S3E15: Daily life in the Ashanti Empire

A sad reality of the study of history is that comparatively little time and effort is dedicated to documenting the lives of the vast majority of the population of past periods. Typically, great effort is dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences, psychology, deeds, and achievements of rulers, nobles, artists, generals, and philosophers. As a result, few testimonies of the historical working classes reach modern eyes. In this episode, we attempt to shed some light on what life was like for the everymen of the Ashanti Empire and get a better sense of the life and routine of working Ashanti men and women.

A compound of shrines outside Kumasi: an example of traditional Ashanti architecture

Ashanti family life did not revolve around the nuclear family (that is, a family composed of two parents and their child. Rather, Ashanti family units were extended, composed of the child's parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, great aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. In Ashanti daily life, the family unit was the most important institution, as it was responsible for not only the distribution of resources and wider social standing, but also the education of children. Families typically lived together in housing compounds composing four or more houses connected by a shared courtyard.

Ashanti people outside of a housing compound, taken in the early 20th Century

For an Ashanti subject to advance into a middle-class position, usually some degree of higher education was necessary. Ashanti higher education took the form of an apprenticeship, in which the apprentice would learn from an experienced bureaucrat, craftsman, artist, linguist, military leader, or other skilled work position.

One of the most important elements of Ashanti daily life is also one of the darkest elements of the empire's legacy. Slavery is, unfortunately, an institution that dominates outside perceptions of Ashanti history. In the United States, when people recognize the name of the state, typically its reputation is reduced to "one of the empires that sold slaves to European merchants." Ashanti participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is well documented, and something that we have covered in passing brief mentions in numerous episodes of the show. However, Ashanti slavery as an institution extended beyond the kingdom's role in the slave trade, also playing a major role in Ashanti domestic life.

"Slave" is an English word and therefore doesn't necessarily illuminate the complexity and nuances of various forms of slavery practiced by the Akan peoples, including the Ashanti. This has led to a great deal of confusion in evaluating the historical role of enslaved people and their treatment in the Ashanti Empire. In a few cases, it has led to exaggerations, as in the cases of European explorers who argued that all Ashanti slaves were executed en-masse upon their owner's death. On the other hand, and more commonly today, it has led to a nasty apologia for the institution in academia and beyond. Anecdotally, I specifically remember a professor during my undergrad studies uttering a phrase, "In West Africa, slaves didn't have it so bad." In my experience, these arguments emerge to dissuade comparisons between race-based, trans-Atlantic slavery and Ashanti slavery. However, the value of comparing the immorality of these institutions comes across to me personally as splitting hairs. Human beings suffered immensely under both systems.

Enslaved people (Domum class) in Kumasi pose with a pair of European missionaries, 1885.

However, trying to understand the life of "slaves" in the Ashanti Empire is difficult for multiple reasons. For starters, there are very few narratives written by enslaved people themselves. Almost all primary sources about Ashanti slavery are told either directly or indirectly from the perspective of slave owners, which obviously frames the institution in a more conciliatory tone. Ashanti society accepted the existence of multiple, very different classes of people who outsiders labeled under the catch-all term "slave." The first of these enslaved classes was the domum. Domum were people who were taken as slaves through war or as tribute. Their treatment resembled chattel slavery, regarded as property that could be used and abused as their owner pleased. For this reason, domum made the majority of enslaved people sold to European slave merchants on the coast. They were also typically assigned the most difficult and dangerous labor in mines and plantations.

Enslaved people bought from a slave merchant, rather than captured through war or acquired through tribute, were called odonko. The ideology which justified the enslavement of odonko argued that odonko were essentially a junior branch of their owner's family, as this would be a socially acceptable reason for odonko to do unpaid labor. Of course, odonko were not originally members of the family, but "adopted" through force. However, due to this familial justification, odonko status was typically not hereditary. Children were integrated into the families of their parent's owners as free people. While they were technically now free, the stigma of being descended from odonko often resulted in discrimination and being regarded as a social inferior. Odonko filled multiple labor positions, including plantation workers, domestic servants, miners, porters, and more.

