The matrilineal Fante are members of one of the most populous ethnic groups in Ghana, the Akan. They are the dominant group in the Cape Coast area and have a long history in the region. They are Fanti speakers, but also speak the national language, which is English. This case study provides an intimate look at the Fante, who now reside in towns and villages, are predominantly Christian and earn their living primarily as traders, farmers and fishing people, but are found in all walks of life including: government officials, teachers, University professors, lawyers and doctors. The people of Akotokiyr and Abaasa and Nim want readers to know about their villages and the people associated with them because they represent a spirit and a tradition and a collaborative lifestyle that are rapidly changing. The book makes it possible for readers to become participants in the scene-be it in a home, a palace of a chief, a church, in the market place, or in the author's own home-where they can see firsthand the ways in which the new is being incorporated into the old. As the Series Editor says, the blazing sun, the airless rooms with concrete block walls with roofs of sheet iron, the dust, flies, rough streets, the verdant forest, the streams the open, running sewers, all become habitats of our minds as we read of the author's interactions with people in the small villages where she is living and working.

1.Our Story: If all the people were to carry the heavens, no one would become humpbacked: An Introduction. 2. If you get your bundle ready, you will be helped to carry it: Community, Economy, Work. 3. When a chief has plenty of milk it is the people who drink: Becoming Queen Mother. 4. The poor kinsman does not lack a resting place: Kinship, Marriage, Family, Clan. 5. Nothing is as painful as when one dies without leaving a child behind: Children. 6. All human beings are children of God: Religion. 7. A person cutting a path does not know that the part that has been cleared behind him is crooked: Change. Bibliograpy. Glossary. Index.