Did Ghana have a feudal system?

Answer 1

Technically no, in practice yes.

Modern Ghana consists of a patchwork of "tribes": Ashanti, Ewe, Ga, Gonja...., these tribes, for the most part, are made up of royal's who once ruled their respective tribes as sovereign political units (states/ countries). And I'm not sure of the actual numbers, but lets say members of the royal families comprise of 5-15% of the total population, depending on location. Other members of a tribe, consisting of most of the remainder of the population, are decedents of Ghanaians, who were not considered "royals", but nonetheless lived under or in cooperation with the royals. Also, depending on what tribe you are referring to, non-royals, especialy women and even descendants of slaves, could become members of the royal family, entitled to all of its privileges. Also, while the positions, such as village chief were exclusively reserved for members of the royal family, for many Ghanaians, including those of the Akan groups like the Ashanti (who all together make up roughly 40% of the population), those leadership positions were given to the best qualified royal, and not by heredity (i.e. the son of a village chief becoming a village chief). These selections were and are done with input by non-royals. Also, the large family or clan structure of non-royals, have positions within them, that play an important part in the overal political structure of the society.

Ok thats the politics, Im going to skip the cultural stuff about differences and commonalities between royals and non-royals. Before colonization in the 19th century, what comprises of modern day Ghana was overwhelmingly agrarian. To a lesser extent, their was fishing, logging, hunting, mining, simple textile industries, iron working, artisans like gold smiths, and trade centered on small cities like Kumassi. Where the economic structure was most like feudal Europe, was in the agrarian economy, where land was owned by royals, with non-royals given temporary tenure and limited land rights. Non-royals also provided labor to royals. Their were also widespread use of slavery, where slaves (mostly from people of other tribes), were provided to royals to work on their farms, and also as wives (with the children of the couplings were not only free but also often times considered members of the royal family).

I believe non-royals supported this system, because they were provided a safe and secure enviroment...