The Ashanti live in central Ghana in western Africa [map of Ghana ] approximately 300km. away from the coast. The Ashanti are a major ethnic group of the Akans in Ghana, a fairly new nation, barely more than 50 years old. Ghana, previously the Gold Coast, was a British colony until 1957. It is now politically separated into four main parts. Ashanti is in the center and Kumasi is the capital. To the Ashanti, the family and the mother’s clan are most important. A child is said to inherit the father’s soul or spirit (ntoro) and from the mother a child receives flesh and blood (mogya). This relates them more closely to the mother’s clan. The Ashanti live in an extended family. The family lives in various homes or huts that are set up around a courtyard. The head of the household is usually the oldest brother that lives there. He is chosen by the elders. He is called either Father or Housefather and is obeyed by everyone.
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: Asanteman), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire’s military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of Sub-Saharan Africa. The name Asante means “because of war”. The word derives from the Twi words ɔsa meaning “war” and nti meaning “because of”. This name comes from the Asante’s origin as a kingdom created to fight the Denkyira kingdom. The variant name “Ashanti” comes from British reports transcribing “Asante” as the British heard it pronounced, as-hanti. The hyphenation was subsequently dropped and the name Ashanti remained, with various spellings including Ashantee common into the early 20th century.
The Ashanti (or Asante), are the dominant ethnic group of a powerful 19th-century empire and today one of Ghana’s leading ethnic groups, with more than two million members concentrated in south-central Ghana. The political, military, and spiritual foundations of the Ashanti nation date to the first Ashanti king, Osei Tutu. He forged the Ashanti Union by bringing together several subgroups from roughly 1670 to the 1690s. He also built a capital, Kumasi; created the legend of the Golden Stool to legitimize his rule; and began celebrating the Odwira, or yam festival, as a symbol of national unity. From 1698 to 1701, the united Ashanti army defeated the Denkyira people, who had conquered the Ashanti in the early 17th century. Over the course of the 18th century, the Ashanti conquered most of the surrounding peoples, including the Dagomba. By the early 19th century, Ashanti territory covered nearly all of present-day Ghana, including the coast, where the Ashanti could trade directly with the British. In exchange for guns and other European goods, the Ashanti sold gold and slaves, usually either captured in war or accepted as tribute from conquered peoples. As they prospered, Ashanti culture flourished. They became famous for gold and brass craftsmanship, wood carving, furniture, and brightly colored woven cloth, called kente. Although the Ashanti maintained traditional beliefs, Muslim traders and Christian missionaries won some converts among them to their respective religions.
The Asante, also known as Ashanti (/əˈʃɑːntiː/ (listen)) are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. Asantes are the last group to emerge out of the various Akan civilisations. Twi is spoken by over nine million Asante people as a first or second language. The wealthy, gold-rich Asante people developed the large and influential Ashanti Empire, along the Lake Volta and Gulf of Guinea.[4] The empire was founded in 1670, and the capital Kumase was founded in 1680 by Asantehene (emperor) Osei Kofi Tutu I on the advice of Okomfo Anokye, his premier. Sited at the crossroads of the Trans-Saharan trade, the Kumase megacity’s strategic location contributed significantly to its growing wealth. Over the duration of the Kumase metropolis’ existence, a number of peculiar factors have combined to transform the Kumase metropolis into a financial centre and political capital. The main causal factors included the unquestioning loyalty to the Asante rulers and the Kumase metropolis’ growing wealth, derived in part from the capital’s lucrative domestic-trade in items such as gold, slaves, and bullion.
The Ashanti are people who live in Ghana and parts of Togo and the Ivory Coast. Once the rulers of a significant empire, the Ashanti have preserved many of their historic traditions. The Ashanti people are closely intertwined with the history of Ghana. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, much of the territory of the present-day country of Ghana belonged to the Ashanti Empire. Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti state, governed hundreds of villages. The Ashanti Empire is often classified as one of Africa’s slave kingdoms, as they traded slaves and gold with both African and European powers. It is believed that the Ashanti ethnic group settled in the rainforests of what is today Ghana between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. The original form of political and social organization was the Ashanti tribe. However, there were ties to other groups from the beginning. The Ashanti are part of a larger group, the Akan, and share many cultural characteristics with other Akan peoples. Their staple crops are yams, and they also eat plenty of plantains and taro. Ashanti ethnicity is claimed by millions of modern Ghanaians today. While many Ashanti have moved to cities, the majority of their modern population is rural, and ancient lifeways are still preserved in contemporary villages.