Akyere is the term reserved for people enslaved as punishment for a serious crime. Typically, akyere slavery was a temporary status, a waiting period before the execution of criminals. Akyere acted as servants to the upper echelon of Ashanti society, especially the asantehene himself. This role of subservience to the asantehene prior to execution served an important symbolic role in Ashanti civic culture, symbolizing the dominant role of the asantehene as a protector of law and justice, and a master over those who would dare disrupt order. A few Akyere who showed considerable remorse or skill were spared from execution, but most were executed either at the end of their akyere sentence or during the death of the asantehene.

The final major form of Ashanti slavery was awowa, or debt peonage. Awowa were technically not enslaved, but more akin to the western concept of indentured servitude. They were free people who incured major debts, and would turn to wealthy Ashanti elites to pay off their debts in exchange for a period of unfree servitude. Awowa filled a major role as a backbone of the Ashanti labor system. As the Ashanti economy became more complex and integrated in the early 19th century, the population of awowa ballooned to form a major part of the Ashanti population. As we'll see in a future episode, future administrations will have to come up with solutions to the problem of an ever-expanding number of awowa.

T.E. Bowdich's illustration of Ashanti leisure, 1819.

Anyways, as we discussed at the end of this episode, the spare time of Ashanti workers was typically spent doing domestic chores, making music, and working on crafts. Perhaps the most unique type of Ashanti art is the use of the talking drum. This particular technology allowed Akan people to replicate the tones of the Akan language through drum beats. Talking drums could be used essentially as megaphones, allowing the drummer to send a loud message over long distances, while also used artistically to recite poetry or oral histories. Here is a demonstration of the instrument in use. 

S3E14: Gyaaman Must Pay

Bondoukou, the capital city of Gyaaman.

Despite leading the Ashanti to their largest military victory since Osei Tutu after only three years on the golden stool, the remainder asantehene Osei Bonsu's reign was far from peaceful. From 1811 until 1819, the Ashanti would be enter into two other major wars. 

Illustration of Kumasi, with the wall of the Aban Dan appearing in the bottom-left corner.

The first of these wars, which lasted from 1811 until 1816, pitted the Ashanti against the Fante Confederacy and a faction of Akyem and Denkyira rebels. The Fante had long been the Ashanti's most powerful rival, but Osei Bonsu had forced them to submit to Fante vassalage after a shocking Ashanti victory at the Battle of Abura in 1806. Despite losing many of their most experienced and capable officers at Abura, the Fante quickly rebuilt their ranks into a respectable army. In 1811, the Fante decided to reassert their independence by attacking Elmina and Accra, both controlled by Ashanti allies. While the Ashanti won the early stages of the war, the Fante Twafohene (military leader) switched to a strategy of asymmetric warfare. This new strategy was very effective and, combined with an outbreak of smallpox in the Ashanti army, severely weakened Ashanti control over Fanteman. However, in 1814, the British changed tactics. Instead of trying to fight the Fante themselves, the Kontihene decided that a better strategy was to cut off their supplier. The British Company of African merchants, despite having agreed to a treaty recognizing Ashanti sovereignty over the southern coast, supplied the Fante with arms and ammunition.

Fort Winneba, the fort that Osei Bonsu's army seized in 1814

In 1814, the Ashanti decided to force the British not to sell weapons to the Fante. They successfully captured the British fortress Winneba using tactics they had practiced at a replica European castle in Kumasi, known as the Aban Dan. The British were defeated and the forts governor executed. After the battle of Winneba, the British agreed to half weapons sales to the Fante. From there, Fante supplies dwindled, and they sued for peace in 1816. The treaty signed between the Fante, British, and Ashanti stipulated full Ashanti access to the coast, exclusive Ashanti weapons trading rights during wartime, and a recognition of Ashanti sovereignty over the coastal peoples. However, the Fante did successfully prove to the Ashanti that they could not be governed easily. The war reinforced that the Fante Confederacy would continue to exist as a separate state, albeit as a subject of the asantehene.

