City of Blood: A People Because of War

Through a system of group-forming rituals, a myth of blood sacrifice organizes the meaning of violent events after the fact.
This retrospective
creation- sacrifice story is the totem myth. Myth transforms disordered violence into ordered violence that engenders the group - The Totem
Myth: Sacrifice and Transformation - C. Marvin
Origin of Menstruation -- Douglas has suggested that,

menstruation could be assumed to have a priestly and
therefore divine source.
Page | 1
CITY OF
BLOOD
A PEOPLE BECAUSE OF WAR
on patriarchy, gunnery & trade
- the institution of human sacrifice -
slavery & cult in a city of Kumasi
before british colonialism
compiled by
amma birago
When Prempeh returned, to what had once been known as ‘the city of blood’, he
was a cultured, elderly gentleman, who took his place at the head of the Kumasi
town council, and his old capital had become almost a city, with many fine and
imposing buildings. Rattray & the Construction of Asante History
In Asante, then, there was an awareness of a Kumasi culture, moulded out of

courtly practices, the intermingling of various ethnic groups, and encounters
with representatives of foreign cultures, that differed from the purely indigenous
culture but progressively influenced it. Peasants in 19th-Century Asante
The region between the Pra and the Ofin - the Adansie and Amansie districts of present-day Asante - had also
become overpopulated by the seventeenth century, and migration north (away from political turmoil and towards
vacant land) was a powerful attraction. But north lay the unconquered forest, and the name of the early state of
Kwaman (Kwae Oman -"forest state") reflects the effort to domesticate aspects of nature.
Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History -
Akyeampong and Obeng
Through a system of group-forming rituals, a myth of blood sacrifice organizes the meaning of violent events after the fact. This retrospective
In a country with such customs and laws it seems that the

number of misdeeds ought to be less than in other countries;
yet the opposite is the case. … They play with death like Page | 2
children. … Help from above, oh, that many hearts may pray
for Aschante!
The Ramseyer Manuscript,
"Four Years in Asante": One Source or Several?
Adam Jones
The Asante were obsessed with order and feared disorder. The
forest or bush constituted "an area of disorder, potential power
and danger."
Under the reign of his nephew, Osei Tutu (c.1685-1717?), the Oyoko state
in Kwaman was renamed Kumase and the clan-states of Kumase, Kokofu, Nsuta, Bekwai, Dwaben,
and Mampon merged to form the Asante union. Osei Tutu became the first king of Asante with his lineage as the
royal line. It is revealing of Asante notions of power that the new nation was rooted not only in military victories,
but also in complex spiritual engineering that created a sense of shared destiny. Kingship was given
a divine flavor and surrounded with mystery.
… the embedding of matriliny, the rise of the accumulating 'big man'

[obirempon] and the mythico-historical origins of the Kumase dynasty …

women were a part of that “nature” which it was culture’s

project to master and transcend.
Lévi-Strauss
The Asante were and are acutely aware that their culture, in the most literal
sense, was hacked out of nature. And this understanding … engendered the
abiding fear that, without unremitting application and effort, the fragile
defensible place called culture would simply be overwhelmed or reclaimed by

an irruptive and anarchic nature. - T.C. McCaskie
This suggestive reconstruction is followed by the superb 'Land, Labor, Gold, and the Forest Kingdom of Asante', a
piece in which Wilks' forensic skill draws explanations of the embedding of matriliny, the rise of the accumulating
'big man' [obirempon] and the mythico-historical origins of the Kumase dynasty from the most implacable of source
Page | 3
materials. Lastly in 'Founding the Political Kingdom: The Nature of the Akan State' he provides a chronological
framework for and a detailed account of the founding of the Asanteman by Osei Tutu and Komfo Anokye in the
later 17th century.
Accumulation, Wealth And Belief In Asante History: Part II The Twentieth Century
T. C. McCaskie
The earliest mention of the metal, gold; is in

