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Ashantiland
The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: ), 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.Collins and Burns (2007), p. 140. Starting in the late 17th century, the Ashanti king Osei Tutu ( – 1717) and his adviser Okomfo Anokye established the Ashanti Kingdom, with the Golden Stool of Asante as a sole unifying symbol. Osei Tutu oversaw a massive Ashanti territorial expansion, building up the army by introducing new organisation and turning a disciplined royal and paramilitary army into an effective fighting machine. In 1701, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denkyira
Denkyira was a powerful nation of Akan people that existed before the 1620s, in what is now modern-day Ghana. Like all Akans, they originated from Bono state. Before 1620, Denkyira was called Agona. The ruler of the Denkyira was called Denkyirahene and the capital was Jukwaa. The first Denkyirahene was Mumunumfi. History Later, the capital of Denkyira moved to Abankeseso. The Denkyira state capital is now Dunkwa-on-Offin. Denkyira became powerful through gold production and trade with Europe. In the 1690s, wars took place between Denkyira and the Asen and Twifo-Heman. The goal of these struggles was to keep open the trade routes to the coast and trade with the Fante State and Europeans. The Denkyira state together with the Fante states dominated the trade with Europeans in Western Ghana while the Akwamu dominated trade with Europeans in Eastern Ghana. The Denkyira state dominated the neighboring states apart from the Fante, Akwamu and Akyem. The Ashanti were subjects ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akan People
The Akan () people live primarily in present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast in West Africa. The Akan language (also known as ''Twi/Fante'') are a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family.Languages of the Akan area: papers in Western Kwa linguistics and on the linguistic geography of the area of ancient. Isaac K. Chinebuah, H. Max J. Trutenau, Linguistic Circle of Accra, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1976, pp. 168. Subgroups of the Akan people include: the Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Akyem, Ashanti, Bono, Fante, Kwahu, Wassa, and Ahanta. The Akan subgroups all have cultural attributes in common; most notably the tracing of matrilineal descent, inheritance of property, and succession to high political office. Oral tradition and Ethnogenesis Akan people are believed to have migrated to their current location from the Sahara desert and Sahel regions of Africa into the forest region around the 11th century. Many Ak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
State Union
A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal government; and prefectures, regions, or provinces in the case of a centralised government. This form of government may be voluntary and mutual and is described as ''unionism'' by its constituent members and proponents. In other cases, it may arise from political unification, characterised by coercion and conquest. The unification of separate states which, in the past, had together constituted a single entity, is known as ''reunification''. Unlike a personal union or real union, the individual constituent entities may have devolution of powers but are subordinate to a central government or coordinated in some sort of organization. In a federalised system, the constituent entities usually have internal autonomy, for example in the setup of poli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osei Tutu
Osei Kofi Tutu I ( – ) was one of the founders of the Ashanti Empire, assisted by Okomfo Anokye. The Asante are an Akan ethnic group of West Africa. Osei Tutu led an alliance of Asante states against the regional hegemon, the Denkyira, completely defeating them. He ruled the Kumaseman State between c.1680/c.1695-1701 (he was definitely Kumasehene by 1695) and he ruled the Ashanti Empire from late 1701-c.1717. Asantemansu, Kwaaman, Amantoo and Kumase states It is unclear about who out of Oti Akenten, Obiri Yeboa and Osei Tutu founded Kumase, or at least had its name changed. This is because Kwaaman is in the same place as Kumase (Kwaaman is Kumase). Most accounts tell that it was Osei Tutu who, with the help of Akomfo Anokye, founded Kumasi after growing trees in 3 places and seeing which tree grew the best. However, it is also said that it was Obiri Yeboa who founded Kumase in an attempt to move his capital away from his Denkyrian overlords, which makes sense as he was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa, African countries and territories that are situated fully in that specified region, the term may also include polities that only have part of their territory located in that region, per the definition of the United Nations (UN). This is considered a non-standardized geographical region with the number of countries included varying from 46 to 48 depending on the organization describing the region (e.g. UN, WHO, World Bank, etc.). The Regions of the African Union, African Union uses a different regional breakdown, recognizing all 55 member states on the continent - grouping them into 5 distinct and standard regions. The term serves as a grouping counterpart to North Africa, which is instead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture Of The Ashanti Empire
The Ashanti Empire was governed by an elected monarch with its political power centralised. The entire government was a federation. By the 19th century, the Empire had a total population of 3 million. The Ashanti society was matrilineal as most families were extended and were headed by a male elder who was assisted by a female elder. Asante twi was the most common and official language. At its peak from the 18th–19th centuries, the Empire extended from the Komoé River (Ivory Coast) in the West to the Togo Mountains in the East. The king and the aristocracy were the highest social class in the Ashanti society. Commoners were below the aristocracy with slaves forming the lowest social order. The Ashanti celebrated various ceremonies which were compulsory for communal participation. Festivals served as a means of promoting unity, remembering the ancestors and for thanksgiving. There was the belief in a single supreme being who created the universe with a decentralized syste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Political Systems Of The Ashanti Empire
