Ashanti Splendour Embodied by the King

In 1999, Nana Kwaku Dua, a 49-year-old accountant and personnel manager who had worked in Britain, Canada and Ghana, was elected as the 16th ruler, or Asantehene, of the historic kingdom of Ashanti. The new king was installed in his capital of Kumasi as Asantehene Osei Tutu II. As a joyously crowded Kumasi celebrated, the thoughts of many present must have turned back to the first Asantehene, Osei Tutu I, who laid the foundations 300 years ago of what became subSaharan Africa's wealthiest and most renowned kingdom.

The history of Ashanti is an epic. Until the 17th century its people were one of various Twi-speaking Akan groups who inhabited the tropical forests of southern Ghana. Then a series of outstanding rulers used the gold resources of the forest, and trade links with the peoples of the interior of Africa and the European powers along the Gold Coast, to forge a nation, a state, and an empire that covered much of present-day Ghana and extended into Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Togo.

In the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, Ashanti was a great kingdom. European ambassadors and visitors have left overawed accounts of a capital, a court and a monarchy of formidable power and, above all, of dazzling wealth in gold. But from the first half of the 19th century Ashanti came into conflict with Britain over jurisdiction of the Gold Coast. A series of wars ended with a British invasion and the burning of Kumasi by Sir Garnet Wolseley in 1874.

Thereafter, Ashanti struggled to maintain its independence until, in 1896, another British expeditionary force returned to Kumasi and arrested and exiled the 13th Asantehene, Agyeman Prempe. But Britain's usurping of Ashanti sovereignty provoked a fierce reaction. In 1900, Ashanti's people rallied around Yaa Asantewaa - a formidable woman and Queen Mother of Ejisu, in central Ashanti - and laid siege to the British Fort in Kumasi. The British garrison was reduced to desperate straits and Governor Frederick Hodgson barely escaped .

British imperial power was then brought fully to bear, the insurgents were crushed, and Ashanti became a Crown colony in 1901. British colonial rule in Ashanti began nervously. In certain official circles, fear of the strength of Ashanti nationalism and the nation's fighting spirit persisted into the 1920s. But the Ashanti people proved to be immensely resilient and adaptable in the face of the new order of colonialism and Western modernity.

Ashanti entrepreneurship made cocoa a pre-eminent cash crop, and the Ashanti people sought out educational and business opportunities. In 1924 the British repatriated Agyeman Prempe after an exile of 28 years (most spent in The Seychelles). Then, in 1935, the British restored the title and privileges of the 14th Asantehene, Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II.

A vibrant aesthetic is expressed in public
displays of breathtaking magnificence

Thereafter, until the end of colonial rule, the British Chief Commissioner presided over Ashanti affairs in tandem with the Asantehene and his Confederacy Council of Chiefs. De-colonisation in the 1940s and 1950s was a painful experience for the Ashanti. Many wanted a restored sovereignty or at the least an autonomous position within a federal, independent Gold Coast. Others put their faith in Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party (CPP), seeing in that famous African radical an opportunity to enter the brave new world of post-colonial change. Once it became clear the British were against Ashanti autonomy, resistance crystalised into the National Liberation Movement (NLM).

In 1954-56 Ashanti was wracked by violent confrontation between NLM and CPP supporters, but the views of the departing colonial power prevailed and in 1957 Ashanti regained its independence as a constituent region of the new state of Ghana.

During the past 40 years relations between an Ashanti nationalism, centred in Kumasi, and successive civilian and military governments have fluctuated but not broken down. The reconciliation of Ashanti people to Ghanaian citizenship has now been effected, in no small measure due to good sense and statesmanship in Kumasi and Accra.

Today the historic kingdom of Ashanti belongs to its citizens, the Republic of Ghana and, increasingly, to the world. The sumptuous arts of working gold, clothmaking, wood-carving and the rest have always been central to Ashanti society.

Taken together, these form a living tradition and a vibrant aesthetic that continue to be expressed in public displays of breathtaking magnificence. In the age of television, video and the Internet, Ashanti culture has reached a global audience. In the US, particularly, Americans of African descent identify themselves with Ashanti as the African monarchy. Across the world Ashanti artefacts and apparel have been appropriated and adapted for use by the people of the African diaspora.

Kumasi is now a tourist destination. But what attracts and gratifies visitors is the palpable sense that Ashanti culture is no museum piece, but rather the contemporary embodiment of a great and vibrant African historical tradition.

T.C. MCCASKIE

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