00:10In the Ashanti Pantheon, Tano is the second son of Yami and Abriwa.
00:17Tano's elder brother was Baia, the god of the wild.
00:21Tano was originally a nature god, but later became known as the god of war and strife.
00:28Once upon a time, Tano challenged the spirit of death, to a singing contest.
00:34They both performed their best, but neither could defeat the other.
00:39So, they made a pact, and swore that whenever Tano visited the world of humans, death would also go with
00:47him.
00:47In a slightly different version of the myth, the agreement was that,
00:52whoever reached an ill or injured person first, could claim the person.
00:57If Tano arrived first, the person would live.
01:01If death arrived first, the person would die.
01:04And that, they say, was how Tano became associated with war and strife.
01:10Tano is also the god of the Tano River.
01:13And the Ashanti tribe told a story of how he gained possession of the Tano River.
01:19That he cheated his brother, Baia, out of his inheritance.
01:23It happened that Tano's elder brother, Baia, was their father's favorite.
01:29When the two sons had come of age, Yami decided to divide up the land between these two.
01:36He planned to give Baia, his favorite son, the most fertile land, which was the Ashanti land of Ghana.
01:44While he planned to give to Tano, the more barren coastal lands, which is now Cote d'Ivoire.
01:51Yami, on a fateful day, sent his servant, a goat, to tell Tano and Baia to come for their inheritance
02:00the next day.
02:01The goat preferred Tano to Baia, so it went to Tano first, and told him to visit Yami earlier than
02:08his brother, Baia,
02:10and to disguise himself as his brother.
02:13Tano did exactly as he was told, and went to see Yami, disguised as Baia.
02:20Yami was deceived, and without knowing who he was, awarded all the land through which the Tano River flows to
02:28Tano, instead of Baia.
02:30When Baia arrived, Yami saw through the trick, and unfortunately, it was too late to correct the mistake.
02:38He could not reverse his blessings and promise.
02:42So Baia was left with the dry, barren coastal lands.
02:47This story of Tano and Baia, bears a resemblance to the Biblical story of Esau and Jacob.
02:54In the later Akana religion, Tano was a god of protection more than he was the god of war.
03:00Tano was seen as a protection deity, especially against the god or spirit of death, with whom he is in
03:08continuous duel.
03:10Following the agreement, should Tano approach a dying person first, then the human belongs to him, and would survive, and
03:18the spirit of death has no right over the human.
03:21That was meant to be a.
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