The Akan and the Asante Empire

Akan polities that culminated in the Asante Empire, one of Africa's most centralised and artistically remarkable states.

Region
Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
Period
c. 700 CE – 1902

Overview

The Akan peoples of present-day Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire built a sequence of sophisticated polities, ending in the Asante Empire. The Golden Stool (sika dwa), the sacred political symbol of the Asantehene, embodies the nation's spiritual unity. In 1629 some 38 separate states existed on the Lower Guinea coast; by 1750 the Asante had consolidated political control, one of the most remarkable state-formation processes of the era. Akan brass weights, used to weigh gold dust, document a sophisticated pre-colonial commercial culture.

Key facts

  • Golden Stool (sika dwa): sacred symbol of Asante nationhood
  • 38 states consolidated into the Asante Empire by 1750
  • Fort St George, Elmina (1482): the oldest European fort in sub-Saharan Africa
  • Akan brass weights: evidence of a developed gold economy
  • Yaa Asantewaa led the 1900 War of the Golden Stool

References

  1. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV
  2. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. V
  3. UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. VII
  4. ASC Leiden, Asante Kingdom Webdossier
  5. BlackPast.org, Ashanti Empire

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