The E e or E e people are a group of people that inhabits the southeastern part of the Volta Region of Ghana, southern part of the Republic of Togo and the southwestern part of the Republic of Benin, and also parts of Ogun and Lagos State or southwestern Nigeria (see map in appendix B1 and also Capo, 1991). According to the E e Oral Tradition, the present-day E eland is not the original home of the E e. Oral Tradition traces the place of origin of the E e as far back to an earlier settlement in Adzatome, a place founded by Ham, the first son of Noah, in the Bible (see Genesis 11:1 for the story of Babel). Other accounts, however, trace the exodus from various places such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, Abyssinia, Nigeria, the Republics of Benin and Togo. It is important we note that none of the accounts narrated by the different sub-clans has a scientific basis because oral tradition loses historical facts with time. Thus the narrations differ from one clan to the other. Nonetheless, they all seem to have a point of convergence; all the clans agree that the E e people once lived as one group in a place called ‘Ketu’ in Dahomey, the present day Republic of Benin following a conquest, and thereafter settled down in a place called ɔtsie/Notsie (see Dotse, 2011).
Fage (1959), for example, claims that the line of migration of the E e is remembered as Ketu-Tado- ɔtsie. Some other historians put the line of migration as
Oyo-Ketu-ɔtsie, or Oyo-Ketu-Tado- ɔtsie (see Dotse, 2011). At Ketu they are believed to have lived with the Yorubas, the ancestors of the present day Aja, Fon and the Ga-Dangme.
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This means that the E e people have once lived as one group in either Ketu, Tado or ɔtsie. Although it is difficult to establish the actual period they began their migration and why they left Ketu, Kodzo-Vordoagu (1994) believes that the westward expansion of the Yoruba might have pushed the E e and their king, Aja, from Ketu.
The account shows that before leaving Ketu, they split into two big divisions. One of these divisions went towards south, but later divided into two, while the other major-sub division went to found a settlement on the eastern side of River Mono and called it Tado or Tando, which became a powerful kingdom and a historical capital. This group later crossed the river and penetrated the forests along the bank of the river to settle in a town called ɔtsie around 1500 BC where one group of the advanced second sub-division of migrants from Ketu had already settled (Dotse, 2011).
The sub-division of the advanced group, as was told, joined them later in ɔtsie after a short settlement in the region of Adele near Dogbo-Nyigbo. This group was said to have been led by Tɔgbi Atsu Akplɔmada Ʋenya, and his nephew Srɔe or Sri, son of Amegã Ʋenya’s sister Asɔngɔe who was the son of the King of Tado. It was said that Sri had fled from Tado with his father’s stool following a succession dispute with his half-brothers after their father, the King of Tado’s death. In ɔtsie, they were known collectively as Dogboawo, and were under the leadership of King Adelã Atɔgble.
All the migrants were given a portion of ɔtsie to settle on and were independent. Thus there were several settlements of the E e at ɔtsie, with each settlement having a leader who had a semi- autonomous power. The city of ɔtsie, for example, consisted of thirty-six neighborhoods; with some of the original seven quarters being Tegbe, Tako, Ekli, Agbaladome, Anakpe, and Adime (see Dotse, 2011 & Mamattah, 1978 for details). The Dogbo quarter, e.g. had its own leader, same as the other E e groups; but they were all ruled by one great King. The entire community of ɔtsie thus lived within a wall called Agbogbo and was ruled by kings in succession including King Agɔ Akɔli (Agɔkɔli). In all the accounts, therefore, ɔtsie was their last stop and the centre of dispersion, and is a significant point in the history of the E e people, especially the A lɔ people.
According to the accounts, the early kings of ɔtsie ruled well and the kingdom flourished. The reign of King Agɔkɔli was however inundated with several conflicts due to his desire to impose his will on the people against their wishes. It was said that
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he tyrannized them, gave them a number of impossible tasks to perform, and also punished those who did not obey him and the traditions. As his style of leadership became unbearable, the Dogboawo escaped from ɔtsie through part of a collapsed wall that was believed to have been pushed down by Togbi Tegli’s‘Adekpui’, a magical sword. The account indicates that during their escape, the last part of the group walked backwards on the exact footsteps of the earlier parties for about two miles so that their footprints might not betray their whereabouts. The Adekpui that was used by Tegli to bore a hole into the wall that allowed the people to escape is preserved to this day as part of the stool regalia of Tɔgbui Asor, the leader of the Dogbo group which settled at Ho. The reign of Agɔkɔli thus profoundly marked the period and the deep legacy left in the memory of the E e as the primary cause of the different migrations from ɔtsie and the occupation of their present-day E eland (Dotse, 2011).