Asante, also spelled Ashanti, people of south-central Ghana and adjacent areas of Togo and Côte d’Ivoire. Most of the Asante live in a region centred on the city of Kumasi, which was the capital of the former independent Asante state. They speak a Twi language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family and are a subgroup of the Akan peoples. Although some Asante now live and work in urban centres, they remain primarily associated with village life. They are mainly farmers who produce plantain, bananas, cassava, yams, and cocoyams for local markets and cacao for export. The basis of Asante social organization is the matrilineage, a localized segment of a clan whose members claim descent from a common female ancestor. Members of the lineage assist one another in activities such as building houses, farming, and clearing paths and in funeral rites. Since the Asante believe that every individual is made up of two elements—blood from the mother and spirit from the father—paternal descent is also recognized and governs membership in exogamous ntoro divisions that are associated with certain religious and moral obligations.
The Ashanti people are celebrated on this date in 1650 (1/29/1650). Also known as Asante, they are part of the Akan ethnic group and are native to the Ashanti Region of modern-day Ghana. The Asante speak the Twi language. The Twi language is spoken by over nine million Asante people as a first or second language. The wealthy, gold-rich Asante people developed the large and influential Asante Empire, along Lake Volta and the Gulf of Guinea. The empire was founded in 1670, and the Asante capital Kumasi was founded in 1680. Located at the crossroads of the Trans-Saharan trade routes, the Kumasi megacity’s strategic location contributed significantly to its growing wealth. Over the duration of the Kumasi metropolis’ existence, a number of peculiar factors have combined to transform the Kumasi metropolis into a financial center and political capital. The main causal factors included the unquestioning loyalty to the Asante rulers and the Kumasi metropolis’ growing wealth, derived in part from the capital’s lucrative domestic trade in items such as bullion.
Among the Asante (or Ashanti) people of Ghana, West Africa, a popular legend relates how two young men—Ota Karaban and his friend Kwaku Ameyaw—learned the art of weaving by observing a spider weaving its web. One night, the two went out into the forest to check their traps, and they were amazed by a beautiful spider’s web whose many unique designs sparkled in the moonlight. The spider, named Ananse, offered to show the men how to weave such designs in exchange for a few favors. After completing the favors and learning how to weave the designs with a single thread, the men returned home to Bonwire (Bonwire is the town in the Asante region of Ghana where kente weaving originated), and their discovery was soon reported to Asantehene Osei Tutu, first ruler of the Asante kingdom. The asantehene adopted their creation, named kente, as a royal cloth reserved for special occasions, and Bonwire became the leading kente weaving center for the asantehene and his court.
The Ashanti live in central Ghana in the Rain forests of West Africa approximately 150 miles away from the coast. The Ashanti are a major ethnic group of the Akans (Ashanti and Fanti) in Ghana, Ghana is a fairly new nation, barely more than 50 years old, and Ghana was previously called the Gold Coast. Much of the modern nation of Ghana was dominated from the late 17th through the late 19th century by a state known as Asante. Asante was the largest and most powerful of a series of states formed in the forest region of southern Ghana by people known as the Akan. Among the factors leading the Akan to form states, perhaps the most important was that they were rich in gold. It is now politically separated into four main parts. Ashanti is in the center and Kumasi is the capital. The Ashanti are the largest tribe in Ghana and one of the few matrilineal societies in West Africa. The area of Ashanti is 9400 square miles with a population of about one million.
The Ashanti Empire was a pre-colonial West African state that emerged in the 17th century in what is now Ghana. The Ashanti or Asante were an ethnic subgroup of the Akan-speaking people, and were composed of small chiefdoms. The Ashanti established their state around Kumasi in the late 1600s, shortly after their first encounter with Europeans. In some ways the Empire grew out of the wars and dislocations caused by Europeans who sought the famous gold deposits which gave this region its name, the Gold Coast. During this era the Portuguese were the most active Europeans in West Africa. They made Ashanti a significant trading partner, providing wealth and weapons which allowed the small state to grow stronger than its neighbors. Nonetheless when the 18th Century began Ashanti was simply one of Akan-speaking Portuguese trading partners in the region.
Out of the dense forests of West Africa rose the Ashanti Empire, a kingdom that grew to an unprecedented position of power in the 1700s and 1800s. Though the Ashanti state first emerged as a tiny outpost, it eventually evolved into a complex and wealthy kingdom that held dominion over millions of subjects and an area the size of Wyoming. Based in present-day Ghana, the Ashanti Empire swallowed its neighbors until it was acknowledged as “indisputably the greatest and the rising power of western Africa.” At its peak in the late 18th century, the Ashanti Empire ruled over 4 million people and controlled hundreds of miles of the West African coastline. But its reign would not last forever. Eventually, the British sought to colonize the region. The Ashanti Empire strongly resisted the invasion and even fought five gruesome wars in an attempt to keep the Europeans out of their homeland. But as the power of the Ashanti gradually weakened, they were eventually forced to surrender.
Indigenous Peoples Literature 
![[map of Ghana ]](https://www.africaguide.com/image/country/ghana/maps/ghana_political_map.png){kind=link}
