Abosom

The Akan deities, children of Onyame, who dwell in rivers, lakes and forests.

The abosom (singular ɔbosom) are the deities of the Akan tradition. They are understood as children or messengers of Onyame, the supreme god, and each has its own place in the world: a river, a lake, a rock, a grove. Tano, the river and the ɔbosom of the same name, is among the most important. Lake Bosomtwe and rivers such as the Bosompra and the Bea are linked to abosom of their own, and many towns honour an ɔbosom who protects that place.

Unlike Onyame, the abosom are served in shrines by priests and priestesses, the akɔmfo (singular ɔkɔmfo). An ɔkɔmfo is called to that service, trains for years, and in the shrine's dances may be possessed by the ɔbosom, who then speaks through them. People come to a shrine with questions about health, family, work or a troubling dream.

The abosom are distinct from the ancestors, the nsamanfo, and from suman, objects made for protection. In a libation they are named after Onyame and Asase Yaa.

In the diaspora the abosom are remembered too. Akan ideas reached Suriname with enslaved people, and the Winti tradition there still carries echoes of them, for instance in the kromanti, whose name recalls the Gold Coast.

In dreams the abosom are often associated with water and with figures in white. A dream of a river, of someone in white cloth at the water's edge, or of being called towards a grove can be read in the Akan tradition as nearness to an ɔbosom. What such a dream means for one person is not something an outsider can say. It belongs to the family and, where needed, to an ɔkɔmfo who knows the deity in question.