Nyame, the Abosom, and the Ancestors

Akan religion, the tradition of the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire (Ashanti, Fante and others), is ordered around a supreme sky-god and a graded world of lesser powers. At the summit is Nyame (also Onyankopon), the creator and sky-god, all-knowing and everywhere, with the earth-goddess Asaase Yaa beside him.

Beneath them are the abosom, deities or spirits associated with rivers, lakes, the sea and particular places, who act as Nyame's intermediaries and are served by their own priests; and around the living are the nsamanfo, the ancestors, whose goodwill is essential and who are honoured at the family and chiefly level. Akan thought, as philosophers such as Kwame Gyekye have set it out, holds a rich account of the person, including the okra, the soul or life-principle given by Nyame, and of a moral order upheld by God, the ancestors and the community together. It is a living religion, described here in the present tense.