Akan and dreams: the soul, the ancestors and Adinkra, from Ghana to Suriname

The kra, Kwasi and Kofi, Anansi: anyone Surinamese already knows the Akan. This guide shows how the Akan of Ghana read dreams, and why that tradition lives on in Paramaribo and Amsterdam Zuidoost.

In short

Among the Akan of Ghana a dream, dae, is not a random film: the sunsum, the spirit, is said to travel during sleep and have real meetings.
Deceased relatives, the nsamanfo, are the most important dream image; a smiling ancestor counts as a blessing.
Many Surinamese Winti concepts, such as the kra, the day names and Anansi, go back to the Akan.
Discuss a striking dream close to home first, with an elder in the family.

From the Gold Coast to Paramaribo and Amsterdam

The Akan live in southern and central Ghana and eastern Ivory Coast. They include the Asante, Fante, Akyem, Akuapem, Akwamu, Bono and Kwahu, among others. They speak related forms of Akan, of which Twi and Fante are the best known. Together they form Ghana's largest population group. The powerful Asante kingdom, with its capital Kumasi, controlled much of the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Europeans called the coast the Gold Coast, and there they built forts to trade gold and later people. The Dutch fort of Elmina and the fort of Kormantin are well-known examples. Through those forts thousands of Akan were shipped as enslaved people to the Americas, including Suriname. What they brought of language, stories and belief still lives on there.

Today tens of thousands of Ghanaians live in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam Zuidoost, where Ghanaian churches, shops and celebrations help shape the streets. For many Surinamese and Ghanaian Dutch people the Akan tradition is therefore not distant history, but part of their family and neighbourhood.

What Winti owes to the Akan

Anyone who knows Winti recognises much in the Akan tradition. The clearest example is the kra, a person's soul, which has a central place in Winti and goes directly back to the Akan concept of ɔkra. The day names are Akan too: in Suriname Kwasi and Kwasiba for Sunday, Kofi and Afi for Friday, in Ghana Kwasi and Akosua, Kofi and Afua. The name tells on which day you were born, and with it something about the nature of your kra.

Anansi, the clever spider of the Surinamese Anansi-tori, is Kwaku Ananse from the Akan stories. And the Kromanti winti, powerful winti connected in Winti with courage and protection, owe their name to the fort of Kormantin on the Gold Coast.

That does not mean Winti is the same as the Akan religion. Winti arose from the fusion of traditions of many different African peoples, and developed in Suriname into something of its own. But the Akan thread is clearly visible, and whoever gets to know the Akan tradition also understands Winti better. The guide Akan and Winti sets the two side by side, concept by concept, and also shows where they differ.

The person: ɔkra, sunsum, ntoro and mogya

To understand how the Akan read dreams, their view of the person is the key. According to the tradition a person consists of several parts, each coming from a different source.

The ɔkra is the soul, a spark of Onyame, the creator. It comes at birth and returns to God at death. Before birth the ɔkra takes leave of God and receives the nkrabea, the destiny for this life. The sunsum is the spirit or personality: what gives a person character, presence and resilience. According to the tradition it comes through the father, connected with the ntoro, the paternal spiritual line. The mogya, the blood, comes from the mother and determines which abusua, family line, you belong to. The Akan are matrilineal: inheritance and family run through the mother.

Ghanaian philosophers such as Kwame Gyekye and Kwasi Wiredu have written extensively about how these parts relate, and they do not always agree. Some see ɔkra and sunsum as two spiritual parts, others see the sunsum more as a function of the person. That discussion shows how alive the tradition is.

For dreams the sunsum matters most. It is said to travel during sleep, and what you dream is then what the sunsum experiences along the way.

Why the Akan take dreams seriously

In the Akan tradition a dream, dae, is not a random film of the mind. Because the sunsum is said to travel during sleep, a dream can be a real meeting: with a deceased grandparent, with someone who lives far away, or with forces from the spirit world. A dream can give counsel, warn or ask a question.

That is why many people tell a striking dream to an elder in the family. Elders know the family history, the customs and the proverbs, and can place a dream in context. Sometimes a dream is also put before an ɔkɔmfoɔ, a priest or priestess of an ɔbosom.

