PRAAD-Kumase and the Manhyia Archives: An Introduction

What can be said about the physical condition of PRAAD-Kumase? PRAAD-Kumase used to be housed in the old archives building at the Kumase Cultural Centre. Previous commentaries highlighted the difficulties that undermined research work, such as poor lighting in the reading room, a poverty of resources which lowered the morale of the workers, unavailability of photocopy services, and the fast-decaying archival records.Footnote ⁷ This is currently not the case as the archive has seen major improvements worth mentioning.

In 2016/17 PRAAD-Kumase moved into a newly constructed storeyed building adjacent to the old archives building. PRAAD shares this building with the administrative offices of the construction firm Contracta, as part of the Kejetia Market Redevelopment Project. The Brazilian contractor is expected to hand over the entire building after the second phase of the market project (this looks unlikely as the company has found other work outside the market project). Currently, the ground floor houses PRAAD while the upper floors serve the purposes of the firm. The repository is still in the old building, but the reading room, administrative offices, and washroom facilities are in this new building. Currently the reading room is air conditioned, has fluorescent lighting, and is fitted with high windows, which allow in a lot of natural light. The glass doors and windows are also soundproofed. This shields users of the reading room from the generally raucous environment of the Cultural Centre, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and the Kejetia market and lorry station nearby.

PRAAD-Kumase opens at 9:00 a.m. and closes at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. No document requests can be made after 3:00 p.m. (although, in our experience, requests may be permitted under special circumstances, such as when a researcher has a tight travel schedule). The search room has comfortable chairs and desks, is rarely crowded, and sees on average about six users per day.Footnote ⁸ Photocopying is available for 50 pesewas per page (US$0.04). Photographs are allowed. Previously the charge for taking photographs was 10 cedis per day (US$0.86). However, this rate was under review at the time of writing (possibly to 50 pesewas per picture). At PRAAD-Accra, one can request for documents to be scanned into searchable PDF files at the cost of 50 pesewas per page. Searchable PDF files are more convenient for scholars, especially when dealing with a large volume of records. PRAAD-Kumase plans to offer this service soon. A searchers’ ticket is also required, which is valid for a year. Students and faculty are advised to visit with their ID cards as proof of credentials. At the time of writing, tickets were sold to Ghanaian students for 10 cedis, whereas Ghanaian faculty, international students, and international faculty paid slightly more. The prices for the searchers’ ticket are also under review.

The increase in user fees by PRAAD is understandable, given the need to internally generate funds to meet certain day-to-day administrative requirements. Ghana’s archives continue to be underresourced and underfunded in proportion to their needs and importance. The negative effect of these seemingly arbitrary fee increases, unfortunately, is that Ghana’s university students are no longer able to freely conduct research (many cannot afford the new rates introduced by PRAAD). Conversations are currently ongoing between PRAAD and the History Departments of the University of Ghana and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for special dispensations to be extended to students.

The Manhyia Archives were established in May 1963 by the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies (IAS) as part of the Institute’s Ashanti Research Project. The core documents of this archive come from the holdings of the erstwhile Manhyia Records Office, donated to IAS by Asantehene Osei Agyeman Prempeh II (1931–70). The Asantehene also bequeathed to the archive the building formerly occupied by his lands department. The archive has occupied this building since 1964. It can be accessed via the main entrance to the Manhyia Palace, right next to the Asantehene’s Land Secretariat. The archive is staffed and managed by the IAS. Like PRAAD-Kumase, the Manhyia Archives opens at 9:00 a.m. and closes at 4:00 p.m. on weekdays. Requests from the repository cannot be made after 3:00 p.m. The archive has two reading rooms with a seating capacity of about twenty, although only one is regularly used. It also sees on average about six users per day. Photocopy services are available for 50 pesewas per page. Photography is allowed free of charge. Manhyia too plans to introduce scanning services soon.

A Three-Dimensional Approach to Kumase’s Urban Historical Archives

How did the project approach the records of PRAAD-Kumase and the Manhyia Archives? For our project’s investigation, we used a three-dimensional approach in understanding the unfolding of urban Kumase’s history. First, we focused on the changes and transformations that have occurred in Kumase’s physical spaces. For instance, ARG 1/15/68, titled Recreation Ground, Kumasi, informed us that our research subject, Jackson Park, used to be a Muslim cemetery which was converted into a football field in the mid-1930s. Later changes to the built environment of the park saw it converted from a football field to state parade grounds, a trade fair site, and, finally, a car park. Tracking transformations in the physical appearance of this location informed us of how the Ghanaian state and other powerful actors such as chiefs impinged on the evolution of physical spaces over time, shaping contestations, negotiations, and eventual resolutions.

