Akan dream interpretation: dreams in the Ghanaian tradition

Who are the Akan?

The Akan are a group of related peoples in Ghana and Ivory Coast, including the Asante, Fante, Akuapem, Akyem and Bono. Together they form Ghana's largest population group, and their language, Akan or Twi, is spoken by millions of people. Many Ghanaians also live in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam Zuidoost.

For Surinamese readers the Akan tradition is strikingly recognisable. Many of the enslaved people brought to Suriname came from the Akan area, and that can be seen in Winti and Surinamese culture: the kra, the day names such as Kwasi and Kofi, the stories of Anansi, and the word Kromanti, after the fort of Kormantin on the Gold Coast.

The person: ɔkra, sunsum and mogya

In Akan thought a person consists of several parts. The ɔkra is the soul that God, Onyame, gives at birth; it carries the nkrabea, the destiny you were given. The sunsum is the spirit or personality, which according to the tradition is passed on through the father. And the mogya, the blood, comes from the mother and connects you to your abusua, the maternal family line.

Dreams are above all connected with the sunsum. During sleep the sunsum is said to be able to leave the body, travel, and meet others: the living, the dead or spirits. What you dream is, in this view, sometimes what your sunsum actually experienced. According to the tradition a strong sunsum is better able to withstand what it meets along the way.

Ancestors and the spirit world

Above everything stands Onyame, the creator. Asase Yaa is the earth, and the abosom are deities who often dwell in rivers, lakes, forests or particular places, such as the river Tano or Lake Bosomtwe. Closest to daily life are the nsamanfo, the ancestors. They are honoured with libations, at the Adae festivals and in the blackened stools of elders and kings.

Dreams about deceased relatives are therefore looked at seriously and warmly. An ancestor may give advice, warn, protect or ask for something in a dream. Dreams about funerals, the family house and rivers are also often connected with the ancestors.

Adinkra and proverbs

A special language of meaning is the Adinkra symbols: signs originally stamped on mourning cloths, each with its own proverb or thought. Sankofa, a bird looking back, means that it is not wrong to go back and fetch what you forgot. Gye Nyame stands for the supremacy of God, Dwennimmen for strength with humility.

Those symbols and proverbs also help to read dreams. A dream that looks back, to an old house, a deceased grandparent or a place from your childhood, is often connected with Sankofa: what must you retrieve before you can move on? Akan wisdom is often passed on in proverbs, and a good dream reading uses one where it genuinely illuminates.

How Dreamkin reads Akan dreams

An Akan reading on Dreamkin begins with the feeling of the dream, and then asks: has the sunsum travelled, been disturbed or been visited? Is an ancestor speaking? Does the dream point back, so that Sankofa is the key? We give no predictions of misfortune, and we do not prescribe rituals.

The Akan tradition is broad and alive, and customs differ by people, family and region. Many Ghanaians also combine it with Christianity or Islam. Someone who finds a dream weighs heavily does best to discuss it with an elder in the family, as the tradition itself also advises.

Symbols in this tradition

• Dreaming of a baby in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of the forest in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of dying in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of money in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of a house in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of a crocodile in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of a deceased loved one in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of spiders in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of getting married in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of birds in the Akan tradition
• Dreaming of water in the Akan tradition

Guides

• Adinkra symbols and their meanings, including in dreams Every Adinkra symbol is a proverb you can see. Know the proverb, and you can read the symbol, on cloth, on a wall, and in a dream.
• 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.