Owirenkyiman
Our History
The oral tradition of Owirenkyi asserts that their land was quite bigger than it is now, and it would have even been much bigger if they had been good listeners of advice from the mouthpiece of the oracles.
It is said that the famous kmfo Anokye, whilst on his way to sojourn at Denkyira before he finally went to live in Kumase (Asante), had a brief stay at Kuhyia (Kushea). He rested with some elders under a nyedua ‘shaded tree’ to pass time. When he was about to leave the town, he asked the elders to uproot that tree and re-plant it at a different location that he showed them. But the elders did not heed his advice. The tradition avers “However, two weeks later when he returned, it was obvious that the advice had not been taken as the tree still stood at its old location. It was at this point that he revealed that the size of the Owirenkyi state would have extended to the location the tree was to be re-planted had the elders heeded his advice.”
Despite this lost opportunity, the Owirenkyi state continued to attract immigrants from Adanse, Mfantse, Eυe (Ewe), Krobo, and various people from Northern Ghana. Most of these people came to Owirenkyi as a result of its pristine forestland that is conducive to agrarian production, timber, and mining opportunities. The first group was the Akan Aduana families that constituted the Kronti and the Adonten Divisions of the Owirenkyi State that came to settle in and around the middle of the seventeenth century. The families were believed to have migrated from different parts of present-day Asante. It was these families that joined the aboriginal Owirenkyi Etsii from Asasetr to form the Owirenkyi state and found towns such as Kushea, Bohumase, and
several others.
The Mfantse who were the first immigrants to Owirenkyi were invited by Oduro Pra Agyensam to help him in his wars against the Denkyira, and the other Etsii states. The other reasons for the Mfantse presence were the proximity of the Mfantse polity and Owirenkyi’s historic connection to the coastal Mfantse where various Owirenkyi chiefs settled to transact business and married from there. This further explains why the people of Owirenkyi could speak Mfantse. The immigrant’s presence in Owirenkyi helped in the establishment of communities such as Maama, Agiravi, Kwame Hwede, Diadokono, Sumenyamekodu, Abotareso, Abotareye. Of these communities, Maama was founded by a northern settler farmer, whilst Agiravi was founded by Eυe settler farmer.