Second, we searched for records that could enlighten us on the history of social, political, and economic processes within the borders of Jackson Park. One way of doing this was by looking at the fluid relationships that existed between the entities and individuals who organized social and political events such as football games, state durbars, science exhibitions, beauty pageants, and dinner dances, not just at the park, but also its neighboring edifice, the Prempeh Assembly Hall (built between 1938 and 1939).Footnote ⁹ This approach was instrumental in understanding the different ways diverse elite groups, their supporters, and ordinary residents related to public spaces in historical Asante society.

Finally, we looked at the histories of users of Jackson Park’s physical space. These included: Kumase’s Muslim residents who lived in the nearby Yalewa Zongo and used the park for Ramadan prayers; British officials and Asante chiefs who used the park for state durbars and parades; coconut and yam sellers who hawk their foodstuff on the park’s outer perimeter; African nationalist politicians who organized party rallies at the park; individuals who rented the park for funerals and weddings; and state institutions like the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, which controls access to the park.Footnote ¹⁰ Focusing on the actors who use this space helped us to make sense of present-day state-society contestations over the nature, direction, and pace of development in Kumase.Footnote ¹¹

Indeed, Jackson Park is but a small patch of land in Kumase. Yet, as we came to understand during our research, contestations that unfolded around the park, and the meanings people generated from their historical associations with the park, were representative of larger debates over the status of Kumase as the capital of a primordial state. Kumase is a city shaped by a mishmash of colonial interventions, inhabited by a proud and boisterous indigenous population, and host to an active immigrant population eager to assert themselves as citizens of a postcolonial state under whose power Kumase reluctantly falls.

From the two archival holdings on Jackson Park, we were able to develop an intricate understanding of the sentiments people associate with public spaces around Kumase. We realized that the meanings captured on the archival pages are not dead and forgotten. On the contrary, they are alive and continue to animate everyday actions and negotiations on Kumase’s streets despite the passing years. We therefore recognized from our archival research that both the archival past and the ethnographic present reflect the entwined histories of space, human processes within space, and actors living and toiling within these spaces.

The Thematic Arrangement of Kumase’s Archival Records

Based on this three-dimensional approach, what are some of the records at PRAAD-Kumase and the Manhyia Archives that are useful for urban historical research? The records can be divided into four broad thematic periods: the early colonial period (1896–1920), the middle colonial period (1921–35), the late colonial period (1936–57), and the post-independence era (1957–70).

The early colonial period covers the imposition of colonial rule on Asante by the British in 1896, the subsequent exiling of the Asante monarchy to the Seychelles Islands, and the establishment of a nascent colonial bureaucracy. It was during this period that British officials began to impose fundamental ideas of European development and modernization on the forest environment of Asante, especially Kumase. Admittedly, most records from this period cover political issues as the British tried to make sense of their latest colonial acquisition while instituting pacification policies after the 1900 Yaa Asantewaa War. However, they also catalogue interesting information on the gradual spread of colonial goals such as administrative offices, general infrastructure, and military outstations across Asante.

The middle colonial period saw the reinforcement of the colonial bureaucracy to reflect changing British attitudes towards the Asante from one of suspicion to cautious trust. By this period, colonial authorities had developed a better appreciation of Asante politics and culture and, as such, could engage the Asante with more confidence.Footnote ¹² The late colonial period witnessed the most changes in urban Asante as the colonial state carried out developmental projects on a large scale through the combined agencies of an established mature bureaucracy and a restored Asante monarchy. The documents on this period offer more wide-ranging perspectives on colonial development and urbanization in Asante compared to the two preceding periods.

The post-independence period comprises records on urban development after the transfer of power from British to Ghanaian hands. The volumes from this period, although large in number, can still not be compared to the scope of documents available on the late colonial period. This is due to a combination of factors such as the thirty-year rule and the general decline of the Ghanaian state bureaucracy after independence, which resulted in a famine of record supply to the archives.Footnote ¹³ We terminate our archival research in 1970 because of the paucity of records from the 1970s onwards. Even though the thirty-year rule means documents from the 1970s and 1980s should be released, in practice only a few documents are available due to administrative bottlenecks and bureaucratic delays.Footnote ¹⁴

