African Personality and Spirituality:
The Role of Abosom and Human Essence Anthony Ephirim-Donkor (cont.)

“For the Akan, one has Ahontᴐ (contentedness) precisely because one has Atsenayae (satisfaction, prosperous living or life). One cannot have Ahontᴐ without first achieving Atsenayae because upon achieving Atsenayae (satisfactory living) society piles on an Atsenayae person much more of society problems. The danger of achieving Atsenayae, which in turn leads to Ahontᴐ (contentedness), is complacency or, more precisely, forgetfulness ( Awerεfir ). The state of Awerεfir must not be understood as simply forgetfulness or the omission of something; rather, Awerεfir (forgetfulness) is a state of being in which the one who has realized his or her Nkrabea and achieved Atsenayae and Ahontᴐ deliberately chooses not to help or assist anyone and be bothered with people’s problems. Ideally, the attainment of Atsenayae and Ahontᴐ lead to Asomdwe (peace), although absolute peace is attained in death. However, what achieving Asomdwe means is that, while aware of internal and external problems, by the time those problems get to the person in the state of Asomdwe, the problems and issues have gone through a series of hierarchical steps, requiring only final pronouncement of approval or rejection of what has been adjudicated. In other words, one is at a state where not every petty issue gets to him or her, because Asomdwe means the absence of chaos in one’s ears, literally.”