stories which state that Neolithic man discovered
nuggets of gold in riverbeds around
the 6th millennium B.C.E.
Accumulation, Wealth And Belief In Asante History:
Part II The Twentieth Century
The Egyptian civilization is a good example of the first well documented hierarchical structured society. It was
therefore, not until the time of the ancient Egyptian civilization that gold became a commodity to be regarded as
valuable by mankind. By the time of the Egyptians, people within the society had divided themselves into different
economic classes. Some, like the ruling families of Egypt were so wealthy compared to the rest of society that they
were able to hire people to take care of all their needs. This ‘freeing up’ of their time allowed them to focus on more
trivial matters. This is when objects of beauty became valuable to the world because, the wealthy were willing to
pay money to obtain them and the poor needed the money to purchase food so that they too could extract themselves
from the daily activity of food procurement.
After the fall of the Egyptian empire many smaller scaled civilizations came into existence throughout the continent.
A number of these traded with the Asante for their gold deposits and were instrumental in building up the Asante’s
wealth and reputation.
T. C. McCaskie
Sustainable Trade in Pre-Colonial Asante

Karen Sanders
The most important property of gold which distinguishes it from other trade commodities is that gold is not
necessary to sustain life. There is no human need for gold which could explain its high demand throughout Africa
which allowed the Asante to trade this asset as vigorously as they did. … At such a time in human history when
obtaining food and merely surviving captured the majority of a human being’s time, what would drive a person to
waste a good deal of their hunting and gathering time mining, cleaning, and hoarding an asset which seems to have
no direct value to human life? In other words, what is the value of gold in pre-colonial Africa?
Page | 4
the ‘origins’ and the early political developments

of the forests’ dwellers of Ghana.
Basically … the big-bang theory holds that before the fourteenth/fifteenth centuries, i.e. before the integration of
southern Ghana into the European bullion market and the opening of the Atlantic trade, the forest dwellers of this
part of forested West Africa were hunters and gatherers. It further stresses that the incorporation of the area into the
world market resulted in drastic changes in the social fabric and in the formation of polities.
… the great abundance of all gold deposits within Western Africa lay directly beneath the territory which the
Asante had come to settle. No other known area in West Africa exists where the gold deposits are so densely
concentrated. The vast abundance of gold in this small region enabled the Asante people to trade this asset with a
seemingly inexhaustible supply line. In contrast to the other main trade items that the Asante utilized to expand
their network, gold is unique in multiple ways.
The most important property of gold which distinguishes it from other trade commodities is that gold is not
necessary to sustain life. There is no human need for gold which could explain its high demand throughout Africa
which allowed the Asante to trade this asset as vigorously as they did. Therefore, the question must be asked: At
such a time in human history when obtaining food and merely surviving captured the majority of a human being’s
time, what would drive a person to waste a good deal of their hunting and gathering time mining, cleaning, and
hoarding an asset which seems to have no direct value to human life? In other words, what is the value of gold in
pre-colonial Africa?
Early Asante and European Contacts

the foundation of the state
European interest was largely with trade, mostly slaves and gold, in
exchange for European goods, of which guns were an important
element and which made possible the victories of Asante over
neighboring territories.
Peter Shinnie
The defeat of Denkyira (1701) it sought to control the trade on the Gold Coast (Ghana) and by the beginning of the
19th century it had assumed the role of the greatest middleman state in the country. This achievement was possible
because of the importance the Asante Kotoko Court attached to trade. Indeed, the politics and the trading activities
of the Asante were inseparable.
Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History - Page | 5
The name Asante did not appear in any written record until Bosman and Barbot mentioned it as a young but a strong
nation at the beginning of the 18th century. (Asante had just defeated the Denkyira). Nevertheless, there is on the
Dutch map of the Gold Coast 1629 a reference made to a tribe Acanij , who were described as the "most principal
merchants who trade gold with us". The area marked Acanij could unmistakably be associated with Adanse, where
the Asante evolved as a people and later (c 1640's) started to migrate northwards' to occupy the areas marked on the
Dutch map as Inta, western part of Akim or Great Acanij, Akan etc. It seems long before these Twi-speakers began
to trade with Kankan-Abrofo, that is, the Portuguese, they had trade contacts with the northern markets.
The Great Ancestors - In Asante Thought

