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The Ewe ancestors who founded the settlements that fringed the Keta Lagoon basin in what is now Anlo in southeastern Ghana migrated from Notsie in central Togoland around the mid-seventeenth century. Political dissension and, most probably, land pressure were key motives in this migration. The Ewe migrants moved into the aquatic and marine environment east of the Volta River’s estuary. This was a landscape littered with bodies of water. The river Volta served as the western boundary; the Atlantic Ocean bordered the south; and the large inland Angaw, Avu, and Keta Lagoons, fed by the Volta and Todzie Rivers through a system of channels and smaller lagoons, dominated the Anlo interior. The hydrology of the area was dynamic, and the sea, rivers, and lagoons were interconnected through a complex network. Although Notsie was located between the Haho and Shio Rivers, nothing in the experience of the Ewe migrants seemed to have prepared them adequately for the aquatic ecosystem in southeastern Ghana. Nevertheless, J. M. Grove has commented on how the Ewe migrants “adapted themselves to their new, and apparently rather unfavorable environment with remarkable skill and completeness. . . .” Anlo oral traditions on migration provide a charter for kingship and the alternating succession between Adzovia and Bate clans. These traditions also shed light on the religious nature of kingship and the importance of the awo-amefia (the Anlo paramount chief) as priest-king in the domestication of nature. From an initial foraging of nature in an unfamiliar environment, Anlo’s economy and society developed a more systematized structure based on agriculture, fishing, salt making, and trade. . . .
Though several versions of the Anlo-Ewe migration tradition exist, they seem to agree in substance on the centrality of Ketu, Tado, and Notsie as important points in migration and on the political insecurity caused by wars and oppressive overrule as the major factor in this constant movement. However, there are still problems of interpretation in assessing the exact nature of the Anlo-Ewe links to Tado and Ketu—in particular, the scale of migration into southeastern Ghana and the dating of this last movement. The Anlo-Ewe oral traditions cite Ketu, an ancient Yoruba town now in the Republic of Benin, as the original home of the Ewe. . . .
In this series of migrations, the component that became the Anlo was led successively by Togbui Gbe, his son Gemedra, and his grandson Wenya. Wenya’s sister married the chief of Tado, Adza Ashimadi, and the marriage produced Kpone, later installed as Sri I. Wenya notified King Agokoli of Notsie of the arrival of his nephew with Ashimadi’s stool. The aging Wenya appointed Kpone leader of the Dogbo, and Agokoli installed Kpone as chief of the Dogbo under the name Sri (from the Ewe word srô da, “to respect”).
Tensions emerged between the Dogbo and their Notsie hosts. Charles Mamattah informs us that this was because Sri believed that Agokoli had unduly delayed his installation as chief after his nomination by Wenya. A dispute erupted between the Notsie and the Dogbo during a drumming session in the Dogbo quarter of Notsie. . . . The Ewe law of vengeance demanded that Agokoli hand over his relative for execution in compensation for the Dogbo loss. This was accordingly carried out, but Agokoli later discovered the Dogbo ruse: the Dogbo deceased was not the injured Aga.
A new phase opened in Notsie-Dogbo relations, marked by the harsh rule of Agokoli. Anlo traditions vividly recount this experience. . . . In Anlo to- day, this flight is commemorated in the annual festival of hogbetsotso. Anlo traditions recount that a small group of famous Dogbo hunters at Notsie— Tsatsu Adeladza, Amesimeku Atogolo, Akplomada, Sri, Etse Tsadia Tsali— had often gone hunting west of Notsie and had discovered the region of southeastern Ghana. They had informed Wenya of this sparsely populated and yet attractive region. The distance between Notsie and Anlo makes it unlikely that hunters from Notsie ranged that far. The emphasis here is on the fact that these named hunters played a pivotal role in the successful establishment of settlements in early Anlo. As hunters they were comfortable both in nature and culture and served as frontiersmen. The Dogbo who fled Notsie split into three groups. One group went northwest and founded settlements such as Hohoe, Peki, Awudome, and Alavanyo in the northern Volta Region of present-day Ghana. The second group fled west and founded Ho, Klevi, Abutia, Adaklu, and other polities in the central section of the Volta Region. The third group, led by Wenya and Sri, headed south- west to the coast and set up settlements such as Keta, Tegbi, Woe, Anloga, and Kodzi, which formed the core of Anlo akuaku (Anlo proper). . . .
– Emmanuel Akyeampong, Between the Sea and the Lagoon: The Anlo-Ewe of Southeastern Ghana in The Ghana Reader