From ɔtsie, the E e were believed to have settled at different places. Their first place of settlement according to the accounts was at Tsevie, in Togo, from where they split into three broad groups under different leaders, which presently inhabit the northern, central and southern areas of their new home, stretching up to the Volta River in the West (see Capo, 1991; Dotse, 2011). The accounts indicate that the Central and Northern Dogbo groups were led out of Tsevie by Akoto, Kɔdzo De, Amegã Lee, Asor and Bisiaku to settle at places like Hohoe, Matse, Peki, Awudome, Ve, Gbi, Kpando, Logba, Alavanyo, Kpalime, Agu, Kpedze, Wodze, and some other towns. Amegã Lee, however, later left the group with some followers and family members southwards to settle in a town close to ‘Ge’, the present day Accra. But he again moved to join the main Dogbo group which had settled at A lɔga. Some members of the Central and Northern Dogbo group are believed to have later founded the settlements of Ho, Akɔvie, Takla, Kpenɔe, Hodzo, Klevi, Sɔkode, Abutia, and Adaklu, all these groups together constitute the present day E eme E e of Ghana.
The third group, made up of various sections of the Dogboawo, are said to have moved together southward, but are also believed to have later split into sub-divisions at Gafe. These groups which included Tɔgbi Tsatsu Batemenu (aka Adeladza), Tɔgbi Tse Tsali Akplɔmada and Tɔgbi Atsu Akplɔmada Ʋenya, the twin brother of Tɔgbi Tsali founded Ʋeta, A lɔga, Klikɔ, Ave, Fenyi, Afife, Dzodze, Mafi, Agave, Avenɔ, Tavie, Tokɔe, Tanyigbe. It was said that during their migration from Tsevie, Agbana, one of
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Tɔgbi Ʋenya’s children and Tɔgbi Tsatsu Batemenu (aka Adeladza) led the advanced party. Tɔgbi Tse Tsali Akplɔmada, a mystic man, was said to be a member of a scout for the Dogbo group who was reported to have cast a sleeping spell on Agɔkɔli and his people that enabled the E es to move out of ɔtsie undetected. His twin brother, Tɔgbi Atsu, was said to have left ɔtsie settlement earlier, went to Awukugua, performed miracles and healed people with herbs. In Awukugua, Osei Tutu, an Ashanti King to be, met him there at the court of the Awukuguahene and invited him to Kumasi to help him claim the throne as the king of the Asante. He went with him and conjured out of the sky, a golden Stool that has till this day embodied the soul of the Asante nation. He was then called ‘Ɔkɔmfo from ɔtsie’ but corrupted into ‘Kɔmfo Anɔkye’ known now throughout the entire Ashanti Kingdom as ‘Ɔkɔnfo Anokye’.
The present-day A lɔ-E e have also traveled from Tsevie as one unit, but later divided into two groups under the leadership of Tɔgbi Atsu Akplɔmada Ʋenya, and his nephew Tɔgbi Sri I. Tɔgbi Ʋenya led the main group which went south and moved along the sea shore westwards, founding settlements along the way. After many discoveries and settlements, Ʋenya’s group reached a sandbar and called it ‘ke dzi’
which means ‘top of sand’, presently called Keta Kedzi. Going further, they came across the head of the sandbar. They then informed their leader, Tɔgbi Ʋenya, that
‘Miéva ɖo kea ta’ meaning we have reached the head of the sand; giving the present day ‘Keta’. They later founded other towns including Tegbi and Woe. The group went further until they reached the present-day A lɔgã. Over there, Ʋenya told his people,
‘Nyè amèa mè lɔ. Afi aɖeke yiyi megale unyè o, meaning ‘I am exhaustively coiled, I can’t go any further’. Thus the name ‘Me lɔ’, contracted to ‘A lɔ’, became the name of the town A lɔgã, the capital of the whole A lɔ state, and the people of the A lɔ are called ‘A lɔawo’.
