Tano River

The Tano River runs 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles) from the Ghana-Ivory Coast border in the north down toward the Atlantic Ocean, where it empties into the sea. It is a highly regarded river by the Akan culture and has been associated with many of the great events and historical deeds of the Akan. Indeed, at the head of the river, where it begins, is the Tano Sacred Grove noted in history and by custom for its beautifully mystical clusters of striking sandstone formations, all enclosed in a semideciduous forest. Here the earliest settlements of the Akan are said to have taken place. The people emerged from the land in this region and then began to create the first centralized state. These Bono people, as they were called, were the first to identify the headwaters of the river with the sacred designation. Originally called Bono-Manso, this kingdom grew and was called the Techiman-Bono kingdom.

In time, the Tano River was associated with some of the greatest and oldest deities on Earth. In fact, Taakora, the greatest of the Akan gods on Earth, was said to dwell at the source of the Tano River in the grove. This has always been a place of the highest sanctity and worship for the Akan. Although the Supreme God Onyankopon (Onyame) is a sky deity, Taakora is the highest deity on Earth.

The waters of the river are used for purification. Indeed the Tano Shrine is kept nearby in the town of Tanoboase. However, the chief priest takes this powerful religious shrine annually to the [Page 648]sacred grove. At this time, the people come from many kilometers away to pay homage to the deity. At the grove that gives rise to the Tano River are festival sites that are used quite regularly for some of the more important occasions. For example, the Apoo Festival is held deep in the grove each April or May as a place for the people to ask for spiritual cleansing, rededication, and renewal.

As in many African cultures, the practice of renewal among the Akan can take place in many sites. However, here at the headwaters of the Tano, priests of the Atano abosom centered on the sacred river Tano performed some of the most important rites in all of Akan.

Among the Akan who come to this sacred place, drum texts, ritual statements, archaeology, oral narratives, and proverbs allow the people to reconfirm in their hearts the holiness of the Tano River Shrine.

Clearly, the deities who frequent the Tano River are not small deities; they are extremely important and popular with the almighty Onyame. Actually, all tutelary deities are extensions of the Supreme Being and are personalities.

Now the deity called Tano is the stool deity for Obo. It came with the Amoakade matrician from near the head of the Tano River in an area that is now called Brong Ahafo near the Ivory Coast border. The stool drums recite the famous poem that includes the lines: “The stream crosses the path. The path crosses the stream. Which came first? Pure, pure, Tano. The stream is from long ago.” It explains that the deities were here before the people.

...