The story marking the history of the Ashanti people is closely intertwined with the history of Ghana. The Ashanti ethnic group settled in the rainforests of what is today Ghana between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.
They are part of a larger group, the Akan, and share many cultural characteristics with other Akan peoples.
As the Ashanti tribes were growing in size and power, in 1670, Osei Tutu united all the kingdoms with the help of Okomfo Anokye and became “Asantehene” in 1696, but not when he fought and saved the Ashanti people from slavery.
Osei Tutu is regarded as an expert diplomat, and he immediately negotiated several alliances to create the Ashanti Union in 1700. He also built a capital, Kumasi, which remains an important city in modern Ghana.
Opoku Ware, who became the Ashanti King in 1730, also conquered many territories to become the first “Asantehene” to establish the Ashanti Kingdom as an empire.
He carried out a massive campaign that expanded the Ashanti Empire across Ghana and the eastern Ivory Coast. Opoku Ware expanded the kingdom of Ashanti three times: he extended it to Volta, Togo, and the River Bia in the Ivory Coast. He also added Sefhwi and Bono and established them as an empire.
Opoku Ware supported industry and manufacturing, and he also carried out state reforms. His reign ended in 1750. Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh took over the reign and ruled the Ashanti Empire from 1888 to 1896.
He was later imprisoned by Governor William Maxwell in 1896, which led the Ashanti Empire to be dissolved. From the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, much of the territory of present-day Ghana belonged to the Ashanti Empire.
Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti state, governed hundreds of villages. The Ashanti Empire is often classified as one of Africa’s slave kingdoms, as they traded slaves and gold with both African and European powers.
The Ashanti tribe is known for its rich culture, which includes vibrant textiles and beautiful woodcarving. Otumfuo Nana Sir Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II was only four years old when his uncle Prempeh I and other family members were captured and exiled to the Seychelles Islands.
When Ashanti lost its sovereignty after several wars with British troops, Ashanti was once again occupied by the British troops in January 1896. This led to the golden stool war, led by a female warrior, Yaa Asantewaa. Otumfuo Prempeh II was subsequently elected as successor; however, he was elected as merely “Kumasihene” rather than Asantehene.
In 1935, after strenuous efforts on his part and that of Yaa Asantewaa, the colonial authorities allowed Prempeh II to assume the title of Asantehene.
In 1949, Prempeh II was instrumental in founding Prempeh College, a prestigious all-boys boarding school in Kumasi. He also gave a large tract of land for the construction of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which in 1969 awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
In October 1969, he was elected as the first President of the National House of Chiefs, and shortly thereafter, he was appointed to the Council of State.
The original form of political and social organization was the Ashanti tribe, and it’s believed to be the tribe that fought the Europeans more than five consecutive times and won the battle.
The remarkable stride the Ashantis made in the history of Ghana that no African country has accomplished was beheading Sir Charles McCarthy, the governor of the British territories on the Gold Coast of West Africa, who the Ashantis secured his head.
The Ashantis have preserved their traditional chieftaincy supremacy, and today, the Ashanti Kingdom exists as a constitutionally protected, sub-national traditional state in union with the Republic of Ghana.
The current king is Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Asantehene.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