The second group led by Kpenɔe Akplɔmada (Tɔgbi Sri I), the nephew of Tɔgbui Ʋenya, took the northern route of the Atlantic Coast and settled at Klikɔ. Tɔgbui Sri then continued by canoe via the Keta lagoon to settle at Fiaxɔ where he founded other A lɔ communities on the northern shore of the great Keta Lagoon. He was however believed to have later moved back to join his uncle, Ʋenya, at A lɔgã and took over his leadership role as the King of the Dogboawo now A lɔawo. Some of Tɔgbui Sri I’s brothers settled at various places giving rise to some differences in clan names. The
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descendants of Tɔgbui Sri I’s brother, Adu Lo, led by his son Adisre, and Ege Amegayibɔ, brother of Sri I, were said to have settled at Dzodze, Asuma settled at enyi, Eti settled at Ave, and Kofi Akpo settled at Mafi. Some of Sri’s party later founded A i e and Kodzi, where Sri later on rejoined his uncle Ʋenya at A lɔga. Thus the towns or settlements actually founded by Ʋenya and his brother Sri, their families and immediate circle of followers came to constitute one kingdom, ‘A lɔ’ with the capital at A lɔgã. The neighborhood of A lɔ settlements founded by other members of the Dogbo sub-groups, who had been part of Ʋenya and Sri’s party at one time or the other also evolved into states like Klikɔ, Fenyi, Dzodze, Ʋeta, Some, Blekusu, Afife and Avenɔ.
It was said that after the Keta war in 1790, two descendants of Tɔgbi Ʋenya, A anyedɔ and Akaga with some other residents of Keta migrated to found Agbozume, which became the capital of the new state of Some. Those who could not however go with A anyedɔ and Akaga were said to have left in small batches later with some fleeing to seek refuge with relatives at Ʋuga. These migrants could not however return to Keta as they were prevented by the A lɔs with the help of Kobu Koto, the king of Kwafo, Akwamu. Blekusu therefore became the dividing line between A lɔ and Some along the coast. The narration was that during and after the war, A lɔgã provided a court of second instance for A lao and Ʋeta who readily identified themselves with A lɔ, and together, these states constitute A lɔ-E e. Towns belonging to the A lɔ kingdom thus include: Kedzi, Keta, Tegbi, Woe, A lɔgã, Fiaxɔ, Kodzi, Anyako, Seva, Alakple, Atiavi, Asadame, Tsiame, A lao, Atito, Atiteti, Atɔkɔ, Ʋuti and Srɔgbui including Ave and Mafi. Mafi people were however believed to have later left the group to join a group, now known as Tɔ u.
The accounts link the founding of Volo, Dafɔ, Batɔ, Agave, Ave and Tefle with the third group of people from ɔtsie. This group together with the Mafi now constitutes one state called ‘Tɔ u-E e’. Another Dogbo sub-group or its divisions founded the E e of Be and Togo. That is, apart from the A lɔ state, there are large number of other E e states like Adaklu, Ho, Kpando, Have, Hohoe, Peki, Awudome, Ve, Gbi, Logba, Alavanyo, Kpalime, Kpedze, Wodze, etc., to their north of the E eland; also Volo, ᴆɔfɔ, Batɔ, Me e, Mafi, Agave, Ave, Tefle, etc. to their central, and Be, Gen, Watsi, etc., in the south of the Republic of Togo and Benin (Atakpa, 1997). The people of A lɔ state
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and all these other states described above, therefore, originally belonged to the Dogbo group under Ʋenya with the same language, E e, and constituted essentially one people, as they entered their new home in what is now E eland. It is essential to note that the original E e, just like its speakers, might have been influenced significantly by the languages of the original inhabitants of the areas that the migrants past. That is, even though we do not know much about the original inhabitants of the areas they passed through during their exodus, it is possible that either the inhabitants fled as the Dogboawo were coming, or became assimilated into their population. For example, in what is now A lɔ territory, the accounts show that there are traces of the former inhabitants at, for instance, Woe, Atsiavi and Avenɔfeme. The E e language therefore has several different dialects. The section bellow discussed the E e language and its dialects.