REPUBLIQUE DU BENIN

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MINISTERE DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT SUPERIEUR ET
DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
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UNIVERSITE DE PARAKOU
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FACULTE DES LETTRES, ARTS ET SCIENCES HUMAINES (FLASH)
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DEPARTEMENT DES ETUDES ANGLOPHONES, HISPANIQUES, GERMANIQUES
ET LETTRES MODERNES
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Filière : Anglais
Exposé de Civilisation Africaine

Study of the Asante Ethnic Group

Membres du groupe :

1. AGBOSSOU Constantin Sagbo Sous la supervision de :

2. AHOUNOU Fernandine Sèna Dr. SIDI CHABI Moussa,

3. YEGO Agnès Laetitia Maître-Assistant des Universités du CAMES,

Enseignant-Chercheur à l’Université de Parakou

Année Académique : 2021 – 2022

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 Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1

I. Origin of the Asante Ethnic Group ............................................................................ 2

II. Myth of Creation of Ashanti .................................................................................... 2

III. Legends about the Asanteman ................................................................................ 3

IV. Beliefs ......................................................................................................................... 3

V. Customs and Traditions ........................................................................................... 5

VI. Social and Political Organisation ............................................................................ 6

VII. Achievements and Occupations............................................................................... 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 9

Works Cited ....................................................................................................................... 10

Introduction

The group life is the key element that characterise human beings in general and African

particularly. In this direction, we have many ethnic groups distributed not randomly but

following some give characteristics and features among which we may have their origin,

their history, their way of living and many other points. That is the main concern of our

present work here, where instead of taking several ethnical groups, we concentrated our

energy only on the Asante people from Ghana, also known as Ashanti. It was a powerful

group whose power is still recognised nowadays worldwide.

As work, we will concentrate our effort on the origin of this ethnic group, the myth

of their creation, their legends, their beliefs as well as their customs and traditions, their

social and political organisation and then end by their achievements and occupations.

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 I. Origin of the Asante Ethnic Group

The Ashanti or Asante are a major ethnic group in Ghana. They were a

powerful, militaristic, and highly disciplined people of West Africa. At the beginning,

the ancient Ashanti migrated from the vicinity of the North West Niger River

after the extinction of the Ghana Empire in the 13th century. Ethno linguists have

substantiated the migration by tracing word usage and speech patterns along West Africa.

Around the 13th century AD, the Ashanti and various other Akan peoples

migrated into the forest belt of present-day Ghana and established small states

in the hilly country around present-day Kumasi. During the height of the Mali

Empire the Ashanti, and Akan people in general, became got rich through the

trading of gold mined from their territory. Early in Ashanti history, this gold

was traded with the greater Ghana and Mali Empires. However, there are citations that

contradict this.

It is common to see nowadays, Asante as person’s name; and it means “Thank you”

II. Myth of Creation of Ashanti

Long ago a man and a woman came down from heaven, while another man and woman

came out of the ground. The 'Lord of the Heavens' also sent an African python, (a non-

poisonous snake of Africa), which made its home in a river. In the beginning men and

women had no children; they had no desire for one another and did not know the process

of procreation and birth.

It was the Python who taught them. He asked the men and women if they had any children,

and on being told that they had none, the Python said he would make the women conceive.

He told the couples to stand facing each other, and then he went into the river and came out

with his mouth full of water.

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 This he sprayed on their bellies, saying "Kus, kus" (words that are still used in today in the

clan rituals).

Then the Python told the couples to go home and lie together, and the women conceived

and bore children. The children and descendants took the Python ('spirit of the river'), as

their 'Clan Spirit'. Killing or harming a python as taboo, and if they find a python that has

died or been killed by someone else, they put white clay on it and bury it human fashion.

