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The Ashanti
Located, during the 17th–19th
centuries, in the area of modern
Ghana, the Ashanti was the largest
and most powerful of a series of
linguistically connected Akan states,
which used their wealth to buy
slaves from Europeans and other
Africans, the first European
involvement having been the trade
in selling Africans to other Africans.
The slaves were put to work
panning for gold and in the gold
mines, and were used to clear dense
areas of forest. The Akan had once
been hunter-gatherers, but with the
clearing of the forest took to
farming, growing traditional crops,
such as yams and rice, and later new
crops imported from America –
maize and cassava (manioc) among
other useful plants – which allowed
them to feed the by now greatly
increased population.
The Ashanti are famous for
their myths, especially the stories
about Anansi, who is a spider or a
human being, or perhaps
somewhere between the two. The
legend of the “Golden Stool” is
central to Ashanti nationhood, as it
is believed to contain the spirit or
soul of the Ashanti people. The
Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir
Frederick Hodgson, demanded to sit
on the stool in 1900, outraging the
Ashanti, after which they prepared
for war.
The Ashanti traded with the
Portuguese, who had built their first
fort in tropical Africa in 1482, on
what became known as the Gold
Coast. The Ashanti were skilled
metalworkers, who became famous
for their lost-wax method of casting.
The purpose of the Ashanti
state was to control the gold trade,
among others, as well as farming.
The Ashanti had exported slaves
throughout their history, but
with the abolition of the slave
trade were forced to rework their
entire economy.
West Africa
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The Ashanti
The Ashanti was one of
the few African states to
offer serious resistance to
European colonizers. Between
1823 and 1896, Britain fought
four wars against the Ashanti
kings (the Anglo-Ashanti Wars). In
1900, the British finally defeated
the Ashanti state and
incorporated it into the Gold
Coast colony. Today the Ashanti
are dominant in West Africa,
being better educated and richer
than other groups.