The history of the Se people is a fascinating story of perseverance and resilience. The Se are part of a larger group of people known as the Ga-Dangme. The Ga-Dangme settled in the Accra plains, which includes the capital of Ghana. The Ga-Dangme now occupy the Greater Accra Region of Ghana and are made up of the Se, La, Ningo, Kpong, Osu, Krobo, Gbugbla, Ada and Ga.
Oral history has it that Ga-Dangmes [Se, La, Ada, Osudoku, Gbugla (Prampram) and Ningo], of which the Se is one of the six existing Ga-Dangme tribes, migrated from Israel through Egypt and Southern Sudan and settled for a period of time at Sameh in Niger and then to Ileife in Nigeria. In the year 1100 A.D. they migrated again. They settled first at Dahomey and later, traveled to Huatsi in Togo where they stayed for a short season.
From Huatsi, they traveled to the eastern banks of the River Volta, which was originally named Jor. They managed to cross the Volta at a place between Old Kpong and Akuse and established settlements on the plains of Tag-logo where they remained until 1200 A.D. They later migrated to the plains of Lorlorvor, between the Lorlorvor and Osudoku Hills.
Archaeological research at the ancient site of Se has shown that their settlement was already in existence by AD 1300 and that it had expanded into large townships by the 1500s.
During this period Se witnessed tremendous prosperity and expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries, thanks to the coastal trade, which they engaged in with the Europeans.
However, the Se kingdom continued to flourish in the secluded Shai highland fortress throughout the 1700s and 1800s. A number of Basel Missionaries who visited the Shai hills recorded eyewitness accounts on the subject of the government, culture, architecture and pottery traditions of the locals. One missionary who visited Shai in 1853 recorded in his diary: “The Shai people are well-known potters and as one who knows something of pottery making, I was astonished how they make pots, as beautifully round as if they were turned on a potter’s wheel”.
It is, however, in the area of herbal medicine that the historic Dangme have left an important legacy for Ghana and the world at large. According to archival records, in the late 18th century, two Danish scientists, Paul Isert and Peter Thonning, researched Shai ethno medicine. They collected some 2000 plant specimens, which were sent to Professor Martin Vaal of the Botany Faculty at Copenhagen University and annotated samples, were distributed to herbaria in Britain, Denmark, France, Holland, Germany, Russia etc. Many of the wild and cultivated medicinal and nutritional plants collected and studied by Isert and Thonning from Se and the Accra Plains are still known and used by present day herbalists and nutritionists.
During the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century the Government of Denmark operating from Christiansborg Castle exercised a loosely-defined “Protectorate” over most of the territories of Ga, Dangme and Ewe principalities of southeastern Ghana. However in March 1850, Denmark sold its possessions to Britain and left the Gold Coast. The Danish Governor Carstensen and the British Governor, W. Winniett, together journeyed to the royal courts of Se, Prampram, Krobo, Akuapem, Auna etc. for the purpose of arranging the “transfer” of the different ethnic groups to their new colonial governor, Britain. The change of colonial over lordship did not bode well for the Dangme. Close to the end of the 19th century, the relative peace and prosperity which the Se had enjoyed in their highland Kingdom came to an abrupt end.
In 1892, allegations reached the British Administration that the Shai, Krobo and Osudoku people living in the hills were offering human sacrifices to their gods – Kotoklo, Korle, Sabu and Nadu, and were sacrificing strangers in particular for annual propitiatory rites. The British Governor Griffith sent a Regiment of colonial troops to the Krobo, Shai and Osudoku hills. The Dangme were driven from their hills settlements in 1892. It was a red letter day for the people who suffered this calamity. All the kings of Shai, Yilo and Manya Krobo and Osudoku had to seek shelter in their farming villages spread all over the plains.”
In Shailand, the general populace was scattered in the plains west of the Shai hills where they had farms. After a year or two, some regrouped and founded a number of villages and townships that subsequently became new Se (Shai) – Dodowa, Agomeda, Kodiabe, Doryumu, and Ayikuma. Other Se people migrated to work as labourers and farm hands on palm and cocoa plantations in Akuapem Akyem and Krobo and were able to accumulate capital for the purchase of their own lands in diverse territories.
Se, Today and Beyond
Thus the enforced exodus of August 1892 brought into being overnight a Diaspora of Se peoples. Today, it is important to understand that there are countless Se peoples living in the Diaspora, including other parts of West Africa. Today, a migration of Se is taking place as some are beginning to return home. Se is preparing to enter an era of peace, progress and prosperity, as it never has known before. King Adamtey I is the coronated ruler for the Se people, providing visionary leadership which will continue to elevate the Se people throughout the Disapora.