THE FORGOTTEN GUANS OF GHANA

Guans are one of the widely spread ethnic groups in Ghana. They were mostly known as the Etsiifo, at least, the Fantes called them so.

The Fantes said that they came to meet them at  the coastal areas of Ghana.

Well, Etsiifo could not only refer to the coastal Guans, that is, the Awutu, Efutu, Krakye, Larteh etc. but then, a rather linguistically diversed group who could have also once occupied the coasts of Ghana. 

Those would be the Nyagbo, Tafi and Asebu (who later amalgamated with the Ahantas in the present day Western Region and the remaining Asebu group would later migrate to Bowire, a town in the Oti Region to amalgamate with the Kpokpaase-Ofo to form the Bowire tribe.)

This development has led the Nyagbo, Tafi and Bowire to be referred to as Guans but it is not so. They are at the moment a unique linguistic group called the Ghana-Togo Mountain Languages of which, these Guans, Likpe and Buem, have also amalgamated with them. 

To further clarify, indeed the Guans could have once been at the coasts of Ghana but these group of people, (Asebu , Tafi, Nyagbo, Avatime) could have also been settled there but the Fantes who couldn't differentiate the Guan language from the languages of the Asebu, Tafi, Nyagbo called all of them "Etsiifo." Etsiifo in Fante means "those ahead of us."

According to one elderly man at Tafi, who is a member of the Nelson Family at Tafi-Mador,  clarified that the people of Santrokofi are Tafis who went to establish a new settlement in order to expand the small Tafi settlement.

Well, let us not let this intro divert us from our main topic THE FORGOTTEN GUANS OF GHANA. There are pockets of Guan communities which have being absorbed by the wider Guan groups and they are not really seen as independent groups who have developed seperate languages.

Where they are seen as individual groups, people usually struggle to classify them. Let us look at the main Guan groups again

1. Ga-Akan Related Guans (Southern Guans) - from the Guan Shuoyi Clan

2. Akan-Related Guans (Western Guans) - from the Ndenye Clan

3. Ewe-Akan Related Guans (Eastern/Oti Guans) - from the Guan Le Clan

4, Northern Guans - also from the Guan Shuoyi Clan

With these facts established, every Guan community should belong to any of this four. Let us go on to list some of our forgotten Guan groups with the major tribes they are associated or have been absorbed into

    MINOR GUAN GROUP                                                ABSORBER/MOTHER TRIBE

1. Nkami                                                                             Seen as a dialectic group of Nkonya

2. Dwan                                                                               Seen as a dialectic group of Ntsumburun

3. Wiase, Bantama, Nframa                                                Seen as a dialectic group of Ntsumburun

4. Basa                                                                                 Seen as a dialectic group of Krakye

5. Dompo                                                                             Seen as a dialectic group of Gonja

6. Kplan                                                                               Seen as a dialectic group of Gonja

7. Gwira                                                                               Seen as a dialectic group of Nzema

8. Moronu                                                                            Seen as a dialectic group of Anyin

9. Pepenza                                                                           Seen as a dialectic group of the Wassa

and the list could go on and on and on....

little information is known about these Guan groups as their stories have been overshadowed by the major Groups and their languages are almost dead. Some of the  languages are no more and they were not listed among the languages above and they would include Kuafasa, Dompo, Animere, Basila etc

In as much as this article may not go deep into their histories, the article seeks to throw light on these people. You can learn more by searching DISCOVER GUANS WITH HUNIAH on Youtube

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