In 1817, tensions arose on the other side of the Ashanti empire. Under the rule of Queen Ama Tamia and her brother Kwadwo Adinkra, the kingdom of Gyaaman had created a replica of the Ashanti golden stool for their own royal family. This stool was a brazen challenge to Ashanti authority, as well as an announcement that the state would no longer pay tribute to their Ashanti neighbors. Enraged, Osei Bonsu mobilized an army to march north and crush Gyaaman. After a hard fought battle on the Tain river, the Ashanti emerged victorious and later crushed the Gyaaman army at Nkoransa. The king and queen were either killed by the Ashanti or committed suicide. Gyaaman was ransacked, with almost half of its population either killed or sold into slavery. With these two victories, Osei Bonsu solidified his position as the most capable Ashanti military monarch since Osei Tutu himself. 

The Ashanti Empire at its height in 1818, featuring roads.

S3E13: The Battle of Anomabu

 

Fort William, Anomabu. The site of the battle

In 1806, war between the Ashanti Empire and their neighbors/rivals the Fante confederation broke out. The main issue of contention: the Fante's harboring of several rebellious noblemen who exhumed the graves of an important Ashanti family. This grave insult could not go unpunished, so when it was discovered that the noblemen had fled into the Fante confederation's lands, the Ashanti demanded their extradition. When the man who delivered the message was executed, the asantehene Osei Bonsu and the Kotoko council declared war on the Fante.

A wing of the Ashanti Royal Palace, illustrated by T.E. Bowdich

The two armies met at Abura, where the Ashanti scored an incredibly crushing victory that eliminated nearly the entirety of the Fante's professional soldiers. The few survivors, as well as many civilian refugees, retreated further south to escape the Ashanti. As the Ashanti pressed on deeper into Fante territory, and the situation became more grim for the Fante, many retreated to hide in the forts owned by the British, Dutch, and Danish trading companies on the coast. One of the rebellious noblemen who provoked the war, along with a crowd of several thousand Fante refugees, fled to the British Fort William at the Fante town of Anomabu. As the pursuing Ashanti army, commanded by Osei Bonsu himself, approached, the British allowed 2,000 of the Fante including the rebellious noble into Fort William. Several thousand more were left outside to fend for themselves. 

A view of Fort William from the ground

The Fante inside the fort, terrified that the British would sell them out for their own safety, barred the British in the fort from sending any sort of communication outside as the Ashanti army approached Fort William. The Ashanti army outside, unaware of the reason for the lack of communication, began to massacre the Fante outside of the fort's gates to provoke a response. Still receiving no response, the Ashanti began to try to capture the fort. The Ashanti army, as a mobile force designed to encircle their enemies in open battle, had little experience in siege warfare. Inexperienced in siege warfare, the Ashanti incurred heavy casualties and made little progress in overcoming the fort's walls. However, after six hours of fighting, the British began to run low on gunpowder and supplies, and surrendered. 

In the wake of the battle, Osei Bonsu extracted a treaty of submission from both the British and the Fante, with both sides acknowleding sole Ashanti sovereignty over the coast of Ghana. However, the rebellious noble managed to escape before the surrender. Ashanti's troubles on the coasts were far from over. Next episode, we'll see the Ashanti struggle to deal with multiple wars in the south, a war in the north, and see Osei Bonsu struggle to right his failure to capture the rebellious nobleman who started this entire war in the first place.

S3E12: Osei Kwame - the Muslim Asantehene

In 1781, the new asantehene Osei Kwame ascended to the throne of the Ashanti Empire. He had been put in his position after a violent succession dispute between himself and the son of Konadu Yaadom, the powerful Asantehemaa, or queen mother. On the back of a coalition primarily composed of the empire's rising bourgeois class who felt left out of the avenues of power, and the empire's Muslim minority, Osei Kwame managed to win this early succession dispute and win the kingship of the empire.