III. Legends about the Asanteman

The Golden Stool is a sacred symbol of the Ashanti nation believed to possess the

sunsum (soul) of the Ashanti people. According to legend, the Golden Stool -- sika 'dwa in

the Akan language of the Ashanti -- descended from heaven in a cloud of white dust and

landed in the lap of the first Ashanti king, Osei Tutu, in the late 1600s. The king's priest,

Okomfo Anokye, proclaimed that henceforth the strength and unity of the Ashanti people

depended upon the safety of the Golden Stool.

Drawing upon the Akan tradition of a stool indicating clan leadership, the Golden Stool

became the symbol of the united Asante people and legitimised the rule of its possessor. To

defend the stool in 1900, the Ashanti battled the British in the so-called Yaa Asantewa

War. The Ashanti chose to let the British exile the Ashanti's last sovereign king, Prempeh

I, rather than surrender the stool. Today the Golden Stool is housed in the Asante royal

palace in Kumasi, Ghana.

IV. Beliefs

The Ashanti religion is a mixture of spiritual and supernatural powers. They believe that

plants, animals, and trees have souls. They also believe in fairies, witches, and forest

monsters. There are a variety of religious beliefs involving ancestors, higher gods, or

abosom, and 'Nyame', the Supreme Being of Ashanti. The Ashanti also practices many

ceremonies for marriage, death, puberty, and birth.

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 The golden stool is sacred to the Ashanti; today great pride in the Ashanti King lives on

in the tradition of the Golden Stool. There is an elaborate legend surrounding it that is told

by the old men of Ashanti. The golden stool is very carefully protected. No one has ever sat

on it and since its arrival; it has not touched the ground.

As an Ashanti symbol, the golden stool represents the worship of ancestors, well-being,

and the nation of Ashanti. As a symbol of nationhood, and because if contains the sunsum

or Soul of Ashanti, the Golden Stool is considered to be so sacred that no person whatsoever

is allowed to sit upon it. It is kept with the strictest security and precaution; and is taken

outside only on exceptionally grand occasions. Never must it come in contact with the earth

or the ground. It is always lying on its own stool or on the skin of an animal such as the

leopard. Ashanti's have on many occasions made great sacrifices to defend it when its safety

had been threatened. In 1896 they submitted to the deportation of their King, Prempeh I,

rather than resort to a war in which they feared they might suffer defeat and risk the loss of

the Golden stool. They deemed the loss of their King a small thing compared with the loss

of their Golden Stool

In the traditional Asante state, villages were grouped into territorial divisions; the chief

of the capital village was the paramount chief of the division, and his village council served

as the division council. The paramount chief of the national capital, Kumasi, was the chief

of the confederation. The symbol of Asante unity was the Golden Stool, which reputedly

descended from the sky and to which all chiefs acknowledged allegiance. The queen mother

(more often actually the sister of the chief) advised him about his conduct and was regarded

as the authority on kinship relations of the lineage; she nominated candidates to fill a vacant

chief’s position. The chief’s primary duties were formerly religious and military, but in

modern times the position has become increasingly secular, involving economic

administration and the provision of social and welfare services. Although there are Christian

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 and Muslim converts among the Asante, the traditional religion, based on belief in a distant

supreme being, a pantheon of gods and lesser spirits, and the ever-present spirits of ancestors,

remains the basis of the Asante conception of the universe. See also Asante empire.

V. Customs and Traditions

Ashanti people are a matrilineal society where line of descent is traced through the

female. Historically, this mother progeny relationship determined land rights, inheritance of

property, offices and titles. It is also true that the Ashanti inherit property from the paternal

side of the family. Though not considered as important as the mother, the male interaction

continues in the place of birth after marriage. Historically, an Ashanti girl was betrothed

with a golden ring called "petia" (I love you), if not in childhood, immediately after the

puberty ceremony. They did not regard marriage "awade" as an important ritual event, but

as a state that follows soon and normally after the puberty ritual. The puberty rite was and is

important as it signifies passage from childhood to adulthood in that chastity is encouraged

before marriage. The Ashanti required that various goods be given by the boy's family to

that of the girl, not as a 'bride price', but to signify an agreement between the two families.

