Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ashanti
Inhabiting the now-thinning forest of south-central Ghana, the Ashanti, an Akan-speaking
people, are among West Africa's best-known peoples. Their fame derives in part from their
artefacts and symbols (among them kente and
adinkra
cloth), which have become prized
among collectors in the West. But it's the Ashanti affinity with gold, with its echoes of
West Africa's great empires of antiquity, which gives them their greatest resonance.
In the 18th century, the Ashanti king, the Asantehene, united the fractured feudal states
of what is now Ghana and, ruling from his capital at Kumasi, brought peace and prosperity
to the country; Ashanti political administration was among the most sophisticated in West
Africa prior to the colonial period. Everything about the Ashanti kingdom glittered with
gold: the Asantehene controlled the region's most prolific gold mines, the goldsmiths of the
royal court were among West Africa's most practised artisans and the kingdom's trading
reach extended across the world. The Asantehene's sacred golden stool, which may only be
shown in public four times each century, became the ongoing symbol of Ashanti extravag-
ance.
Ashanti power waned with the arrival of British colonial forces and, later, was subsumed
into the multi-ethnic modern state of Ghana. But Ashanti culture maintains a strong hold
over Ghana, and modern Ghanaian leaders ignore the traditional Ashanti rulers at their per-
il.