Mosque in Kumasi, with Ashanti Muslims outside

Osei Kwame's rule was rocky from the very beginning, as he had to purge numerous government ministers and replace them with loyal allies to secure his own power. But, Osei Kwame's personal religion would prove to be an issue as his reign progressed. Due to his upbringing at the hands of predominately Muslim wet nurses and servants in the city of Mampong, Osei Kwame held a deep-seated affinity for the Islamic faith. This would prove to be a problem, as he perceived numerous aspects of traditional Akan religions as being at odds with his personal beliefs.

The Adinkra Symbol for Gye Nyame, representing the unrivalled omnipotence of Nyame (God)

The Akan religion is technically monotheistic, with there existing only one true God (Nyame.) However, religious exercise of the faith relies heavily on the veneration of the abosom: spirits created by Nyame to fulfill his will on earth. To outsiders, abosom often appear to be worshipped as gods, even though their role in the religion is more akin to a messenger angel than a god per say. Regardless, the importance of these abosom was perceived by Osei Kwame to be at odds with the Islamic faith, which commands that there exists no god but the one true Abrahamic God, and that all other gods are merely false idols. 

An artist's rendition of an Ashanti execution. The fact that these men were decapitated, instead of strangled as was more common, shows that their alleged crime must have been especially heinous.

Another important component of Akan religion is ancestor worship, which proved similarly difficult to Osei Kwame to partake in. Particularly, the execution of prisoners in the Ashanti Empire often carried an overtly religious tone, with criminals being offered as sacrifices to the ancestors. Osei Kwame strongly hated these proceedings, and is recorded to have regularly refused to attend executions, unusual for the Ashanti king.

The current Asantehene, Osei Tutu II, at a recent Ashanti Yam festival

However, the final breaking point for Osei Kwame came in 1799, when he refused to attend the annual yam festival. This festival, celebrated to mark the beginning of the new harvest, possessed incredible significance for the Ashanti. Not only did the king engage in several important religious ceremonies, such as the cleaning and veneration of his ancestors' funerary stools, but he also received the pledges of loyalty from amanhenes from around the empire. Osei Kwame skipped the festival. This outraged numerous members of the Ashanti public. Not only was he disrespecting the empire's religious customs, but he was also shirking his own secular duties. Kwame was overthrown by an angry mob and imprisoned. He escaped his imprisonment to the city of Juaben, where he held out for four years while continuing to claim status as the rightful Asantehene. However, in 1803 Osei Kwame committed suicide after it was revealed that his longtime lover was, in fact, his cousin.

S3E11: Queen Mother Konadu

 

Despite the numerous reforms made by the asantehene Osei Kwadwo meant to stabilize the Ashanti political system, the empire descended into a major dynastic crisis almost immediately upon his death. On one side was a coalition of the empire's rising bourgeoisie (wealthy non-nobles), less entrenched political elites, and Muslim vassal kings. They supported the young and Muslim-sympathizing prince of Mampong, Osei Kwame, on the throne On the other side the entrenched political establishment in the Kotoko council and the nobility of the southwest supported the queen mother Konadu Yaadom, who sought to enstool her son as the next asantehene. At the council to select the next king, the assembled bureaucrats and nobles chose to enstool Kwame. However, almost immediately after her defeat, Konadu convinced her ally from the Kotoko council, the minister of war Atakora, to march on Kumasi and overthrow Kwame. While Kwame and his allies were forced to retreat to Juaben for a short time, they eventually rallied their allies to take back Kumasi and force Konadu and Atakora to retreat to the northern city of Mampong, which at the time was ruled by one of Konadu's in-laws. The next year, one of Kwame's allies marched on and captured the town, imprisoning Konadu and her son while executing many of her supporters.

A road on the rural outskirts of Mampong, a town with deep personal connections to both Konadu and Osei Kwame

Next episode, we'll see what happens in the aftermath of this chaotic period, as Osei Kwame attempts to solidify his place on the golden stool with purges and heavy-handedness.

S3E10: The Abura Crisis

 

In the modern era, Abura has merged with the nearby town of Dunkwa, and is a small town in South-Central Ghana.

