LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ashanti: Ashanti Union
built 631 days ago
In this period, the city of Kumasi and the original members of the Ashanti union flourished as tribute flowed to them from distant subject territories. They ... gained access to lucrative commercial markets. To the south, Ashanti traders established direct contact with Danish, Dutch, and British posts along the Atlantic coast, also known as the Gold Coast because of the trade in gold. To the north, they traded with Muslim merchants whose connections extended across the Sahara to North Africa and beyond. The Ashanti invited conquered states to join the Ashanti confederation and allowed them to retain their own chiefs. This semiautonomy helped smooth the process of conquest and administration, and it also inspired some degree of loyalty to the Ashanti Kingdom.
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The political, military, and spiritual foundations of the Ashanti nation date to the first Ashanti king, Osei Tutu. He forged the Ashanti Union by bringing together several subgroups from roughly 1670 to the 1690s. He ... built a capital, Kumasi; created the legend of the Golden Stool to legitimize his rule; and began celebrating the Odwira, or yam festival, as a symbol of national unity. From 1698 to 1701, the united Ashanti army defeated the Denkyira people, who had conquered the Ashanti in the early 17th century. Over the course of the 18th century, the Ashanti conquered most of the surrounding peoples, including the Dagomba.
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Much of the history of the Ashanti people’s origins is shrouded in legend. According to traditional accounts, in the late 1600s Osei Tutu of Kumasi organized a rebel coalition of peoples who were subject to the Denkyira, including the Bekwai, Dwaben, Kokofu, Kumasi, Kumawu, Mampon, and Nsuta. This rebel group became known as the Ashanti, from Osa nti—meaning those brought together “because of war.” The Ashanti conquered the Denkyira in 1701. In the aftermath of the victory, Osei Tutu converted the military coalition into a permanent political union with the help of Okomfo Anokye, a sorcerer and sage. Okomfo Anokye, a longtime ally of Osei Tutu’s, wrote the union’s first code of laws and constitution. Also, he is said to have used his magic to persuade the coalition leaders to accept Osei Tutu as their ruler.
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Essential to Ashanti nationhood is the legend of the 'Golden Stool' (sika 'dwa), the legend actually tells of the birth of the Ashanti kingdom itself. In the seventeenth century, in order for the Ashanti to win their independence from Denkyira, then another powerful Akan state, a meeting of all the clan heads of each of the Ashanti settlements was called. In this meeting, the Golden Stool was commanded down from the heavens by Okomfo Anokye, the Priest, or sage advisor, to the very first Asantehene (Ashanti king), Osei Tutu I. The Golden Stool floated down from the heavens straight into the lap of Osei Tutu I. Okomfo Anokye declared the stool to be the symbol of the new Ashanti union ('Asanteman'), and allegiance was sworn to the Golden Stool and to Osei Tutu as the Asantehene. The newly founded Ashanti union went to war with Denkyira and defeated it. [5]
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Ashanti Union