Customarily, he had the right to levy a wide range of taxes and mobilize his subjects for
war or communal tasks. Kurankyi-Taylor (1951, 18) called the Asante lineage a perpetual
corporation, meaning that it consisted not only of its living members but also of the dead
and unborn. In this scheme of things, the office of the chief held a nodal position since it
stood between the living who were considered the guardians of “the fortunes and affairs
of the whole body corporate” (ibid., 172) and the ancestors (asamanfoɔ) who had
absolute power over the former.
Divine Rulers in a Secular State

By Timo Kallinen
When rituals are being performed to show unity with the ancestors,
women join in feasting and dressing up, but not in sacrificing.
Purity and Impurity -

Frimpong on Odudoye
Among the Akan, women feature prominently in ritual dances and singing, as in mmommome, a war support ritual of
singing that is specifically a female activity. When rituals are being performed to show unity with the ancestors,
women join in feasting and dressing up, but not in sacrificing. There is a prohibition, however, against women
wearing masks, even when the ancestor being represented is a woman. Men have arrogated to themselves the
prerogative of representing the spirits that shaped the history and the destiny of the community. Exclusion of women
from such community rituals has obvious political and social implications and may lie behind men’s unwillingness
to have women in positions of responsibility that include authority over men.
Ivor Wilks and the ‘Big Bang’ theory: an assessment

According to oral traditions, centralized, sovereign government was absent in the Akan cradle of the Pra-Ofin basin
in the 1500s. The small communities that existed there were bound "not by allegiance to a common sovereign but by
kinship, agnatic and clan ties and linked by trade routes." Internal disputes were resolved through the arbitration of
the deities and their priests and priestesses, and military leadership in times of crisis was always temporary. Page | 6
The only bond of unity was worship of the principal god, Bona. In times of danger, however, the people normally
looked upon the most powerful and courageous of the clan heads as their leader. The most famous was Ewurade
Basa of the Asenee clan, who tried unsuccessfully to unite the various clans under his rule sometime in the sixteenth
century. The advent of state formation in the Akan cradle in the seventeenth century encouraged the northward
migration of Asante's ancestors ill-disposed to sovereign or monarchical rule. But the political climate had changed
permanently from the seventeenth century as European firearms entered the coastal trade, and the intensification of
commerce to the south and north of the Akan cradle precipitated a struggle to control gold and kola resources and
trade routes. The Oyoko clan members, who were to found Kumase, migrated north from Asantemanso (in the Pra-
Ofin basin) to Kokofu and from there to Kwaman.
In Kokofu, the Oyoko leader Kwabia Amanfi died, and his successor, Oti Akenten, initiated the move to Kwaman.
Established clan communities already existed in Kwaman, and the most powerful of these were Dornaa, Tafo,
Kaase, and Wonoo. Oral traditions stress that the new immigrants were pitched into a struggle for survival in
Kwaman. The migratory phase and the conflicts in Kwaman, spawned the successive leadership of Kwabia Amanfi,
Oti Akenten, and Obiri Yeboa. The role of the chief became a historical reality in the long struggle to survive in
Kwaman. It is possible that parallel developments among immigrant Oyoko groups in Kokofu, Nsuta, Bekwai,
Dwaben, and the Bretuo group in Mampon promoted chieftaincy there.
The 'Big Bang' Theory Reconsidered:

