Town or village chief (du 'town' + fia 'chief'). Westermann (1905) glosses dumefia or dufia as 'king, chief' of a town. Chapman (1944) records that in the Anlo state the dufiawo, in charge of the villages and towns, served under the wing commanders (awalogomefiawo) in war, and that the dufia was also called by the Akan-derived title asafohene.
The dufia presided over the affairs of his town with a council of elders.