Ɔkra

The soul Onyame gives at birth, carrying destiny (nkrabea); the origin of the Winti kra.

In the Akan tradition the ɔkra is a person's soul: a spark of Onyame, the creator, that enters the body at birth and returns to God at death. The ɔkra is the deepest and most divine part of a person, and makes someone a living being.

According to the tradition the ɔkra takes leave of God before birth and is then given the nkrabea, the destiny for this life. That destiny determines the broad lines, although according to many Akan thinkers it leaves room for one's own choices and effort. A well-known proverb says that no one can give another their destiny. Someone who keeps meeting misfortune would sometimes like to change their nkrabea, and many stories exist about that.

A visible sign of the ɔkra is the kra names, the names after the day of the week on which someone was born. Each day has its own ɔkra and its own qualities: Kwasi and Akosua for Sunday, Kwadwo and Adwoa for Monday, Kwabena and Abena for Tuesday, Kwaku and Akua for Wednesday, Yaw and Yaa for Thursday, Kofi and Afua for Friday, Kwame and Ama for Saturday. Through slavery those names came to Suriname, where they live on in Winti and folk culture, together with the concept of kra.

The ɔkra is distinguished from the sunsum, the spirit or personality, and from mogya, the blood of the maternal line. Where the sunsum is said to travel in sleep, the ɔkra remains the core. Dreams about your own birth, your name or a sense of calling are sometimes connected with the ɔkra and the nkrabea in an Akan reading.

On Dreamkin we describe these concepts as a way of looking, not as a statement about anyone's destiny.