Archaeologists may be interested to hear the following story, told to me by an elder in Akpafu-Mempeasem in Ghana’s Volta Region. It is about taking (or rather not taking) stones from Ikpakpi, the former dwelling-places of the Mawu in the mountains (kùbe) of the Togo Plateau.
The story goes like this.
Suppose you’re hunting for game in the mountains and you stumble upon an old settlement and some nice pieces of worked stone — perhaps a millstone, or a circle of stone seats like they are still found in the public forums of towns in Kawu (pictured above is the one in Mempeasem).
Now you want to take a piece home. So you load it on your head and walk back to your village. However, when you bend forward to release your load, it doesn’t leave your head; it’ll be stuck to it! Only if you walk all the way back to the place where the stone belongs, it will leave your head.
The reason is that the stone is still in use by the ancestors, and you shouldn’t take it away.
This is one of several threads of oral history still told by the Mawu that connects them to their prior places of settlement in the Mawu mountains (Mawu kùbe). A name often used for these settlements is ikpakpi. It shows that people are aware of the remains found there. It makes visible a historical continuity by drawing attention to the similarity between the ancient stone seats found there and those visible today in the main villages of the Mawu. In keeping with this continuity, it instills respect for the remains: they are not to be taken away.
Heard and noted down May 2010 in Akpafu-Mempeasem.