The Asante

Rain beats a leopard's skin, but it does not wash out the spots.

17th Century Ntiri (Memorial Head) from Adanse, Ghana

Photo: Khan Academy

Of those brought to Jamaica via the Atlantic slave trade, 95.3% are believed to have been from West Africa, with the remaining 4.7% from unknown sources or Southeast Africa.

In the period of 1663 to 1700, only 6%, a minority of slave ships going to Jamaica listed their origin as the Gold Coast. In the succeeding two decades, this number jumped to 27% and increased further throughout the early 18th century (Filippello, M., 2017).

The Gold Coast was named like its neighbouring regions for its main colonial export and refers to a region of the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa. Historically this term was only used when referring to the coast itself and only later entailed the areas north of it. The area was rich in gold and now forms modern day Ghana.

The Gold Coast was known to contain the Akan people, a group of people that included the sub-groups Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Akyem, Bono, Fante, Kwahu, Wassa, Ahanta, and Ashanti.

Prior to the mid-1700s, in the earlier stages of Jamaica's colonisation by the British, the majority of African arrivals were recorded to be Akan (2- Gardner, 1909). According to records from the Phoenix ship, following the Akan people, enslaved Africans were mostly comprised of the Igbo, Yorba, Kongo, Fon and Ibibi.

The number of Akan being taken from Africa were later reduced and replaced by the ethnic groups that were regarded as being more compliant, less demanding, and less prone to rebellion, but due to lingering sentiment amongst the British that the Akan were the best suited for the labour, they remained popular and were again imported in greater numbers during the later period.

The Ashanti people constituted the largest ethnic community in The Gold Coast and prior to European arrival, controlled a lot of the territory that now comprises of modern-day Ghana.

The Ashanti or Asante (meaning warlike) were native to the Asante Region of modern-day Ghana. Wealthy and gold-rich, the Asante people developed the Asante Empire in 1670 and later fought four wars against the British between 1823 and 1896. The ethnic group played a large role in the slave trade.

So why have we chosen to elaborate on the Asante or Ashanti of the Akan (hereafter referred to only as Asante!) over for example, the Akuapem or Akyem, or even the Igbo from Nigeria? Well, there are two reasons for this....

The Akan Had Better Distribution Amongst The Jamaican Parishes

Whilst it is true that the Igbo had the highest importation numbers, the Akan were far more dispersed around the island, and could be found in half the island's parishes, whereas the Igbo were predominantly imported only to Montego Bay and St. Ann's.

Region of Embarkment (1701-1800)	Percentage
Bight of Biafra (Igbo, Ibibio)	31.9
Gold Coast (Asante, Fante Akan)	29.5

Jamaicans Have More DNA from The Gold Coast

Moreover, after genetic analyses were performed on a cohort of 390 Jamaicans, genetics were found to be associated with aggregated populations from the Gold Coast region, which made up 60% of Jamaican DNA, with minimal contribution from populations from the Bight of Biafra. So it is because of these two points that we focus on the Akan, and more specifically the Ashanti here!

Between the 10th and 12th century AD, the Akan ethnicity migrated into the forests of Southern Ghana and established several Akan states. The Asante kingdom was an Akan kingdom that emerged from the dense rain forests of modern-day Ghana ~300 years ago and would go on to dominate West Africa for another 200 years, developing into an Empire.

The kingdom’s military prowess and sophistication enabled it to expand from Asante, to include the other states of Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra and Western Region of modern-day Ghana. The Empire became rich off the gold mines of Asante and Slavery.

The Asante overcome the forest using simple hand tools such as axes which allowed Asante society to transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. The Asante required more workers and labourers than they could provide with their own people, and they made up for this shortfall using slaves.

Enslaved people from as far as Nigeria were fought to have been bought in to work the land. This slavery is believed to have differed from Trans-Atlantic slavery in that it was not hostile and did not remove their basic “humanity” in the same way that chattel slavery did, despite this, they did lose many of their freedom all the same.

The clearing of the forest shaped Akan identity and the pride of their success drove them to do more, they saw the abundance the clearing of the forest had given them and the pursuit of abundance would compel other pursuits.

It is believed that the Asante were mining for gold whilst clearing the forest in the 15th century, and used the gold to pay for their slaves. The mined gold spread throughout North Africa via many trans-Saharan trade routes, and paid for textiles, brass, salt and other sundries. When the Portuguese made contact with the Akan, gold, ivory, and slaves were used to purchase guns and other goods unobtainable within the region.

The Asante was originally centred on clans which were headed by a Paramount chief or Amanhene (8,9) but later the separate city states would consolidate and the Asante Kingdom was founded. The Asante kingdom was in a constant state of war to expand and defend its domain and grew to control lands beyond modern day Ghana, with power and control centralised within the Asante capital of Kumasi.

Lands were forced to submit if they did not voluntarily do so. The proceeds of war would continue to make the Asante Kingdom rich, and the Asante amassed an abundance of slaves from their conquers. At the same time, the Europeans were acquiring an increasing presence in the area, and traders that were once seeking gold would now come seeking slaves for labour.

The Asante captured slaves from the interior and gave them to the British and other Europeans. Gold would become a side show to slave trade. More than a million slaves would be sold to slavers to work in the New World. Captured and sold by their fellow Africans. Slavery was not uncommon amongst African culture but the selling to another race was new. Constant warfare meant a constant supply of war prisoners. Persons who would have previously been killed, were instead captured as a means of gaining further riches in the selling of such persons to the Europeans on the coasts. The selling of slaves, allowed the purchase of firearms which facilitated further expansion, which in turn produced more slaves for sale.

Immoral in modern mentality, this practice was simple business to the Asante Kingdom, and it is unlikely that any morality was ascribed to these actions. Slavery was simply a means to an end, Once, to clear a forest, and now to fuel an empire. When slavery was abolished by the British Empire, the entire Asante economy shifted, and the states control weakened. The Asante kingdom’s monopoly on slave trade would do little now to cement their control over finances and so power. With slaves no longer a means of paying for commodities, Gold would become scarce and Asante power weakened.

With the British growing in power on the coast, fractal relationships from the Southern states with the British and internal problems within the Asante Empire, the Asante and British Empire’s previously amicable relationship who soon descend into hostility as the Empire wished to restore its power and regain control over coastal trade.

In the coming war, the British razed the Asante capital of Kumasi and consolidated its control over coastal trade. In 1874, this coast would become known as The British Gold Coast and the Asante would be forced to concede the loss of its southern states. The Asante kingdom had failed to assert or defend itself, and it had failed to adapt to changing economics. The other provinces defected and rebelled and started a civil war that would end in 1888 when the factions agreed to a new King.

This new king wished to restore unity in the Asante Kingdom. When the British Empire intended to turn the state into another colony, the king elected not to go to war, fearing there would be a genocide. The king was forcefully exiled to the Seychelles and the kingdom was assimilated into the British Gold Coast colony. The kingdom was crushed, and the British destroyed any symbols of independence. But they failed to destroy the symbol of the golden stool that the Asante held in high regard. When the colony regained its independence and became the Republic of Ghana in 1957, the Asante kingdom was restored albeit without the lofty heights of its historical power.

This is a first in a series in which we will expand upon the main ethnicities that arrived in Jamaica, so keep your eyes out for the future articles on the Fante Akan and Igbo.