PRAAD-Kumase’s records in particular display an impressive geographical range. They cover not just Kumase the Asante capital, but other urban areas in Asante such as Obuase, Bekwai, Konongo, Dwaben, and Mampon. Until the creation of the Brong Ahafo region, Asante covered a large area which, historically, included parts of the upper Trans-Volta Togoland and the Gold Coast’s Eastern and Western Provinces. As a result, many records are available on areas outside Asante-proper. These include Sunyani, New Dwaben, Kwahu, Ketekrakye, Banda, Sefwi, Wenchi, Gyaman, Wam, Dormaa, and even Tamale and parts of the Gold Coast’s Northern Territories.Footnote ¹⁵

Useful Records for Urban Historical Research at PRAAD-Kumase

The ARG (Ashanti Records Group) 1/33 series contain records on natural disasters and general accidents from 1906 to 1951. Scholars interested in urban administration would find the ARG 1/26/1–3 series particularly useful. They hold documents on rules, regulations, and ordinances. For records on urban planning, street naming, demolitions and compensations, and the establishment of markets, see the files under ARG 1/7/1/30, ARG 1/7/1/38, ARG 1/7/1/39, ARG 1/7/1/40, and ARG 1/7/1/46. The ARG 1/17 series also hold detailed records on urban development across Asante. They especially focus on the layout plans of Asante’s smaller towns and villages.

Information on public health topics such as disease prevention and control, community sanitation, mental asylums, and hospitals generally can be found under the ARG 1/14 series. The records of the Kumasi Public Health Board can be found under the ARG 1/14/5–7 series.Footnote ¹⁶ Records on the introduction of electrification and lighting in early colonial Asante can be found under the ARG 1/15 series. The development of road transportation falls under ARG 1/15/1. ARG 1/15/2 covers the expansion of railways in Asante.

Records on Kumase’s water supply can be found under the ARG 1/15/5 series.Footnote ¹⁷ For public recreational and durbar grounds, including Kumase’s town hall, rifle range, golf course, and nongovernmental associations and clubs, see the ARG 1/10 series. This series has volumes on associations such as the Red Cross (health), Goldsmiths Association (business), and Boys Scouts (general interest). In addition to these records, ARG 1/34 also contains files on sporting activities such as tennis and golf. Cemeteries (exhumations and burials) are covered by ARG 1/2/24/22 and ARG 1/2/25/1. The ARG 1/35 series offers another set of comprehensive records on cemeteries and related matters across Asante.Footnote ¹⁸

On the Asante Confederacy Council (restored by the colonial government in 1935), see the ARG 1/2/26 series. The series contains the minutes, rulings, and bylaws of the restored Asante Confederacy on urban planning and development. These records are essential to Asante’s urban historiography because the council worked closely with the colonial government to oversee urban development.Footnote ¹⁹ Due to indirect rule after 1935, many of the laws and ordinances that governed urban areas were distilled through the agency of chiefs. These records are thus important in understanding how colonial law operated in a traditional society still undergoing change. Corresponding folders from the Manhyia Archives on the Confederacy Council are noted below.

For information on government departments and institutions, see the ARG 1/8/1 series. It contains information on departments such as Geological Survey, Lands, Veterinary, Town and Country Planning, Public Works, and Labour. Likewise, the ARG 1/18 series covers government committees such as the Sanitary Committee of the early colonial period. ARG 1/19 contains further records in the form of minutes of meetings of various committees, but from the middle to late colonial period. ARG 1/20 contains reports by government commissions, committees, and observers. ARG 1/20/1 comprises further government reports. ARG 1/20/2 holds reports from the district level. Intelligence reports can be found under the ARG 1/20/8 series. For police, prison, and security matters in general, see the ARG 1/9/1 series.

Records of the District Commissioner for Kumase’s office are contained in the ARG 6 class. They deal with issues emanating from and principally concerning the Kumase urban area. These records start in 1919 and terminate in 1966. On the demolition of houses, see ARG 6/1/2 and ARG 6/1/24. For records on road development, see ARG 6/1/6–7 and ARG 6/1/19. On general development in the Kumase area, see ARG 6/15. These include records on roads, railways, and industrial development. ARG 6/1/8 details the provision of finance for chiefs to engage in town and village improvements.

On Kumase’s Royal Mausoleums, see ARG 6/1/11.Footnote ²⁰ For general maps and cartography, see the files under ARG 6/1/45. On rent control and other related matters, see ARG 6/1/57. Files on health, sanitation, hospitals, and other related issues can be found in the ARG 6/1/69 volumes. Records on Kumase’s slaughterhouses can be found under ARG 6/1/124. ARG 6/14 offer further records on disease control, sanitation, and medical services in general. Records on government departments and institutions fall under the ARG 6/8 series. These span the period between 1924 and 1966. They cover waterworks, museums, lands department, and posts and telegraphs.

