The Story of Assin Foso

 The Story of Assin Foso 

          Assin Foso is the District Capital of Assin North, in the Assin Attandansu Traditional Area in the Central Region. The founding father of Assin Foso belonged to the royal Asakyiri clan who originally lived at Afutuakwa in Adansi, hence the honorific title AFUTUAKWA. Later, they moved to Akrofoso near Praso under the leadership of Nana Anim Kuma.

After a sojourn, they came into contact with the earliest Akan settlers whose ancestors originated from Asante-Akyem Juaso. The pathfinder was a celebrated hunter called Otokum Dum who left the ancestral home and penetrated deep into the forest down south where he happened to kill a chimpanzee (Twi: Akonson).

         He buried its head at a secret spot and returned to Asante-Akyem Juaso to announce that he had discovered a vast uninhabitable land. He organized some followers to the spot where he buried the head of the chimpanzee. As they settled and multiplied, they were nicknamed Akosontire.

The Foso ancestors met the Esti aborigines (of Guan extraction) at Mokwaa near Twifo Praso, and also share boundries with Etsi of Andoe and Akropong. It was the practice of the Etsis to offer land to others so they in turn would reciprocate by protecting them from the Fantes who once drove them from Adoagyiri and renamed it Mankessim.

        Tradition holds that the Afutuakwa (now Foso) came into contact with the Asene clan of the Assin-Fante Nyankomasa under the leadership of Kwadwo Otibo near the Konkom River where “they drank fetish” to aid one another in time of distress.

         Truly, the Foso ancestors had been a people of constant conflict with warlike neighbours, yet they were determined that whoever should attack them would first “get wet” and then ‘mouldy’. This is the origin and the meaning of the name Foso derived from the expression ‘Fo” (wet) and ‘su’ (mouldy). Thus, the gallant ancestors were always sacrosanct and immune from attack by enemies.

          For example, during the Sir Garnet Wolsey war, 1874, the Asante General, Amankwatia who had camped his troops at Foso decided on October 26 to hold the British back, but in order to uphold the dignity of the traditional name, the gallant Foso troop drove the Asante contingent across the Pra River for some time at a very well-fought battle before the British troops reached the River on December 10. This remarkable achievement was striking because it secured for the Foso people the highest prestige in the two Assin states.

Some Aerial view of ASSIN FOSO 

Credit: Ahene Prince

Source: The spectator  -  Saturday, September 7, 2013.