Countries and Their Cultures: Akan

The Akan comprise a cluster of peoples living in southern and central Ghana and in southeastern Ivory Coast. They form a series of distinct kingdoms and share a common language, known as Twi, which has many dialects. Twi is a tonal language and, since missionary work during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, has been written in Roman script. The Akan are almost all forest dwellers. The basic crops are forest root plants: yams, cocoyams, sweet potatoes, and plantains. Trees including oil-palm, other palms, and cocoa. In many areas, minerals -- especially gold and bauxite -- have been and remain important.