The Ashanti people have always been known as fierce fighters. The people of this tribe

have a slogan: “If I go forward, I die, If I go backward, I die, Better go forward and die.”

When the Ashanti tribe was faced with war, they used drums to signal the upcoming battle.

The beat of these drums could be heard through the dense forest. The Ashanti people have a

special handshake, in which you hold your left hand out to shake hands. This comes from

the Ashanti’s explanation that the left hand holds the shield, and the right hand holds the

spears. So, in order to show your trust in someone, you put down your shield and therefore

have your left hand free.

To the Ashanti, the family and the mother’s clan are most important. A child is said to

inherit the father’s soul or spirit and from the mother a child receives flesh and blood. This

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 relates them more closely to the mother’s clan. The Ashanti people live in an extended

family. The family lives in various homes or huts that are set up around a courtyard. The

head of the household is usually the oldest brother that lives there. The elders choose him.

He is called either Father or House father and is obeyed by everyone.

VI. Social and Political Organisation

The basis of Asante social organization is the matrilineage, a localized segment of a clan

whose members claim descent from a common female ancestor. Members of the lineage

assist one another in activities such as building houses, farming, and clearing paths and in

funeral rites. Since the Asante believe that every individual is made up of two elements

(blood from the mother and spirit from the father) paternal descent is also recognised and

governs membership in exogamous ntoro divisions that are associated with certain religious

and moral obligations.

The head of the lineage is chosen by its senior men and women; females are prohibited

from holding this position because of menstrual taboos forbidding contact with sacred

objects. The lineage head is responsible for internal peace and relations with other lineages

and, as custodian of lineage stools, which embody the spirits of ancestors, is the mediator

between its living and dead members. Every important lineage head also has a stool as a

symbol of the office. The village chief is chosen from a particular lineage, which differs

from village to village; his main task, with the advice of his council of elders, is to settle

disputes within the community. The Ashanti Empire was ruled by a centralized monarchy

headed by an asantehene (king). The Ashanti government comprised four levels: state,

district, village, and lineage. A large imperial bureaucracy handled every aspect of state

business. In the eighteenth century Osei Tutu and his successors embarked on a campaign

of military conquest, incorporating more than twenty kingdoms into the burgeoning Ashanti

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Empire and enslaving a large share of the population. By the end of the century the Ashanti

Empire was at its peak, ruling three to four million people and controlling nearly five

hundred miles of coastline. Though the Ashanti state was created by military force, its rulers

recognized that it would have to be maintained by diplomacy and effective political

structures. Thus, Ashanti rulers set out to create a strong, centralized system of governance

based on allegiance to the asantehene. Under Osei Tutu the odwira (a traditional yam

festival) was institutionalized as an annual celebration of national patriotism during which

local chiefs reaffirmed their allegiance to the asantehene.

From 1824 to 1902 the Ashanti engaged in a series of military conflicts with the British,

who sought to impose colonial rule on the Gold Coast. During this time the Ashanti gradually

ceded their autonomy to the British. According to the terms of a peace treaty signed in 1831,

the Ashanti were forced to relinquish control of their southern coastal provinces. In 1874

forces led by the British general Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833–1913) took the capital of

Kumasi; later that year the southern provinces were constituted as the Gold Coast colony by

the British and the asantehene was deposed. The final war, known as the War of the Golden

Stool, took place in 1900. On January 1, 1902, Ashanti was declared a British Crown colony,

and the former northern provinces were made a British protectorate. Their war against the

British was notable because it was the longest military resistance to European colonial rule

in all of West Africa Under British colonial rule the Ashanti Confederacy Council was

formed and the position of the asantehene was restored, even though the asantehene served

only as a symbolic figure. The modern nation of Ghana became a self-governing dominion

of the British Commonwealth in 1957 and an independent republic in 1960. In the twenty-

first century, the Ashanti are the largest ethnic group in Ghana, and the Ashanti state, which

is still centred on Kumasi, is the most populous in the nation.

