Ashanti people
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The Ashanti (also Asante) are a major ethnic group from Africa who speak a dialect of Akan.
History
Prior to European colonization, the Ashanti Confederacy was a major state in western Africa, particularly from 1570 to 1900. Ashanti wealth was based on the region's substantial deposits of gold. These rich gold deposits led to metalworking among the Ashanti.Under successive paramount chiefs (called "Asantehenes"), the kingdom participated in the African slave trade. The Ashanti captured people of surrounding regions and sold them to European slavers. In 1827, the Ashanti confederacy banned slave trading. The trade ceased in the early-to-middle 19th century.
Ashanti was one of the few African states able to offer serious resistance to the European imperialists. Between 1826 and 1896, Britain fought four wars against the Ashanti kings (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 renamed it the Gold Coast colony. A revered figure in Asante history is Yaa Asantewaa, a leader of the resistance against British colonialism in 1896.
One particularly important Ashanti artifact was a golden stool. The Ashanti Golden Stool was sacred, so that no one could sit on, touch, or even approach it. In 1900, British Gold Coast governor Frederick Hodgson attempted to take the Golden Stool, which sparked an uprising by the Ashanti that took months to put down.
The territory occupied by the Kingdom of Ashanti is now part of Ghana. The hereditary Ashanti crown continues to be honored by the Ashanti people alongside the authority of the state.
See also
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