Akanfo, which means Akan people, celebrate the day of our birth on the day of the week that we are born. If you were born on Akwesida (Sunday) then you observe or celebrate your krada [(krah'-dah) kra-soul, da-day, soul-day or birth-day] every year on Akwesida (Sunday). If the calendar date of your birthday falls on any other day of the week, you must wait until the first Akwesida after that calendar date to celebrate, because only Akwesida can be your krada.

The reason why we observe the krada is because it is that da (day) that our Okra or Okraa (male and female terms for Soul/Divine Consciousness respectively) entered into the world. Every day of the seven-day Akan week is governed by the energy and consciousness of an Obosom (a God or Goddess) Who operates through one of the solar, lunar or planetary bodies. To be born on a particular day is to be born under the influence of the Obosom Who governs that particular day. The birth of a child on a particular day sends the message to the family that this child's Okra/Okraa was actually aligned with the Obosom Who governs that day before conception. The day upon which the child is born is thus evidence of Which Obosom the child's Okra/Okraa was aligned with in the spirit realm.

Nyamewaa (Goddess) and Nyame (God), Whom Together constitute the Supreme Being, send the spirits of Afurakanu/Afuraitkaitnut (Africans) into the world to bring a specific energy configuration and consciousness into that aspect of Creation Which requires it. Our Akan Ancestresses and Ancestors cultivated a unique relationship with the major Abosom (singular: Obosom) Who govern the seven days of the Akan week - the Akradinbosom - which created a unique obligation that They were and are required to honor. As Their direct descendants, physically and spiritually, Akanfo today have inherited this relationship and its obligation which we must honor as well. Our spirits as Akanfo are compelled to align with our own Okra/Okraa through the agency of the particular Obosom Who governs our krada. We have no choice but to submit to this reality. Other Afurakanu/Afuraitkaitnut (Africans) have cultivated different kinds of relationships with the Spirits/Deities and thus have different means by which they approach the day in which they are born into the world.

Each year on our krada observance we renew our commitment to the Obosom Who governs our Okra/Okraa by various ritual means. By doing so we replenish our consciousness of our nkra/nkrabea (male and female aspects of our Divine function; so-called "destiny") and the energy we need for its execution. We re-align our sunsum (spirit) with our Okra/Okraa. Certain re-alignment rituals must be performed on the krada, when the spirit and consciousness of the Obosom Who governs our Okra/Okraa is dominant. The calendar date and time only signifies that one year (365 days) has elapsed. Yet, the krada is sacred and thus determines the day of specific ritual observances.

Finally, it must be noted that the day begins at sunrise, not midnight. All akradin ([ah'-krah-deen'] soul names) are recognized by the day (sunrise to sunrise) on which an Akan child is born.

Since the invasion of the whites and their offspring (white europeans, arabs, indians, etc.) into our lands and cultures we find many misguided influences on our cultural practices. One example of this in Akan culture is the manner in which our notion of time has been adversely affected and hence the adverse effect on our recognition of our identity through the function of the kradin.

We have always recognized sunrise as the beginning of a new day. This is essentially Afurakani/Afuraitkaitnit (African), whether we are talking about contemporary Afuraka/Afuraitkait (Africa) or the ancient Black civilizations of Kamit and Keneset (ancient Egypt and Nubia). You'll read, for example, in the texts of ancient Kamit that Ra (the Creator in Kamit and Keneset; Nyankopon in Akan) rides in His barque across the skies for 12 hours, and then rides in his barque in the underworld/spirit world as Afu Ra for the "12 hours of the night". During the twelfth hour of the night Afu Ra makes the transformation back into Ra and the solar barque appears at sunrise, marking the beginning of the next/new day.

What is critical to realize is that it was the whites and their offspring who taught the foolish notion that the day begins at midnight. For those of us who have embraced this idea, the possibility of us assigning, utilizing and/or embracing the wrong akradin is great.

If a woman goes into labor at 11:00pm Sunday night and eventually gives birth to a baby boy 2 hours later at 1:00am Monday "morning", european mis-guided notions of time would force us to state that this baby boy should be named Kwadwo (Kodjo - name of a male born on Monday). Yet, in reality it is still Sunday night. Monday does not begin until sunrise. If sunrise is at 6:00am, then any baby boy born between 12:00am and 5:59am (approximately) is actually a Kwesi (Kwasi - name of a male born on Sunday), not a Kwadwo.

There are many, many people in America who have found out that they are Akan and many Akanfo on the continent and other places who have been given or are giving themselves the wrong kradin because they have embraced the artificial notion of time promoted by europeans. After having mis-named ourselves or having been mis-named by others, we then aspire to an energy complex that our okra is not directly connected to every time the kradin is heard or spoken. This perpetuates a fundamental level of spiritual imbalance, for we create disharmony as we continuously invoke the wrong set of vibrations every time we speak/associate/project the mis-placed kradin on ourselves or others.

The celestial body (solar, lunar or planetary) which is dominant at the **first hour of sunrise** governs that day.

We must adjust to this reality if we have mis-named ourselves based on mis-information. We cannot allow cultural corruption to keep us from properly aligning our sunsum with our Okra/Okraa through the agency of the Obosom under Whose influence we were actually born. Many people have made the adjustment and taken on their proper kradin after having learned of this information. Naturally, their Nananom Nsamanfo (Honored Ancestresses and Ancestors) and the Abosom (Goddesses and Gods) have supported them.