Framing Early Ghanaian History
Gérard Chouin
Wilks highlights the role of aberempon ("big men") as estate developers in forging the basis of the Akan state. Their
control over slaves, and their exploitation of arable land and mines, led to the emergence of "berempon-doms." We
rather We rather emphasize conflict, conquest, and diplomacy in the emergence of the Akan states that formed the
Asante union. Akan elders often refer to the age of atutu atutuo (migration) as a period of intense insecurity and the
survival of the fittest. Founders of villages were eager to attract settlers for defensive purposes, not necessarily
because they were far-sighted estate developers motivated by entrepreneurial instincts. As villages expanded, the
principle of "first comers versus late comers" introduced internal stratification. This process of social differentiation
may have been augmented by the attachment of slaves or unfree labor. Diverse groups within the community
resulted in competing interests, and the resolution of internal conflicts did not necessarily privilege the interests of
the earliest settlers. Ongoing negotiations around the ideals, identities, and expectations of the community facili-
tated continuous realignment in social relations. Although traditions are not clear about leadership before Kwabia
Amanfi and whether the Oyoko clan always provided the leaders, the military successes of Obiri Yeboa assured
Oyoko ascendancy and forged the nucleus of the Oyoko state of Kwaman.
Under the reign of his nephew, Osei Tutu (c.1685-1717?), the Oyoko state in Kwaman was renamed Kumase and
the clan-states of Kumase, Kokofu, Nsuta, Bekwai, Dwaben, and Mampon merged to form the Asante union. Osei
Tutu became the first king of Asante with his lineage as the royal line. It is revealing of Asante notions of power that
the new nation was rooted not only in military victories, but also in complex spiritual engineering that created a
sense of shared destiny. Kingship was given a divine flavor and surrounded with mystery.
Ivor Wilks and the ‘Big Bang’ theory: an assessment

Max Weber perceptively pointed out the unsuitability of patriarchal leadership, born out of routine economic
activities, in terms of crisis. What is needed in crisis is charismatic leadership, a certain quality of an individual
personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural,
superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. Osei Tutu's greatest achievement was his ability
to "routinize charismatic authority," to utilize another Weberian term, in making kingship permanent in Asante and
Century Gold Coast. Kea argues that the period from the late seventeenth century witnessed the emergence of
militarized, territorially expansionist states-Asante being a prime example-based on imperial-agrarian formation. Page | 7
Gérard Chouin
Purity & Impurity - Frimpong

The greatest indicator of masculine power was the asantehene's exclusive
right to sentence people to death - to let blood flow. Male power was the antithesis
of female power. Changes in Asante religion reflected the new political order.
The definition of American civil religion

In order to endure as a sacred object, the nation requires that people kill and die in its name.
However, for the ritual of war to remain effective, societies must remain unconscious of the relationship between the
institution of warfare and the maintenance of the idea of the nation. Our deepest secret, the authors claim - the
“collective group taboo”- is the knowledge that society depends for its existence on “violent, sacrificial death at the
hands of the group itself.”
Gail Gehrig. The definition of American civil religion.
The American Civil Religion Debate: A Source for Theory Construction
Religious nationalism represents a worldview in which the nation itself is glorified and adored, becoming nationally
self-worshiping. Like folk religion, religious nationalism functions to reinforce cultural values and integrate citizens,
but the idolatrous component is manifest in religious nationalism, as compared to the latent national self-worship of
folk religion. Church historian Marty's (1974) "priestly self-transcendent civil religion" is one contemporary analysis
of religious nationalism.
American civil religion is specifically the institutionalized collection of sacred beliefs about the American nation,
providing cohesion through national times of crisis (Bellah, 1974a: 29). The symbols of American civil religion and
their institutionalization in American society may be observed through systematic examination of national
documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the inaugural addresses of American presidents. Central to
the American civil belief system are beliefs in the existence of God, in the American nation's being subject to God's
laws, and in the divine guidance and protection of the nation (Bellah, 1974a: 26-27).
Gun Culture In Kumasi - T.C. McCaskie

