Overview of the Akan Institute for African Traditional Studies

Overview

The communities of Togo are experiencing cultural deterioration. In order to gain a higher education or make a decent wage after graduating from high school, the Akan youth are forced to leave their local communities and move to nations of greater opportunity. Of the individuals that return after obtaining a higher education, very few are able to find work in their respective fields and again face the dilemma of whether to stay and support their community, essentially letting their skills go to waste, or to once again leave home in search of greater opportunity.

The existing struggle to survive, in conjunction with this exodus of many skilled and educated individuals is contributing to a critical loss of culture. The passing-down of traditions, spiritual beliefs and customs from community elders to the youth has all but disappeared due to the hardships that accompany everyday life in Togo, and surrounding nations. The next few generations of elders are beginning to pass away, and with them they take a wealth of culture, tradition, and knowledge about our planet and its people; a well of information which has been passed down for thousands of years.

The Mango Project will address these issues by partnering with community members of Sansanne, Mango (OTI), Togo, in setting up The Akan Institute for African Studies. In brief, the Institute will capture a visual and audio anthropology of the Akan people, from which it will develop its anthropological curriculum, preserving the culture and history of this great people, and educating the local and international communities in turn.

At present there are considerably few anthropological materials of the Akan people from an inside African perspective. The Akan Institute for African Studies will work to change this before it is too late, while simultaneously creating a means for sustainable economic growth and a catalyst for change as well as improved quality of living.

The Akan Institute for African Traditional Studies (AIATS)

The AIATS will be constructed outside a village in Sansanne, Mango (OTI), situated to allow proper growth and development, and to avoid negative impact to existing communities due to possible, future urbanization.

As we have the unique opportunity to build a new community around the institute, it is our duty to start off on the right foot, by employing environmentally responsible methods of sustainable living, in harmony with the land. The AIATS will embody local traditions of environmental preservation and will receive the majority of its energy, if not all, from the wind and abundant solar rays and the river (OTI River) where we can generate hydraulic energy.

The Institute will provide education in information technologies, communications, world history, and anthropology. By embracing technology and communications, the Akan can strengthen their society, rich in culture and ancient traditions, without sacrificing their core values in order to survive and maintain a competitive posture in the global marketplace; furthermore, the empowerment gained by harnessing the vast network of communications and information spreading the globe, may be this incredible people’s last chance to preserve their way of life.