This is not Anansesɛm…
ABAKƆSƐM
HISTORY THAT LIVES
"Before the first word is spoken, there is the fire. It does not merely give light; it breathes. It is the heartbeat of the circle, cracking softly as it prepares to carry the weight of what is to come."
BY DUKE PERRY ABROKWA
kum… kum… kum…
A People Remembering Themselves
Abakɔsɛm is not a story being told. It is a people remembering themselves. Through the voice of Grandma Attaa, gathered around a bonfire in the royal capital of the Akwamu Empire, this book carries the oral history of the Akan people from ancient Kemet to the forests of Ghana.
Unlike Anansesɛm — the spider tales told for entertainment — Abakɔsɛm is history. Memory that was never trapped on paper, but carried in voices, in breath, in drums. A covenant between the living and the dead.
Set in 2002 AD in the Ahenkro of the Akwamu Empire, the narrative weaves together ancient history — from the Kushite kingdoms, the Mali Empire, and the rise of Asante — with the intimate world of children listening at the feet of an elder.
"To forget is not just a mistake. It is a betrayal of those who bled so that we might stand."
This is the fire that must never go out.
This is not a story being told.
This is a people remembering themselves.
— FROM THE PROLOGUE: BEFORE THE FIRE SPEAKS
The fire speaks of
Core Themes
Fire & Memory
The bonfire is the heartbeat of the circle — a living ledger where history breathes and ancestors watch through the stars.
The Drums as Records
A beat is a birthplace. A pause is a warning. A roll is a name being called back from the deep. The drums were never just music.
Ancient Migration
From Kemet and Kush, through the Mali Empire, westward to the forests of Ghana — a people carried by covenant across half the world.
Oral Covenant
"This was carried to me by my elders, as it was carried to them by theirs. And it is now your duty to carry it to the generations after you."
Gathered around the bonfire
The Abakɔsɛm
Part I — Origin
Not Anansesɛm; it's Abakɔsɛm
"Our history was never written down. It was told. It was sung. It was carried in poetry, in proverbs, in the rhythm of drums and passed from mouth to ear, the way fire travels from one torch to the next."
Tutu Abo
"The next night, the sky changed its face. The moon rose bright: white and watchful; like an ancestor's eye opening in the heavens."
The Throne Moves South
"Piye was not blinded by the throne of Kemet. He understood something many rulers forget: conquering land is easy, but ruling many peoples requires wisdom."
The Border of Empires
"Strength, she said, can fade even without enemies. After the priestess Sewa joined the ancestors, the memory of our old ways began to fade. The gods who had once guided our people slowly disappeared from daily life."
The Long Road of Tutu Abo
"We did not leave empty-handed. We carried memories. We carried names. We carried wounds. And above all, we carried Tutu Abo — not just the stone, but the covenant of struggle."
Questions by the Fire
""My children," she said, "in many ways… we are the Nubians." Our ancestors lived among the early peoples of northeastern Alkebulan — the land the world now calls Africa."
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The living ledger
Abakwasem: The Living Ledger of History
Abakɔsɛm: The Living History of the Akwamu
Watch & Listen
The Power of Abakɔsɛm
VIDEO PLAYLIST
The fire speaks
Listen to the Story
Blood Covenant of the First Nubian Pharaoh
Track 1 of 7 · Duke Perry Abrokwa
PLAYLIST
From the Author
Author's Note
On Memory, Oral Tradition, and the Responsibility of the Storyteller
This book began around a fire. Not a metaphorical one. A real one — in the royal capital of Akwamufie, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, in the year 2002. A real grandmother. Real children. Real drums answering from somewhere in the dark.
I am not a historian in the academic sense. I did not begin this project in an archive. I began it the way my people have always begun the transmission of knowledge — by listening to an elder who had been listening to elders before her, in a chain of memory that stretches back further than any single book can follow.
Ernestina Okyere — our beloved Grandma Attaa — was a retired teacher of African history and linguistics at Akwamufie Senior High School. She was a chorister. She was a twin. She was the first choice for the paramount stool of Akwamu; and she refused it, choosing instead to spend her life as a keeper of memory.
Duke P. Abrokwa, Colorado USA 2024.
Akan Words, Names & Their Meanings
Glossary
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The fire is already burning
Come Closer. Listen.
Not just with your ears — but with your spirit. Because this is not a story being told. This is a people remembering themselves.