“Akua” is set at the turn of the 20th century, opening just before the War of the Golden Stool. Akua was born to Abena in Kumasi around 1879, so she is about 21 years old. She grew up in the missionary school but now lives in Edweso. The chapter opens as Akua cooks, with the narrator saying that “Akua’s ear was growing” (177), and that she “had learned to distinguish sounds she had never before heard” (177). This change started when she was 16, sometime after witnessing a White man being burned alive, and 15 years after her mother died. She suffers from insomnia, and her dreams are haunted by a “firewoman” who rages, as Akua sees her holding, then losing, her two daughters.

Akua wakes up her husband, Asamoah, with her screams and says they should not have burned the White man. He dismisses her fear of fire, saying he is more concerned about the exile of the Asantehene, who was arrested and exiled after refusing British sovereignty. Akua senses the growing anger of the Asante and decides to hide her fear from her husband.

Akua lives with her mother-in-law, Nana Serwah, and her two daughters, Abee and Ama Serwah.