… during the chaotic dynastic wars of the 1880s, Kumasi 'youngmen' or non-office holders (nkwankwaa) forced
access to the rapidly evolving industrial products of European gunmakers - weapons with rifling, breech-loading
magazines, ever higher rates of fire and killing power - and used them to compensate for their lack of a political
voice as marginalized commoners.
The point of this story. Guns, originally muskets, have long been a potent icon of manhood status in Asante. They Page | 8
were mythologically charged, for they were instrumental in the creation of Asante. …. Guns literally made Asante,
and magical guns are features of many traditions. Throughout Asante history guns were also politically charged, for
they were the irreducible tools of force and power. Nineteenth-century Asantehenes stored the latest model guns in
royal arsenals so as to offset any challenge to their own authority.
Guns literally made Asante, and magical guns are features of many traditions. Throughout Asante history guns were
also politically charged, for they were the irreducible tools of force and power. Nineteenth-century Asantehenes
stored the latest model guns in royal arsenals so as to offset any challenge to their own authority.
The war correspondent, H.M. Stanley, argued: "King Coffee

[Kofi Karari] is too rich a neighbour to be left all alone with his riches,
with his tons of gold dust and accumulations of wealth to himself."
Order and Conflict in the Asante Empire: A Study in Interest Group Relations
Agnes A. Aidoo

The asantehene was, among other things, okomfo panyin (chief priest)
of Asante: in periods of interregnum, spirit possession ceased until a
new asantehene was installed
Akan groups from the basin of the Pra-Ofin rivers had begun migrating north into the sparsely populated areas of the
forest zone that later became Asante from the fifteenth century, partially as a response to the demand for gold and
kola from the Mande region. The original clan-communities that later merged to form the Asante state-Kwaman
(later renamed Kumase), Nsuta, Bekwai, Kokofu, Dwaben, and Mampon - were among Akan groups that migrated
north from the basin of the Pra and Ofin rivers probably in the sixteenth century. Migration north accelerated when
the emergence of Denkyira and Akwamu as powerful states in the mid-seventeenth century generated political
instability. The region between the Pra and the Ofin - the Adansie and Amansie districts of present-day Asante - had
also become overpopulated by the seventeenth century, and migration north (away from political turmoil and
towards vacant land) was a powerful attraction. But north lay the unconquered forest, and the name of the early state
of Kwaman (Kwaeman -"forest state") reflects the effort to domesticate aspects of nature.
It seems that all people were given to an ‘owner’
to protect them from the reign of nature and its inherent threats.
“If you have no master, a beast will catch you”.
Purity and Impurity - Frimpong

The Importance of People
Page | 9
The Asante perceived their state as civilization hacked out of nature. This placed a considerable emphasis on people
as pillars of the kingdom and keepers of civilization under the ruler. The control of people was a deciding factor in
political influence. All men and women of Asante were referred to as nkoa (sg.akoa), a term referring to people
living in a condition of dependence in relation to someone else. This could, for example, refer to family relations: a
man’s nephew and niece were nkoa to their uncle, because they were under his control.
According to Rattray, “a condition of voluntary servitude was … the heritage of every Asante; it formed indeed the
basis of his social system”. All people belonged to other people, and this applied to members of all social strata, not
merely to slaves. The inhabitants of a village owed allegiance to their respective chief, the chiefs to their paramount
chiefs who owed allegiance to the Asantehene, who in turn owed allegiance to his ancestors, his advisers, and to the
Asanteman as a whole.
However, people were not just dependent on their immediate relatives and superiors; they were also indebted to the
state. One had to make personal sacrifices in order to further the welfare of the Asanteman. One’s actions defined
one’s Asanteness, a quality more than a simple ascribed identity. Being Asante was something you did, not
something you were.
… the practice of sacrificing the eldest son was a salient

feature of Mediterranean cults 5,000 years ago and still a
powerful theme in Judaism and early Christianity.
Sacrifice and Society
Robert Kastenbaum
In addition to the spirits of the dead,

the chief also made sacrifices to nature spirits and charms
in order to guarantee the well-being and success of his people.
Thus the prosperity and welfare of the living was believed to depend directly on good relations with the ancestors.
Because of the fragility of this connection it was vital that the office vested in the chiefly lineage was occupied by a
person who was a matrilineal descendant of the founding ancestor of the lineage and thus close enough to the
ancestors to communicate with them via sacrifice. In addition to the spirits of the dead, the chief also made sacrifices
to nature spirits and charms in order to guarantee the well-being and success of his people. The kingdom of Asante
was a union of several chiefdoms, and the king, the Asantehene, performed similar ritual duties to his royal
ancestors and the gods on behalf of the kingdom.
Human Sacrifice In Asante Thought