The political organization of the historical Ashanti Empire was characterized by ''stools'' which denoted "offices" that were associated with a particular authority. The Golden Stool was the most powerful of all, because it was the office of the King of the Ashanti Empire. Scholars such as Jan Vansina have described the governance of the Ashanti Empire as a ''federation'' where state affairs were regulated by a council of elders headed by the king, who was simply ''primus inter pares''. Structure and organization In all, the Ashanti state was a centralized state made up of a hierarchy of heads starting from the "Abusua Panyin" who was head of a family or lineage. The family was the basic political unit in the empire. The family or lineage followed the village organization which was headed by the ''Odikro''. All villages were then grouped together to form divisions headed by a divisional head called ''Ohene''. The various divisions were politically grouped to form a state which wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economy Of The Ashanti Empire
The Economy of the Ashanti Empire was largely a pre-industrial and agrarian economy. The Ashanti established different procedures for mobilizing state revenue and utilizing public finance. Ashanti trade extended upon two main trade routes; one at the North and the other at the South. The Northern trade route was dominated by the trade in Kola nuts and at the South, the Ashanti engaged in the Atlantic Slave Trade. A variety of economic industries such as cloth-weaving and metal working industries existed. The Ashanti originally farmed in subsistence until agriculture became extensive during the 19th century. State revenues Gold dust was the main currency of the Ashanti Empire. Mperedwan or Peregwan was the highest denomination in Ashanti. One Peregwan was equal to an Ashanti weight of 2.25 troy ounces. The Ashanti government depended on taxes as a source of government revenue. According to Ratray, the main forms of gaining revenue for the government were through death dut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Of The Ashanti Empire
The Ashanti Empire was an Akan empire and kingdom from 1701 to 1957, in modern-day Ghana. The military of the Ashanti Empire first came into formation around the 17th century AD in response to subjugation by the Denkyira Kingdom. It served as the main armed forces of the empire until it was dissolved when the Ashanti became a British crown colony in 1901. In 1701, King Osei Kofi Tutu I won Ashanti independence from Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase and carried out an expansionist policy.''History of the Ashanti Empire''. The Ashanti army prior to the 18th century used predominantly bows with poisoned arrows, swords, spears and javelins. King Osei Tutu I instituted reforms in the army such as the adoption of military tactics used by other Akan kingdoms. Through trade with Europeans at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asante Twi
Asante, also known as Ashanti, Ashante, or Asante Twi, is one of the principal members of the Akan dialect continuum. It is one of the four mutually intelligible dialects of Akan which are collectively known as Twi, the others being Bono and Akuapem. There are 3.8 million speakers of Asante, mainly concentrated in Ghana and southeastern Cote D'Ivoire, and especially in and around the Ashanti Region of Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To .... Writing System The Ashanti used Adinkra in their daily lives. ''Adinkra Nkyea'' is a writing system based on the Adinkra symbols. The Akan Language and its dialects uses the Adinkra Nkyea writing system. Majority of Adinkra Nkyea is derived from the original Adinkra Symbols. Adinkra Nkyea contains some 39 characters, 10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shell Money
Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to coin money and other forms of commodity money, and was once commonly used in many parts of the world. Shell money usually consisted of whole or partial sea shells, often worked into beads or otherwise shaped. The use of shells in trade began as direct commodity exchange, the shells having use-value as body ornamentation. The distinction between beads as commodities and beads as money has been the subject of debate among economic anthropologists. Shell money has appeared in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia. The most familiar form may be the wampum created by the Indigenous peoples of the East Coast of North America, ground beads cut from the purple part of marine bivalve shells. The shell most widely used worldwide as currency was the shell of ''Cypraea moneta'', the money cowry. This species is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Malabar coast, in Borneo and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cowry Shell
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries. The term '' porcelain'' derives from the old Italian term for the cowrie shell (''porcellana'') due to their similar appearance. Shells of certain species have historically been used as currency in several parts of the world, as well as being used, in the past and present, very extensively in jewelry, and for other decorative and ceremonial purposes. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. It is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and was collected in the Maldive Islands, in Sri Lanka, along the Indian Malabar coast, in Borneo and on other East Indian islands, in Maluku in the Pacific, and in various parts of the African coast from Ras Hafun to Mozambique. Cowrie shell money was important in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. In the United States and Mexico, cowrie spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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