The Gbese People and Their New Neighbors
During their return, the Gbese People under the leadership of Mate Ika II found out that, a group of Ewe speaking People had crossed the Volta just ahead of them and settled along the riverside lands of Osudoku.
The group was led by Tettino Yobo the Priest of Ozei Bosumatre and later they became known as the Kasunya People when they moved and settled along the creek known as Kasu. Their true origin is unknown to the Gbese People but it is certain, that they were war refugees who crossed the Volta from the Togoland plains just ahead of Mate Ika II and his followers in search of new settlement lands.
Even though their true origin is unknown to both the Gbese’s and themselves, there are fairy tales and Mythologies about their origin written in most colonial books and research works done during the early 1920’s to the late 1930’s.
Mate Ika II was instructed by the Nadu Deity not to attack or provoke a quarrel with the Priest of Ozei Bosumatre and his people as they were peaceful and non-aggressive.
The Gbese People did as they were instructed by the Nadu Deity and they lived together with the Kasunya People and performed most of their rituals and customs together as much as possible.
Tettino Yobo and his people lived along the river side lands of Osudoku but joined the Gbese People in the Mountains to perform their various rituals and celebrations together as one people. This practice went on for a very long time and The Gbese people and the Kasunya people never quarreled at any point in time as presented by other reports done in the 1920’s and so on. The Kasunya People were fisher folks who loved fishing and the Gbese People even though they also fished were natural farmers.
The Kasunya People were peaceful and non-aggressive. they yielded the Asutuare river banks without a fight after the Osudokus decided to setup a Military lookout at Asutuare. The Gbese People and their new neighbors did a lot of things together whenever possible and they never quarreled with each other. The Kasunya People claimed lands eastwards of Osudoku and became the owners of a very large tract of land extending to Aveyime and Battor.
At a point in time when the Europeans endorsed the formation of a traditional council in Osudoku, the Kasunya People under the leadership of Akakposu agreed to serve under the Osudokus without any challenge or misgivings. They were simply peaceful and nonaggressive.
It was known among the Aboriginal Gbese tribes that, the Priest of Yobo and Mate Ika II of Osudoku performed a lot of rituals together and sometimes simultaneously and successively.
At a point in time, the Priest of Ozei-Bosumatre and his People moved to Kasunya on the edge of the Kasu Lake.
In time, they became very wealthy through allowing strangers to fish and pay fishing tolls. This wealth was used to buy slaves. The descendants of these slaves were all absorbed socially into the original families and though they were very numerous they left no mark on the social structure of the town as did the strangers who augmented the Osu members.
There are three “quarters”or extended-families, viz. Akakposuwem. Mangetewem and Otutotowem. The priest-chief is chosen from Akakposuwem and Otutotowem alternately. The Labia or Deputy-priest comes always from Mangetewem. When a Labia dies the Priest-chief installs his successor, when a priest-chief dies the Labia installs the successor. Each of the three quarters has a secular head or asafoatse (captain): these three are of equal rank. The creation of these captains seems to have been Kasunya’s sole concession to militarism, but in relation to warfare, they lost all military associations and became simply the senior elders of the quarters.
It was always expected of every Kasu priest that he would become blind before he had been priest for very long. “Their god always blinded them”. Whether by coincidence or whether by fear-induced hysteria, most of them did become blind. At a point in time, it became Naturally very difficult to persuade any one to accept the post and often a slave was forced to take it.
Therefore, it is not possible to obtain a genealogical table of past priests. Somewhere in the late 1930s, The then priest-chief found a way to avoid the danger of becoming blind by omitting to perform the complete rites which would make him a full priest; in the eyes of his deity he is but “acting priest”.
He was interested in tribunals, taxation, law-suits and the modern side of chieftaincy introduced by the Government and with time he became more and more a secular chief and the Labia will undertake more and more of his priestly duties. Gradually the Priest and Labia duties became separated.