Kumase’s associations and clubs fall under the ARG 6/10 series. These include folders on letter writers, the rifle club, and senior civil servants. Records on the expansion of local government administration can be found in the ARG 6/11 series. District and municipal council minutes can be found here. ARG 6/18–19 has further records on committees and commissions, especially from the district and local government levels. On schools and education matters in general, see ARG 6/13. On population census and related matters, see ARG 6/16. Further records on town and country planning and layouts can be found under ARG 6/17. On matters relating to elections, see ARG 6/24.

The records under the ARG 2 class (records of the Ashanti Regional Administration Office) deal with issues concerning Asante as a whole, not just Kumase. The files begin in the late colonial period (especially the late 1940s); however, the bulk emanate from the postindependence era up to 1979. The ARG 2/1 series contains records on topics of general interest such as public ceremonies in Asante, funerals, housing loans schemes, the Kumase trade fair, independence anniversary celebrations, hotels, and the development of Lake Bosumtwi as a tourist attraction.

ARG 2/3/1 covers land boundary disputes. ARG 2/3/3 holds records on stool lands in Asante. Records on forest reserves in Asante can be found under the ARG 2/4 series. On courts and judicial matters, see the ARG 2/6/1–6 series. The ARG 2/8 series has files on state agencies such as the meteorological department, post office, social welfare, the zoological garden, and the workers brigade. On military lands, soldiers’ quarters and accommodation in Kumase, and other military-related issues in Asante, see the ARG 2/9/1 series. Records on the police can be found in ARG 2/9/2.

For records on clubs and associations in Asante, see the ARG 2/10 series. These include files on the Ashanti Youth Association, Taxi Drivers Association, Butchers Association, Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healing Association, Charcoal Sellers Association, Playing Cards Association, and the Young Women’s Christian Association.Footnote ²¹ The ARG 2/10/1–4 series hold further records on clubs and unions. These include societies and clubs such as the Asante Kotoko Society, the Child Care Society, Ashanti Herbalists Union, and the Ghana Motor Union. ARG 2/10/3/22 is a volume on iced-kenkey and koko sellers, vendors of breakfast and lunch foods in many of Ghana’s postcolonial urban centers.

For bylaws, see the ARG 2/11/3 series. These cover issues such as local authorities, markets, and lorry parks. On matters relating to the development of education, see the ARG 2/13 series. ARG 2/13/1–2 cover the establishment of elementary and secondary schools in Asante, ten-year development plans, the Bureau of Ghana Languages, and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. ARG 2/14 covers health and sanitation matters. These include smallpox, family planning, infectious disease control, and the Ghana leprosarium. ARG 2/14/1 holds volumes on health institutions such as the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and the Mental Hospital. ARG 2/14/2 series contains medical reports on Kumase from 1954 to 1964.

Records on industrial and developmental projects can be found under the ARG 2/15/1 series. The series comprises records on the expansion of Asante’s electricity grid, radio communications, and the construction of a swimming pool for Kumase. ARG 2/15/2 holds records on government buildings, bungalows, and estates such as the Asawase and TUC estate projects. Records on water supply projects in Kumase and other Asante towns can be found under ARG 2/15/3.

For government development plans and committees for Asante, see the ARG 2/15/7–9 series. The ARG 2/18 series hold further documents on government committees and commissions. On population and census matters, see ARG 2/16. ARG 2/17 holds volumes on town and village layouts. The ARG 2/19–21 series contain records on intelligence, committee minutes of meeting, departmental and district monthly, quarterly, and annual reports, as well as personnel matters. On matters of religion, see the ARG 2/30 series. For security schemes and structures, see the ARG 2/39 series.

Useful Records for Urban Historical Research at the Manhyia Archives

Most of Manhyia’s holdings come from the records of the Kumasi Traditional Council (MAG 1 series) and the Asanteman Council (MAG 21 series).Footnote ²² All Asante rulers have had close working relationships with the national government. As a result, one can also find in the holdings government publications, bulletins, and gazettes. MAG 22/5 is a list of records on executive instruments. MAG 22/7 contains gazettes from 1928 to 1958. You can also find the private letters of the last three Asantehene before the incumbent: Prempeh I (1888–1931), Prempeh II (1931–70), and Opoku Ware II (1970–99) in the MAG 2 series. These letters provide inner perspectives from the Asante ruling lineage on political and social matters.

