Colonel William A. Phillips

The Guan-speaking Gikyode. Akyode people live in the northern Volta basin in the Oti Region of Ghana, Africa.[1] They are considered as the indigenous people of the Nkwanta South District. These people migrated into the Volta valley from the Mossi region of Burkina Faso around 1000 AD. The Akyode language is called Gikyode.

The Akyodes are made up of communities, Shiare, Abrewanko, Odomi, Nyambong, Kyilinga, Lebon, Siban, Pawa, Sabon (Kabre Akura), Bonakye, Krachi Akura, Kpabo Akura, Gekorong, Okata (Katai Junction), Kanba (Abrewanko Junction), Nyakoma, Agou, New Agou, Asuogya, Keri, Kabiti, Akonsigewi (Dogokitiwa), Kromase, and Anebogewi (Nyambong Junction). The paramount seat is in Shiare. Kingship is called gewura, and is the form of leadership in these communities. Each community has a chief, or wura, who rules the town. The chief of Kromase is called kromase wura. But the chief of Shiare can be called shiare wura or osulewura, which means king of the kingdom.

Initially, they were the only occupants of then Nkwanta District, made up of current Nkwanta South Municipality and Nkwanta North District, until the coming of other tribes. Other tribes heard of Brukum and the Black stool and hence came to sort refuge. Some of these tribes include the Challas, who came around the eighteenth century. The Adeles, especially Dediase people later approached the Akyodes under the leadership one Atta from Dekpongo through Gadon of Odome, an Akyode community.

References

  1. ^ The Peoples of Africa, by James Stewart Olson, 1996