Ashanti people

In the Asante Twi dialect, Asantefo (/ˈæsɑːnˈtɪfoʊ/ ASS-ahn-TIF-oh); singular masculine: Asantenibarima, singular feminine: Asantenibaa. The name Asante "warlike" is traditionally asserted by scholars to derive from the 1670s as the Asante went from being a tributary state to a centralized hierarchical kingdom.[4][6] Asantehene Osei Tutu I, military leader and head of the Asante adwinehene clan, founded the Asante Empire.[4][6] Osei Tutu I obtained the support of other clan chiefs and, using Kumasi as the central base, subdued surrounding Akan states.[4][6] Osei Tutu challenged and eventually defeated Denkyira in 1701,[4][6] and this is the asserted modern origin of the name.[4]

The homeland Ashanti has a variable terrain, coasts and mountains, wildlife sanctuary and strict nature reserve and national parks, forests and grasslands,[7] lush agricultural areas,[8] and near savannas,[7] enriched with vast deposits of industrial minerals,[8] most notably vast deposits of gold.[9]

The territory Ashanti people settled Ashanti region (Kingdom of Ashanti), is home to a Crater Lake the Lake Bosumtwi and Ashanti is bordered westerly to Lake Volta within the central part of present-day Ghana.[10] The Ashanti (Kingdom of Ashanti) territory is densely forested, mostly fertile and to some extent mountainous.[10] There are two seasons—the rainy season (April to November) and the dry season (December to March).[10] The land has several streams; the dry season, however is extremely desiccated.[10] Asante region is hot year round.[10] They believe in forest monsters, and faries. Today Ashanti people number close to 3 million. Most speak the Ashanti language (indistinguishably also referred to as Asante Twi, a member of the Central Tano languages within the Kwa languages).[1][11] Ashanti political power combines Ashanti King Asantehene Asantehene Osei Tutu II as the absolute ruler and political head of the Ashantis and Ashantis homeland Ashanti,[12][13] with Ashanti semi-one-party state representative NPP,[14] and since Ashanti (and the Kingdom of Ashanti) state political union with Ghana,[15] the Ashanti remain largely influential.[16]

Ashantis reside in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions in Ghana.[16] Kumasi metropolis, the capital of Ashanti (Kingdom of Ashanti), has also been the historic capital of the Ashanti Kingdom.[16] Ashanti region currently has a population of 11 million (11,000,000).

Today, as in the past Ashanti continues to make significant contributions to Ghana's economy.[17] Ashanti is richly endowed with industrial minerals and agricultural implements, Ashanti is responsible for much of Ghana's domestic food production and for the foreign exchange Ghana earns from cocoa, agricultural implements, gold, bauxite, manganese, various other industrial minerals, and timber.[17] Kumasi metropolis and Ashanti region produces 96% of Ghana's exports.[8][9]

Ashanti yam ceremony, 19th century by Thomas E. Bowdich

The Ashanti state strongly resisted attempts by Europeans, mainly the British, to conquer them.[20] The Ashanti limited British influence in the Ashanti region,[20] as Britain annexed neighbouring areas.[20] The Ashanti were described as a fierce organized people whose king "can bring 200,000 men into the field and whose warriors are evidently not cowed by Sniper rifles and 7-pounder guns".[20]

Ashanti was one of the few African states that seriously resisted European colonizers.[20] Between 1823 and 1896, Britain fought four wars against the Ashanti kings (the Anglo-Ashanti Wars).[20] In 1901, the British finally defeated the kingdom following the 1900 War of the Golden Stool and Ashanti Confederacy was made a British protectorate, the Ashanti Protectorate, in 1902, and the office of Asantehene was discontinued with the Ashanti capital Kumasi annexed into the British empire; however, the Ashanti still largely governed themselves.[21][22] Ashanti gave little to no deference to colonial authorities.[21][22] In 1926, the British permitted the repatriation of Ashanti King Asantehene Prempeh I – whom they had exiled to the Seychelles in 1896[21][22] – and allowed him to adopt the title Kumasehene, but not Ashanti Asantehene (the Title of the Ashanti King). However, in 1935, the British finally granted the Ashanti self-rule sovereignty as Ashanti Autonomous Region Kingdom of Ashanti, and the Ashanti King title of Asantehene was revived.[23]

Because of the long history of mutual interaction between Ashanti and European powers, the Ashanti have the greatest amount of historiography in sub-Saharan Africa. In the 1920s the British catalogued Ashanti religion, familial, and legal systems in works like R.S. Rattray's Ashanti Law and Constitution.[24]

Ashanti culture celebrates Adae, Adae Kese, Akwasidae, Awukudae and Ashanti Yam festival.[25] The Seperewa, a 10-14 stringed harp-lute, as well as the Fontomfrom drums, are two of the typifying instruments associated with the Ashanti as well as the Ashanti Kente clothing.[26]

Customs

Ashanti are a matrilineal society where line of descent is traced through the female.[27] Historically, this mother progeny relationship determined land rights, inheritance of property, offices and titles.[27] It is also true that the Ashanti inherit property from the paternal side of the family.[27]

Ashanti soulwasher (Ashanti Sunsum Washer)

Though not considered as important as the mother, the male interaction continues in the place of birth after marriage.[27]

Historically, an Ashanti girl was betrothed with a golden ring called "petia" (I love you), if not in childhood, immediately after the puberty ceremony.[27] They did not regard marriage "awade" as an important ritual event, but as a state that follows soon and normally after the puberty ritual.[27] The puberty rite was and is important as it signifies passage from childhood to adulthood in that chastity is encouraged before marriage.[27] The Ashanti required that various goods be given by the boy's family to that of the girl, not as a 'bride price', but to signify an agreement between the two families.[27]

Language

Ashanti greeting phrases; "akwaba" (welcome) and "ɛte sɛn" (how are you) in Ashanti language.

