Axim
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- This article discusses Ghanaian geography. For the Dell handheld device, see Dell Axim.
Axim is a town, district and kingdom on the coast of Ghana. It lies 63 kilometers west of the port city of Takoradi, south of the highway leading to the Côte d'Ivoire border, in the Western Region to the west of Cape Three Points.
Axim has a prominent seaside castle or fort, Fort San Antonio de Axim, first built by the Portuguese and Dutch from 1515 and mostly open to the public. Picturesque islands lie offshore, including one with a lighthouse and another with an old undersea tunnel to the castle. Two large mansions of lumber-trading magnates remain from the British colonial period. Axim is ruled by two traditional omanhenes or chiefs, a foreign-born king, and the political District Chief Executive of Nzema East.
The economy relies mainly on Axim's fishing fleet, but the area also has two tourist beach resorts and coconut and rubber plantations. The scenic and fertile terrain features many palm trees. Local artisanal miners pan for gold in streams inland from Axim. Axim has a transport station, two major bank branches, and some rural banks.
Every August, the major festival of Kundum takes place, coinciding with the best fishing-catch of the year; people come to Axim for the festivities and to fish and trade from several countries on the Guinea Coast.
Culturally, Axim forms part of the Nzema complex within the Akan culture. Residents speak the Evalue, Fante and English languages. Most of the townsfolk profess Christianity, with many churches including Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and several newer sects. Axim has a small Islamic mosque, and numerous traditional fetish priests.
A native of Axim, Anton Wilhelm Amo (1703 - 1756) classes as the first black philosopher (specifically, the first black African to receive a philosophical education in Europe and to publish philosophical works in Europe). In Germany, he published "The Rights of Moors" (among other works) and taught philosophy at the University of Jena.
Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, was born in the small village of Nkroful, located just west of Axim, and lay buried there until the removal of his remains to Accra. In the 1930s, Nkrumah worked as headmaster of a Catholic school in Axim and led an intellectual circle there.
