Atorkor was formerly called Adela Ako Kɔƒe. Atorkor is the patriarchal home of all Adjorlolos. It is close to Keta and Anloga, near the Atlantic Ocean.
Adela Ako was one of the sons of Tɔgbui Tsatsu Adeladza 1, Awɔmefia of Anlo, who left Anloga and settled at a place south of the traditional home.
As a celebrated hunter, his game began attracting prospective buyers. With time the settlement expanded with others working the sea as fisherfolks. The settlement came to be known as Adela Ako Kɔƒe. This was in the second half of the 1600s.
By the 1700s, Adela Ako Kɔƒe was to play a very important lead role in the Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade in Anloland. Adela Ako Kɔƒe became home, an entreport for the sale of Akwamu and Asante slaves to the Americas and the Carribeans. Slaves were exchanged for salt, fish, etc from the locals, gunpowder, gun and others from the Europeans, and other merchandise from the Portuguese and the Danes and later the British who eventually abolished the obnoxious trade.Descendants of Adela Ako became the notables in the slave trade.
Nudorkutsu was one of them, in fact the Anlo merchant synonymous with the trans atlantic slave trade in Anloland. There were the Baeta, de Souza, Geraldo de Lima, Salvadore,(Sagbadrɛ) who were foreigners settled in Anloland and engaged in the trade until the abolition.
Atorkor became cosmopolitan with the influx of the Akan speaking Gold Coasters. Language became a barrier, yet a quasi -sign language was the vehicle of communication.
The prevalence of mosquitoes in the wetland along the littoral became the major concern to the strangers. Openly they spoke out their frustrations by asking the natives to fast track their business for them to return in good time.
The Twi language , “matɔ ma kɔ” became a cliche and the strangers were referred to as “matɔ ma kɔ traders” from Akwamu and Asante. (“Matɔ ma kɔ” means, “I buy and leave”, corruptly said by the Anlo indigenes) insertion mine.
The native Anlos corrupted the cliche “matɔ ma kɔ” to Atɔkɔ, hence the place of business changed from Adela Ako Kɔƒe, for no one went there again for bush meat, but big maritime business brought the name ATORKOR.
Today, l come from Atorkor.
Narrator: Papa Theo Adjorlolo.
Author: Enyonam Adjorlolo
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