One of the richly documented themes at Manhyia is land ownership and administration in both the Kumase urban area and Asante-at-large. One must exercise extreme analytical caution when perusing the documents on land ownership. Why? Due to the ebb and flow of power between Kumase officeholders and leaders outside of Kumase in Asante’s long history, Kumase officeholders lay claim to many tracts of land beyond the traditional boundaries of the Kumase state. However, colonial rule reversed and erased many of the precolonial agreements and contracts that validated these claims and regulated land ownership in general.Footnote ²³ Many of the archived testimonies on land ownership come from the colonial period, although the records also contain documented cases up to the 1980s. They thus contain blends of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial understandings of Asante land law. We therefore advise cautious reading and interpretation of these records. The MAG 1 series contains the records of the Kumasi Traditional Council, which shed light on these issues. On land matters specifically, see the MAG 1/6 series. This covers concessions, boundary disputes, allocation of residential plots, and leases.

Issues relating to colonial Kumase’s various associations and societies can be found under MAG 1/11. These records sometimes overlap with corresponding titles from PRAAD-Kumase highlighted above. Their importance, however, lies in how they illuminate both the dichotomies and similarities in reactions by colonial officials and Asante chiefs to social and political problems. MAG 1/18 contains various speeches from 1928 to 1941. MAG 19–20 hold press releases and newspapers from the colonial period up to 1976.

The records of the Asantehene’s courts can be found in the form of dockets and record books under MAG 9–10. They contain thousands of court cases. These cases offer a breathtaking range of case studies on matters such as land disputes, adultery, inheritance, defamation, and trespassing. The Kumase traditional area also had divisional (clan) courts presided over by divisional chiefs. Every Asante served the Asantehene through their respective clan. The clan courts therefore provided a platform for adjudicating cases at the local level. Eight divisional courts are represented in the archival holdings stretching from 1924 to 1960. These are Krontire (MAG 13/1/1), Akwamu (MAG 14/1/1, MAG 14/2/1), Adonten (MAG 15/1/1), Kyidom (MAG 16/1/1, MAG 16/2/1), Gyaase (MAG 17/1/1, MAG 17/2/1), Benkum (MAG 18/1/1), Oyoko (MAG 19/1/1, MAG 19/2/1), and Ankobia (MAG 20/1/1).

Despite the best efforts of the archivists at both PRAAD-Kumase and Manhyia, we encountered problems during our research such as misplaced documents, unavailable files, fragile records, and mislabelled catalogue numbers.Footnote ²⁴ Nevertheless, the wealth of data available promises to bear fruit for researchers interested in urban history and related fields.

Tin-Trunk Archives in Kumase

We cannot finish our discussion without reference to a third archival source we benefited from: the ‘tin-trunk’ archives of elderly Asante who lived through colonial rule, and whom we were privileged to interview.Footnote ²⁵ For instance, Apagyahemaa Nana Durowaa is the centenarian wife of Asantehene Prempeh II. Because of her position at the center of the Asantehene’s court, she was able to accumulate a great volume of photographs, posters, and magazines, which she generously allowed us to peruse while offering insightful commentary on some of the events and people captured. These included the opening ceremony of the United Africa Company’s Kumase headquarters (Unicorn House), the famous wooden bridge over Kumase’s Railway Station, and various processions of chiefs and festivals in Kumase. Photographs from her tin-trunk archives provided us with invaluable immersive views of important locations around colonial Asante. This is important because Jackson Park does not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, its history has always been closely tied to other monuments, locations, and events around Kumase and Asante.

The challenge with tin-trunk archives during our research was that many of our interlocutors were reluctant to open to academic research and document their private archives. This is not a new development in Asante history. Kwame Arhin and Tom McCaskie repeatedly failed to convince Baffour Osei Akoto, the Asantehene’s famous linguist, to donate some of his private papers to the Manhyia Archives. Asante elders are fully cognizant of the political ramifications and pitfalls of historical construction and interpretation. As Arhin put it, elders “had to think of their posthumous reputations and did not want ‘spies’ fossicking about in their papers.”Footnote ²⁶ Akoto himself confirmed this: “I don’t want people building themselves up by tearing me down. If I make my papers public I will certainly lose something.”Footnote ²⁷ This partially accounts for why we made no headway in our bid for access to the archives of the Ashanti Pioneer, colonial Asante’s foremost newspaper, founded by John and Nancy Tsiboe.Footnote ²⁸ Other reasons include disputes in the Tsiboe family concerning who has oversight of the archives and the improper preservation of the newspaper’s back copies. Nevertheless, the tin-trunk archives we had access to gave us invaluable sparks of imagination with which to rethink colonial Asante and expand the horizons of our research possibilities.