Sacred Landscapes and Colonial Boundaries: Reading History Through Ghana’s Anlo-Ewe Homeland

​When we think of history, we often think of written documents—treaties, royal charters, letters, and administrative reports archived in dusty libraries. But what if the landscape itself is an archive? What if trees, rivers, burial sites, and even the human body hold memories that tell a story far richer than official colonial records ever could?

​This is the compelling vision at the center of historian Sandra E. Greene’s landmark book, Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter: A History of Meaning and Memory in Ghana (Indiana University Press, 2002). Focused on the Anlo-Ewe people of southeastern Ghana, Greene’s research shows us how local landscapes were never just static backgrounds for human activity—they were living archives of identity, ancestral power, and spiritual order.

​Here is a look at how the Anlo-Ewe understood their world, how European missionaries and colonial authorities attempted to reshape it, and why this history still matters today.

​1. What Makes a Site "Sacred"?

​In traditional Anlo-Ewe cosmology, geography and the divine were inseparable:

• ​Sacred Groves (Avewo): Dense forests and groves were recognized as the physical residences of powerful deities (trɔwo) and ancestral spirits (tɔgbuiwo).
• ​Bodies of Water: Lagoons and coastline waters were managed through strict seasonal taboos, spiritual restrictions, and rituals overseen by traditional priests.
• ​Geographic Deeds: Naming a landmark or a settlement wasn't just a matter of convenience; it served as a legal deed and historical marker that tied specific clans to their lands.

​Furthermore, Greene introduces a fascinating concept: the human body as a sacred site. In Anlo worldview, physical wellness, burial practices, and bodily purity were directly connected to environmental purity. Burials, for instance, traditionally took place within the family compound beneath the living quarters, keeping ancestors permanently anchored to the household.

​2. The Colonial Encounter: Re-Mapping and Desacralization

​When British colonial administrators and North German (Bremen) missionaries arrived in the 19th century, they brought a radically different worldview. They sought to map, name, and administer the region according to Western legal, scientific, and Christian principles.

​This encounter sparked profound changes across the Anlo-Ewe landscape:

• ​The Creation of "Salvation Villages": Bremen missionaries built separate Christian compounds to house new converts. Moving into these villages meant physically cutting ties with traditional family compounds and ancestral shrines.
• ​Challenging Environmental Taboos: Missionaries encouraged converts to farm in sacred groves like Kpota or build roads through protected lands. By proving that no immediate divine lightning struck when these taboos were broken, they aimed to desacralize the environment.
• ​Extramural Cemeteries: Home burials were banned in favor of grid-style external cemeteries, fundamentally changing how families interacted with their deceased relatives.
• ​Invention of "Eweland": Before colonial rule, Ewe-speaking groups functioned as independent polities (such as Anlo, Peki, and Ho). Through linguistic standardization and Bible translations, missionaries created a unified concept of "Eweland" (Ewenyigba) with fixed territorial boundaries.

​3. Key Case Studies: How Landscapes Transformed

​Greene's book explores several specific historical case studies that illustrate this spiritual and political struggle:

​Notsie and the Politics of Memory

​Notsie, a historic walled city in modern-day Togo, is celebrated in oral tradition as the ancestral site from which Ewe populations fled in the 17th century to escape a tyrannical king. When colonial powers drew a border dividing British and French Togoland, physical access to Notsie was disrupted. In response, Ewe intellectuals and leaders adapted the memory of Notsie, turning it into a powerful cultural symbol to foster Ewe ethnic unity across new national borders.

​The Shrine of Nyigbla

​Nyigbla, a major state deity associated with military strength and water, possessed priests who held tremendous political power in Anloga (the Anlo capital). As British authorities established indirect rule and economic life shifted away from traditional military structures, the public authority of Nyigbla’s priesthood diminished, transforming the deity's sacred sites into historical monuments.

​The Kpota Sacred Grove

​The Kpota grove near Anloga was traditionally reserved for those who suffered "bad deaths"—such as infectious diseases or suicides—to keep spiritual impurity away from the community. When Christian converts cleared parts of Kpota for agriculture and road construction, it sparked intense community debates over what constituted sacrilege, progress, and cosmic order.

​4. Continuity in Greene’s Research

​Sacred Sites and the Colonial Encounter connects directly to Greene’s earlier work, Gender, Ethnicity and Social Change on the Upper Slave Coast (1966). Where her earlier book focused on social relations—how gender roles, clan hierarchies, and intermarriage defined Ewe identity—her 2002 book explores spatial relations, demonstrating that social identity has always been anchored in physical geography.

​Why This History Matters

​Sandra E. Greene’s work reminds us that environmental conservation, urban planning, and religious change in post-colonial contexts are never purely technical matters. Landscapes carry deep layers of memory, faith, and political struggle. When we look at a forest, a river, or an ancient city today, we are not just looking at nature—we are looking at history written onto the earth itself.