dwelled in the<br />
area of Tekyiman), first to defeat the Akraman and then to settle at<br />
Mankesim. There they organized themselves into five abron or wards, each<br />
bron forming its own military or asafo company. In due course, having<br />
grown too numerous, four of the five wards moved away from Mankesim<br />
in search of a new habitat. Of these the Anaafo bron moved to the North<br />
West and, after splitting into two, one (the Nomabufo) settled on the coast<br />
and formed Anomabu State; the other (the Aburafo) settled inland, first<br />
near Gyabankrom and later at Asimadzi near Abakrampa, to form the<br />
Abura Oman. 16<br />
On their arrival they found two peoples in their way: the Asebufo<br />
who had arrived a century earlier (it is said that they came over the sea from<br />
Benin) and the original inhabitants, the Etsifo. Under their Osahene<br />
Apredontwi, 17 the Aburafo first routed and suppressed the Asebufo, then<br />
subjected the Etsii. Only then, in about the second half of the 16th century,<br />
did they really take possession of the land: a definite area of the conquered<br />
territory being assigned to every clan where it could establish itself under<br />
its own warieader. The surviving Etsifo were allowed to settle down among<br />
them.ls<br />
We must assume that it was at that time that Asukwa Kwegyir and<br />
Kwegyiriwa, Nana Quansah's ancestors, came to settle on Asukwa land,<br />
which was at least twice as large as it is at present.<br />
If what several asasewuranom have told us is historically correct,<br />
the original Asukwa must again have been much larger as it also comprised<br />
the lands which are now known as Odompem (to the North), Dawurampon<br />
(to the South), Amoanda (to the West) and Ampaah (to the North West).<br />
The Twidan lineage which inhabited this Great-Asukwa needed other<br />
lineages to supply suitable marriage partners, and it was of course more<br />
effective to have these settle in the vicinity; parts of Great-Asukwa were<br />
therefore allocated to the lineages that intermarried with the Asukwa<br />
Twidan and, in time, also with each other. Alternatively, these areas have<br />
never really been part of Asukwa but formed a large reserve of virgin forest<br />
from which the lineages, intermarrying with the Asukwa Twidan, could<br />
easily parcel out their own family lands. These mbusua and the lands where<br />
they settled were the following.<br />
68
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