Many Ghanaians today are Christian or Muslim, and the attention to dreams has carried over. Especially in Ghanaian Pentecostal and charismatic churches dreams are taken very seriously, as a possible message from God or a sign of spiritual struggle. In Ghanaian churches in the Netherlands this is noticeable too.

At the same time the Akan tradition knows sobriety. Not every dream means something, and a dream that comes from hunger, worries or a hard day is usually simply about that. It is the task of elders to help make that distinction.

Common dream images and how they are read

Deceased relatives are the most important dream image. The nsamanfo, the ancestors, remain involved with the family according to the tradition. A smiling or blessing ancestor is read as good, an angry or sad one as a sign that something in the family needs attention. A well-known caution is not to simply go along with a deceased person in a dream or accept food from them.

Funerals are large events in Ghana, and a dream about a funeral is often read as transition or farewell, not as prediction. Rivers and lakes are connected with the abosom and the ancestors; crossing a river is an image of transition. A baby can point to new life or an ancestor returning in the family line. Gold stands for honour and responsibility. And a spider evokes Ananse: cleverness, cunning and stories.

Some dreams are connected in popular belief with spiritual attacks, such as dreams in which you eat, are chased or cannot move. Dreamkin does not establish such things. A dream in which you cannot move, for example, often has a physical explanation: sleep paralysis, which many people know and which is harmless.

Adinkra and proverbs as a language for dreams

The Akan pass on wisdom in proverbs, and the Adinkra symbols are that wisdom in images. Originally they were stamped on mourning cloths; now you see them everywhere, from clothing to buildings. For dream interpretation they are a rich language.

Sankofa, the bird looking back, belongs to dreams that go back: to an old house, a deceased grandparent, a place from your childhood. The question then is what you must retrieve in order to move on. Gye Nyame, except God, fits dreams in which you are powerless: not everything lies in your hands. Dwennimmen, the horns of a ram, is about strength with humility. Funtunfunefu, two crocodiles with one stomach, fits dreams about people who work against each other but share the same interest, such as quarrelling relatives. Aya, the fern, grows in difficult places and stands for endurance. And Nkyinkyim, a zigzag line, is about the winding road of life. Hye Won Hye, that which does not burn, belongs to dreams of fire or of a trial you come through unharmed. Osram ne Nsoromma, the moon and the star, fits dreams of a love or a bond that waits faithfully.

A good Akan reading uses such a symbol or proverb only where it genuinely illuminates the dream. It is not a dictionary, but a way of looking. The guide to Adinkra symbols shows eighteen of them, each with its glyph, its proverb and what it can mean in a dream.

The calendar: Adae and Odwira

The Akan calendar has a forty-two-day cycle, within which fall the Adae festivals: Akwasidae on a Sunday and Awukudae on a Wednesday. On those days the ancestors are honoured. In royal families this happens in the stool house, where the blackened stools of deceased kings and queens are kept. There are offerings, drumming and celebration. At the court of the Asantehene in Kumasi the Akwasidae is a large public festival.

Once a year many Akan communities hold Odwira, a festival of purification and renewal around the harvest of the new yams. The old year is closed, the ancestors are fed and honoured, and the community begins anew.

Around such festivals dreams about ancestors get extra attention in many families. Whoever dreams of a deceased relative in that period can read it as a sign that the ancestors are present at the celebration, and as an invitation to remember them.

Handling an Akan dream with respect

Whoever has a vivid dream and wants to know what it might mean in the Akan tradition does best to start close by. Write the dream down: who was there, what they wore, where it was, what was said or given, and how it felt. Then discuss it with an elder in the family, who knows the customs and the family history.

Be careful with people who quickly draw hard conclusions, especially when money is involved. In the tradition a dream is an invitation to listen, not a reason for fear. Dreamkin does not predict misfortune and does not prescribe rituals. Whoever suffers from anxiety or sleeplessness after a dream can also simply seek help from a GP.

On Dreamkin you will find Akan readings for symbols such as spiders, water, a deceased loved one, dying, a baby, a wedding, money, birds, a house and the forest, and explanations of terms such as ɔkra, sunsum, nsamanfo, Adinkra and Sankofa. In the app you can have your own dream read from the Akan tradition.