The latest podcast episode followed the foreign policy of the asantehene Osei Kwadwo. As we'll see throughout this episode, Kwadwo's foreign policy strategy involved a stronger emphasis on diplomacy and craftiness instead of brute force. Particularly, Kwadwo often used the tactic of diplomatically isolating his enemies, making them easier to conquer, while cultivating alliances when strategically advantageous.

Ashanti foreign policy had been a mess under his predecessor, Kusi Obodom. During his predecessors rule, many of the empire's peripheral provinces, including the southern states of Akyem, Wasa, and Twifo, as well as the northern vassals of Bonoman and Dagbon slipped away from Ashanti influence. This left the Ashanti in a difficult position, as now both of their primary avenues for foreign trade were commanded by hostile states. To make matters worse, any attempt to reconquer the southern breakaways would be difficult, as the breakaway states had aligned with the powerful southern confederation of Fante. However, this southern alliance would not last long. The allied states really only shared one thing in common - their mutual fear of the Ashanti, but apart from that the interests and needs of each state varied. 

The rupture in the southern alliance that Osei Kwadwo would take advantage of arose when the Wasa kingdom of the southwest reignited its practice of raiding Fante border towns. While minor at first, this eventually became a large enough problem that some in the Fante state were convinced that the Wasa were a bigger threat than the Ashanti. The Fante were generally divided into two factions: a pro-Ashanti party, led by the king of Mankessim (the de jure head of the Fante alliance), and the anti-Ashanti party, led by a man name Kwegil. Kwegil was the head of the Asafo military companies of Fante, meaning that he was the de facto military leader of the confederation. In 1765, two Ashanti noblemen arrived in the Fante town of Abora. They claimed that they were there to negotiate an alliance, and would stay as hostages as a sign of good will. Despite initial suspicion, the Fante ultimately agreed to an alliance with the Ashanti to deal with the Akyem and Wasa. At the end of the year, both countries invaded the Akyem kingdom, with the Akyem king becoming a Fante prisoner. However, when Ashanti armies moved suspiciously close to the Fante border, the alliance between the Fante and Ashanti almost immediately broke down. The Asafo companies mobilized to meet the Ashanti near Abora, with the two engaging in a standstill. The Fante didn't want to fight the Ashanti, while the Ashanti were worried that the start of a new war could result in the execution of their hostage diplomats. This standstill persisted until 1772.

In 1772, after several years of failure in negotiating the release of the hostages, Osei Kwadwo settled on a new plan. He would again try to drive a wedge between the Fante and their allies. This time, he sought to drive a wedge between the Fante and their European ally - the British. To do this, he would first need to secure Ashanti access to the sea. In 1772, an Ashanti army marched to Accra, the largest and wealthiest Ga city. There, he offered the Ga an alliance against the Fante, who had become increasingly domineering towards the Ga. The king of Accra accepted. Next, Kwadwo reached out to the Dutch and Danish, the Ashanti's European allies. He asked for them to strongarm the British by pledging support for the Ashanti if war broke out. As a result, the British backed down, convinced that war between the Fante and Ashanti would harm their trade on the coast. Without British support, the diplomatically isolated Fante relented and released the Ashanti hostages.

War between the Fante and Ashanti broke out later that year. In the end, little changed. The Ashanti protected their allies in the Ga cities of Accra and Appalonia, while mounting a semi-successful invasion of the Wasa. Meanwhile, Ashanti armies in the east were defeated by the Krobo, a Ga group which chose to align with the Fante. In 1776, the two sides agreed to peace. With Accra and Appalonia now firmly under their influence, the Ashanti could resume trade on the coast, including importation of firearms. Now that they could purchase firearms again to supplement their domestic firearm industry, the better armed Ashanti army turned north, and reasserted control over the northern territories of Bonoman and Dagbon.

Osei Kwadwo died in 1777. His reign was one of the most successful in Ashanti history, marked by necessary reforms to the Ashanti government and successful ventures in foreign policy. But, despite his successes, his reign would be followed (like many others in Ashanti history) by chaos and infighting. Next episode, we'll focus on yet another Ashanti civil conflict, in which an important noblewoman tries to place her son on the throne, but faces opposition from the richest man in the Ashanti empire.

