Kumasi

Kumasi, capital of Asante, rose on a ridge above the marshes of the Nsuben streams in the West African forest. The city was the seat of the Asantehene, whose authority joined the rule of Kumasi to that of a wider union of Akan states. At its heart stood the Golden Stool, revered as the embodiment of the spirit of the Asante people. Tradition tells that the priest Okomfo Anokye brought it down from heaven for Osei Tutu, the first Asantehene.

Accounts differ over the founding of Kumasi, but several associate its name with a kum tree. One story tells how Anokye planted seeds at rival sites and chose as capital the place where the tree flourished. In the late seventeenth century Osei Tutu drew neighboring states into a union centered on Kumasi. Victory over Denkyira at Feyiase in 1701 freed the union from its powerful overlord and opened the way for further expansion. Kumasi itself suffered an invasion and sack by the Aowin ruler Ebirimoro in 1718–19, before the invaders were driven back.

By the early nineteenth century the capital had become a remarkable royal town. In 1817 the British envoy Thomas Bowdich reached Kumasi from Cape Coast to negotiate a trade agreement and recorded his encounter with the Asantehene and the splendor of the court. The city stood at the center of a kingdom whose authority extended far beyond the forest lands from which it had emerged.