This paper illustrates some of the results of an ethnographic research, as well as an archival survey, carried out in South-West Ghana. It suggests a reading of traditional leaders’ political agency by considering how chiefs shape the rhetoric of custom and history to acquire or reinforce their legitimacy, especially through the display of power on the ritual stage. Such a scenario emerges from the observation of a traditional festival named Kundum, which can be described as a special setting where the actors creatively manipulate the historical horizon and confirm their rights in the present accordingly. The celebration, therefore, contributes to the intensification of chieftaincy conflicts that are mostly expressed and contained in the form of litigations in the law courts, even though sometimes take a violent turn. In many instances, litigations and performance are intimately linked, to such an extent that the festival is affected by the rulings and, in turn, it is widely used to legitimate or contest a certain political and territorial order.
A relevant example is provided by the case that has been concerning the local authorities in the coastal town of Axim for more than fifty years. Kundum has been at the centre of the argument, since its ritual actions have emerged as a powerful vehicle for drawing a proper historical and political map of the territory. According to the institutional arrangement recognized by the colonial government, the area surrounding Axim was, and still is, fragmented in three Paramountcies (namely Lower Axim, Upper Axim and Nsein). A longstanding competition between the neighbouring “traditional areas” of Lower Axim and Nsein, which dates back to the first half of the 20th Century, eventually caused troubles during the joint Kundum celebration in the 70s and resulted, up to the 90s, in a complex legal process, involving various State institutions. Nsein traditional authorities claimed they had a right to parade along the streets of Axim and to pour a libation inside the Fort S. Anthony, built in town by the Portuguese in the XVI Century. The building represents in their view the place where some ancestors of the Nsein royal family were buried. Such a statement, still debated to this day, is meant to show the relevance of Nsein in the local political scene, as would be demonstrated by the role played in the affiliation with the Europeans, especially the Portuguese and the Dutch. Some of the most important dynamics in the history of the Gold Coast (i.e., the relationship between local authorities and European powers) are thus reinterpreted and the historical background of customary rule is evoked by contesting and reasserting at once the system established in the colonial era.
In the case here briefly outlined, the claim of a cultural, territorial, and historical identity makes good use of the ritual practices in order to gain legitimacy and visibility in the public discourse. The traditional festival provides the stage upon which several groups and individuals – most of all the chiefs– commit themselves in the promotion of alternative versions of local history, engage in jurisdictional conflicts, and negotiate their political prerogatives.