Asante - Definition

The Ashanti (cf Asante) are a major ethnic group from Africa. Ashanti is also the name of an administrative region of central Ghana. Kumasi is the region's capital and largest city.

Prior to European colonisation, the Ashanti Confederacy was a major state, particularly during the period from 1570 to 1900. One of the major sources of the kingdom's wealth and power was its participation in the African slave trade; the Ashanti would capture people of surrounding nations and sell them to European slavers. This trade ceased in the early to middle nineteenth century.

Ashanti was one of the few African states able to offer serious resistance to the European invaders. Britain fought four wars against the Ashanti kings between 1826 and 1896 (the Anglo-Ashanti Wars), one of which was notable as the first conflict in which the Maxim gun was used. In 1900, the British finally subdued the kingdom and named it the Gold Coast colony. A much-loved figure in Asante history is Yaa Asantewaa, a leader of the resistance against British colonialism in 1896.

The territory occupied by the Kingdom of Ashanti is now part of what is now known as Ghana. The hereditary Ashanti crown continues to be honoured by the Ashanti people, however, alongside the authority of the state.

See also:

• Ashanti mythology
• History of Ghana

See Ashanti for the artist of this name.