S3E9: The Kwadwoan Revolution

The period that lasted from the late 18th Century until the mid 19th Century is often labelled the Age of Revolutions. Visualizing this time period provokes images of the various revolutions of Europe and the Americas, and the likeness of George Washington, Simon Bolivar, Maximillian Robespierre.

In the West African Empire of Ashanti, the late 18th Century was also a time of revolution. In 1763, a crowd of bureaucrats, nobles, and common people alike convened in the empire's capital of Kumasi. There, they declared the impeachment of the current Asantehene, the elderly and unpopular Kusi Obodom. The crowd had many bones to pick with Obodom: his cession of power to provincial governors, his failed military record, and the general moribundity of his rule. In his place, the assembled citizens elected the energetic reformer prince, Osei Kwadwo.

Despite his unpopularity, Kusi Obodom was still given a traditional black funerary stool. His was kept separately from the other kings' stools though, and is thus not pictured here.

Due to the many radical reforms implemented during his rule, as well as the fact that he was the first elected asantehene, the period of Kwadwo's rule would go down in history as the Kwadwoan Revolution. And revolutionary it was. By the time Kwadwo's reign ended, every aspect of Ashanti government had been radically transformed. While the asantehene had never been a true autocrat in practice, Kwadwo's reforms would significantly limit executive power, making the Ashanti Empire into a true constitutional monarchy.

The first area of government which Kwadwo reformed was the Kotoko, the cabinet of local kings that advised the asantehene on matters of state. The fact that local kings served on the Kotoko was vital for state stability, but was also somewhat of a relic of Osei Tutu's era. Promoting unity within the Ashanti state was still important, but the loyalty of the kings of Juaben, Bekwai, and Mampong was no longer the pressing issue it once was. In fact, having local kings in this important administrative system caused more trouble than it was worth. During the recent failed war against the Dahomey, the potential dangers of including unqualified nobles in government was made clear. Odankua, a constituent king on the Kotoko, performed poorly during the war, and his unwise decision making contributed to the Ashanti's defeat. Kwadwo did not abolish the inclusion of local kings on the Kotoko, but rather limited their role. In addition to the three kings, new positions filled by professional bureaucrats were added to the council. These included a designated minister of war, minister of finance, and governor of Kumasi. These positions were not hereditary, but rather appointed based on merit. Kwadwo also shook up the bureaucracy more generally, abolishing hereditary bureaucratic offices and replacing them with meritocratic positions.

However, the most pressing issue for Kwadwo to reform was the balance of power within the Ashanti government. For the last several decades, conflicts between the Nsafohene (national bureaucrats from Kumasi), and amanhene (provincial governors) had contributed to instability within the Ashanti state. At its worst, this feud had contributed to the civil war that brought Kusi Obodom to power. To reduce the potential instability of these conflicts, Kwadwo decided to create an alternative means for these two groups to settle disputes. He created a parliamentary body called the Asantemanhyiamu, or "Meeting of the Ashanti Nation." This parliament was attended by both Nsafohenes and Amanhenes, as well as the asantehene himself and the members of the Kotoko. The creation of the Asantemanhyiamu allowed the Amanhene and Nsafohene to settle their disputes through deliberation and argumentation, rather than civil war. 

While they now lack any formal legal power, the traditional bureaucrats, amanhene, and local nobility continue to meet at the Asantemanhyiamu (now held at the Manhyia Palace, Kumasi)

Kwadwo also ordered the creation of another parliamentary body, the Mpanyimfo. This body, rather than attended by bureaucrats and governors, was supposed to represent the interests of the Ashanti commoners. Each attendee was a respected elder from a village or city within the empire, and, in theory, represented the interests of their constituency. While not democratic per say, the Mpanyimfo did provide Ashanti commoners with something resembling governmental representation. While not elected, these local elders were more receptive and accountable to common people's policy needs than, say, government bureaucrats.