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VII. Achievements and Occupations

During this era the Portuguese were the most active Europeans in West Africa. They

made Ashanti a significant trading partner, providing wealth and weapons which allowed

the small state to grow stronger than its neighbours. Nonetheless when the 18th Century

began Ashanti was simply one of Akan-speaking Portuguese trading partners in the region.

That situation changed when Osei Tutu, the Asantehene (paramount chief) of Ashanti from

1701 to 1717, and his priest Komfo Anokye, unified the independent chiefdoms into the

most powerful political and military state in the coastal region. The Asantehene organized

the Asante union, an alliance of Akan-speaking people who were now loyal to his central

authority. The Asantehene made Kumasi the capital of the new empire. He also created a

constitution, reorganized and centralized the military, and created a new cultural festival,

Odwira, which symbolized the new union. Most importantly, he created the Golden Stool,

which he argued represented the ancestors of all the Ashanti. Upon that Stool Osei Tutu

legitimized his rule and that of the royal dynasty that followed him.

Gold was the major product of the Ashanti Empire. Osei Tutu made the gold mines royal

possessions. He also made gold dust the circulating currency in the empire. Gold dust was

frequently accumulated by Asante citizens, particularly by the evolving wealthy merchant

class. However even relatively poor subjects used gold dust as ornamentation on their

clothing and other possessions. Larger gold ornaments owned by the royal family and the

wealthy were far more valuable. Periodically they were melted down and fashioned into

new patterns of display in jewellery and statuary.

Although some Asante now live and work in urban centres, they remain primarily

associated with village life. They are mainly farmers who produce plantain, bananas,

cassava, yams, and cocoyam for local markets and cacao for export.

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Conclusion

We can explicitly conclude that as the other African ethnic groups, the Asante one is

also a traditional one having several common features with them such as beliefs, customs

and traditions as well as the political organisation. Anyway, there are some specific points

that is important to point out. It is for instance the myth of creation, the intervention of the

sacred Python in the conception of the first Asante birth; the crucial importance of the stool

in their clan and more importantly; the possibility for them to scarify the King is necessary

just to protect the Golden Stool, the Sacred Stool, the symbol of power. Apart from those

points, it seems necessarily to mention that with the globalisation, things are no more like

before, that is, today the power, the activity, the reputations that belong to them have

decreased. It is same with their occupations where even if some are still specialised in some

traditional activities, most are present in administrative work, some engaged in political life

and so on.

What nowadays can effectively resist globalisation in Africa?

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Works Cited

− Gateway-Africa. “Ashanti Creation Myth”. Gateway-Africa website:

https://www.gateway-africa.com . Retrieval date June,19th 2022

− PBS. “Legend of the Golden Stool”. PBS website: https://www.pbs.org Retrieved

on June, 19th 2022

− African-Crafts-Market. “Ashanti Beliefs”. Online article :

https://www.africancraftsmarket.com/. Retrieved on June, 19th 2022.

− Britannica-encyclopaedia. “Ashanti Religious Beliefs”. Online link:

https://www.britannica.com . Retrieved on June, 19th 2022.

− Wikipedia. “The Ashanti People”. Retrieved from https://www.wikipedia.com on

June 19th 2022.

− Collections-DMA. “Asante custom and tradition”. Retrieved from

https://collections.dma.org on June, 19th 2022

− Encyclopedia. “Asante Political Organisation”. Retrieved from

https://www.encyclopedia.com/ on June, 19th 2022.

− Kenya-Yote. “Social organisation of Asante”. Retrieved

from https://kenyayote.com/ on June, 19th 2022

− Black-Past. “Occupations and Achievements”. Retrieved from

https://www.blackpast.org on June, 19th 2022

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