Main article: Asante dialect

The Ashanti people speak Ashanti language with indistinguishable Ashanti Twi which is the official language of Ashanti Autonomous Region and main national language spoken in Ashanti and by the Ashanti people.[28][29][30][31] Ashanti language is spoken by over 9 million ethnic Ashanti people as a first language and second language.[28][29] The Ashanti language is the official language utilized for literacy in Ashanti, at the primary and elementary educational stage (Primary 1–3) K–12 (education) level, and studied at university as a bachelor's degree or master's degree program in Ashanti.[28][29][30][31]

The Ashanti language and Ashanti Twi have some unique linguistic features like tone, vowel harmony and nasalization.[28][29][30][31]

The Ashanti live in Ashanti specifically in Ashanti capital Kumasi metropolis and due to the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, a known diaspora of Ashanti exists in the Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica. Slaves captured by the Ashantis and sold to the British and the Dutch along the coasts were sent to the West Indies, particularly Jamaica, Barbados, Netherlands Antilles, British Virgin Islands. the Bahamas etc. Ashanti are known to be very opposed to both the Fante and the British people, as the Ashanti only traded with the Dutch in times of their ascension to becoming a hegemony of most of the area of present-day Ghana. The name Coromantee (from Fort Kormantse, purchased by the Dutch in 1665) came from the original British fort on the Gold Coast to host Ashanti captives, despite this fort being used by the Dutch and having no records of trade to Jamaica while being under Dutch ownership.[32] Evidence of Ashanti and Akan-day names and Ashanti and Akan-surnames (but mispronounced by the English), Adinkra symbols on houses, Anansi stories and the dialect of Jamaican Patois being heavily influenced by Ashanti language (Ashanti Twi), can all be found on the island of Jamaica. Edward Long and white British planters before him, described "Coromantees" the same way that the British in the Gold Coast would the "Ashantis", which was to be "Warlike". Edward Long states that others around "Ashantis" and "Coromantees" feared them the same way as they were feared in Jamaica and from the hinterlands of the Gold Coast.[33] According to BioMed Central (BMC biology) in 2012, the average Jamaican has 60% of Ashanti matrilineal DNA and today Ashanti is the only ethnic group by name known to contemporary Jamaicans.[34] Famous Jamaican individuals such as: Marcus Garvey and his 1st wife, Amy Ashwood Garvey are of Ashanti descent. It is commonplace for many Jamaicans to have this descent.[35] Also are Jamaican freedom fighters during slavery: Nanny of the Maroons (now a Jamaican National Heroine), Tacky and Jack Mansong or 3 finger Jack. The names: Nanny and Tacky are English corruptions of the Ashanti words and names: "Nanny" is a corruption of the Ashanti word Nana to mean "king/queen/grandparent", the name Tacky is a corruption of the Ashanti surname Takyi, and Mansong is a corruption of the Ashanti surname Manso, respectively.[36]

• Ashanti cultural artifacts, regalia and other forms of symbolism
• 
  Ashanti National Emblem of the Ashanti Region
• 
  Fontomfrom (Ashanti talking drum and drums)
• 
  Ashanti Blowing Horn
• 
  Ashanti Stool Dwa
• 
  Ashanti Regalia (Asante Gold plated spokesman rod and Asante combat stick)
• 
  20th Century Asante Akrafena (Ashanti Sword with Gold-ring pommel)
• 
  Ashanti Gold plated Shield

• List of rulers of Asante

• Robert B. Edgerton, 1995, The Fall of the Asante Empire. The Hundred-Year War for Africa's Gold Coast. New York, ISBN 0-02-908926-3
• Ernest E. Obeng, 1986, Ancient Ashanti Chieftaincy, Ghana Publishing Corporation, ISBN 9964-1-0329-8
• Alan Lloyd, 1964, The Drums of Kumasi, Panther, London
• Quarcoo, Alfred Kofi, 1972, 1994 The Language of Adinkra Symbols Legon, Ghana: Sebewie Ventures (Publications) PO Box 222, Legon. ISBN 9988-7533-0-6
• Kevin Shillington, 1995 (1989), History of Africa, St. Martin's Press, New York
• N. Kyeremateng, K. Nkansa, 1996, The Akans of Ghana: their history & culture, Sebewie Publishers, Accra
• Dennis M. Warren 1986, The Akan of Ghana: An Overview of the Ethnographic Literature, Pointer, Accra

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ashantis.

• Ashanti People hand History Profiles history and other aspects of the Ashanti.
• Ashanti Page at the Ethnographic Atlas, maintained at Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing, University of Kent, Canterbury
• Ashanti Kingdom at the Wonders of the African World, at PBS
• Ashanti Culture contains a selected list of Internet sources on the topic, especially sites that serve as comprehensive lists or gateways
• Africa Guide contains information about the culture of the Ashanti
• Historical Notes and Memorial Inscriptions from Ghana