GET TO KNOW MORE ABOUT SENYA BERAKU HISTORY

BRIEF HISTORY OF SENYA BIREKU

Senya-Bireku is a coastal town in the Central Region of the Republic of Ghana, in the Awutu Senya District, or politically, Awutu Senya Constituency. It takes less than an hour traffic-free drive from Accra, the Capital, on the Accra-Winneba highway to reach Senya-Bireku, about seventy-seven kilometers.

The people of Senya Bireku are Guans and they form part of the three Guan states in the Central Region: Efutu Bireku (Simpa/Winneba), Obutu Bireku (Awutu Bireku) and of course, Awutu Senya (Senya Bireku). All three states speak the Guan language with insignificant dialectical differences.

Before the Fantes settled in the Southern part of the country, the central Guans where already settled, and so were the Senyans. In his book, Topics in West African History, pp 63, Adu Boahen stated:

It is clear from oral traditions that the Akans who continued their migration southwards met in the coastal districts peoples who differed from them linguistically and culturally. This people on the coast were divided into two main groups: the Guan group to the west and the Ga-Adangme-Ewe group to the east. The first group – the Guans – consisted of the Etsi, the Asebu, the Afutu, the Senya-Breku and the Kyerepon. The second group consisted of the Ga, Adangme, the Shai, the Krobo and the Ewe.

The Guans, including the Senyans, are said to have migrated from the Mossi Region of Modern Burkina, around AD 1000. They continued southwards through the Volta Valley and created settlements along the Black Volta, Afram Plains in the Volta gorge, Akwapim Hills, before moving south into coastal plains. Oral history tells us that when the ancestors of Senya Bireku reached their present location, they said to one another, ani na ani sͻ ani nya bͻ iye (Brethren, let us rest here.) earning them the name Sowunya (rest) or Senya. 

Another school of thought however explains ‘Senya’ to mean MAJOR (SE) FESTIVAL (NYA). Until the domination of Akans and other tribes, all Guan states used to follow the same spiritual and religious patterns. They observe various rituals and festivals throughout the year. But the ‘Yam Festival’, called “Odwedji” by Boso; “Adwedi” or “Ododi” by Aguafo and “Ijodi” by the Senyans or Awutus, was the major (se) festival (nya) celebrated in all of Gua. 

In Senya, ‘Se’ means ‘major’, which perhaps is the reason the word for ‘father’ is also ‘Se’; implying that the father is the major entity in reproduction, family, social, religious and political life. That indeed gives evidence of the patriarchal nature of Senya traditions and social life.

‘Nya’ on the other hand means ‘festival’. (But worthy of note, the word Nya has almost faded away and in its place, the word efi, which rather means ‘year’, is erroneously referred to as ‘festival’). Traditionally, it is orally claimed that Senya-Bireku was the ritual home of the Guans while Bui (now, Buipe) was the political seat. Most deities in Gua were found in Senya-Bireku and they all commanded various rituals (nkusum) for various purposes. Senya Bireku was therefore the first state to open the celebration of the major (se) festival (nya) – Ijodi - followed immediately by the Guans in the Ahafo and Birekum patriarchates with the minor (su) festival (nya) – sunya[ni]- called Apor by the people of Tekyiman. 

‘Bireku’ on the other hand means the invocation of an ͻbire. ͻbire (pl: abire) means an amulet or a deity. In Senya the statement, ‘ale ku bire’, means there is going to be a ritual performance of invoking the כּbire. Such rituals are performed by people possessed by the deities. Such people are called Abirew (or כּbirew, for singular). Again, the statement, ‘ale sre כּbirew’, he means the abirew are going to dance in trance, under the possession of the nbire (deities) to perform certain ceremonial rituals in public. Through the abire, the ͻbirew possesses the power to heal, perform great wonders and foretell the future. Also when spell is cast on someone through the כּbire, it is rendered locally as entu mu bire.

Akumase is the major festival celebrated by the people of Senya Beraku. It is preceded by mini festivals, which are actually traditional farming processes that culminate into the Akumase festival in the third and fourth weeks of August. Akumase is a festival that recounts the greatest historical famine that ever struck the people of Senya Bireku and how their ancestors were able to use systematic agricultural processes to combat the affliction, eventually ending it with bumper harvest.

The main occupation of the people of Senya Bireku is fishing but farming, building construction, dress making, hairdressing, trading, driving, mechanics and teaching provide other means of livelihood.

Ode na inu (kenkey and fish) is the chief food of the people of Senya Bireku. Several ritual dishes such as npunpun (served during Akumase), mpͻturͻba, ejamja, itͻ, etc are prepared and served during occasions and ritual performances. 

Senya Beraku has a fort called Fort De Goede Hoop (or Fort Good Hope), built by the Dutch in 1702 (there hasn't been consistent date from historians. Some write, 1667, 1701, 1702). The Dutch entered Senya Bireku in the 1660s but they left the place due to the rivalry between them and the English. It was when they realized that the interest in gold trade by their company had not shifted to slavery that they returned to Senya-Beraku to build the fort, with the intention that it would be the last fort they would build in the Gold Coast. 

Fort De Goede Hoop was triangular and it purpose was towards gold trade. Indeed, the presumption was that it would grant them (the Dutch) “good hope” in the trade. Fortunately or unfortunately, the hope they planted in Fort De Goede Hoop failed to geminate as the gold-trade never became very prosperous. The attention was largely shifted to slave trade, which received a boom. The fort became well noted for the slave trade. In 1715, it was doubled in size to take care of the numerous slaves that were sold there. The diagonal wall was brought down and the whole Fort was made square instead of triangular. Even when slave trade was abolished, there were still some slaves smuggled through an underground entrance. Unfortunately, due to the enmity and wars between the English and the Dutch, Fort De Goede Hoop later came under attack and its outer wall broken down. There are still fragment of the broken wall. Below are pictures of how the fort originally looked.

As part of the 1868 fort ‘exchange treaty’, British took over the fort. In the 1980s, it was renovated and currently used as a guest house.

The Original View of the Castle. Far end was its outlook before it was enlarged for booming slave trade. The outer wall is currently broken down.