In this scheme of things, the office of the chief held a nodal position since it
stood between the living who were considered the guardians of “the fortunes and
affairs of the whole body corporate” (ibid., 172) and the ancestors (asamanfoɔ)
who had absolute power over the former.
Some Chiefs Are “More Under” Than Others Page | 10

Timo Kallinen
In Asante thought the spirit world was seen to parallel the lived world as the hierarchies that prevailed among the
living were also considered to prevail among the ancestors. Hence, a dead chief was still a chief: “he occupied the
same status and role, and had the same needs and requirements – wives, servants, cloths, gold, food” as he had had
in his this-worldly existence (McCaskie 1989, 428). In order to provide for some of these needs human sacrifices
had to be performed, and in the past they formed a significant part of the royal funerals. It was the obligation of the
surviving relatives to see that the sacrifices were carried out properly, thereby enabling the departed spirit of the
deceased to continue his life in the spirit world. Otherwise, the ancestors would have been disgraced and have
withdrawn their support, and the crucial connection between the living and the dead mediated by the ruler would be
at risk of collapsing (ibid.).

… there is persuasive evidence that the sacrificial impulse has been common throughout history and has played an
important role in society.
The origins of blood sacrifice are lost in the mist of prehistory. Nevertheless, inferences can be drawn from
archaeological research and from the practices and beliefs of people whose rituals continued into the historical
period. The same societies usually performed other types of sacrifices as well, … an approved component of social
policy.
Human sacrifice was considered so crucial a measure that it persisted for some time even in societies that had
become more complex and sophisticated. For example, the practice of sacrificing the eldest son was a salient feature
of Mediterranean cults 5,000 years ago and still a powerful theme in Judaism and early Christianity. Sacrifice would
be tamed slowly as societies developed more effective ways to manage their needs and cope with their
environments.
Sacrifice and Society.
Robert Kastenbaum
In a country with such customs and laws it seems that

the number of misdeeds ought to be less than in other
countries; yet the opposite is the case. … They play
with death like children. … Help from above, oh, that
many hearts may pray for Aschante!"
Adam Jones
Religious beliefs envisaged different states of the afterlife

for the power elite and others. It was held that members of the ruling group
enjoyed the same status in the after-life as in their lifetime, which justifies
the ritual execution of commoners of both sexes. Commoners, Page | 11
correspondingly, carried on their servile activities in the afterlife.
When Prempeh returned, to what had once been

known as ‘the city of blood’, he was a cultured,
elderly gentleman, who took his place at the head of
the Kumasi town council, and his old capital had
become almost a city, with many fine and imposing
buildings.
R.S. Rattray and the Construction of Asante
History: An Appraisal
T. C. McCaskie
Purity & Impurity - Frimpong

The greatest indicator of masculine power was the asantehene's exclusive
right to sentence people to death - to let blood flow. Male power was the antithesis
of female power. Changes in Asante religion reflected the new political order.
Gold is the king, Gold is the ruler.

At the same time, the proverb may well suggest that
those who have gold will be elevated to the position
of a ruler themselves.
Tarnishing the Golden Stool
Fenna Maximiliane Wächter
Two factors exercised profound influence on early Asante social organization: the forest environment, and the
matrilineal clan system (mmusua, sing. abusua). Akan groups from the basin of the Pra-Ofin rivers had began
migrating north into the sparsely populated areas of the forest zone that later became Asante from the fifteenth
century, partially as a response to the demand for gold and kola from the Mande region. The original clan -
communities that later merged to form the Asante state-Kwaman (later renamed Kumase), Nsuta, Bekwai, Kokofu, Page | 12
Dwaben, and Mampon - were among Akan groups that migrated north from the basin of the Pra and Ofin rivers
probably in the sixteenth century. Migration north accelerated when the emergence of Denkyira and Akwamu as
powerful states in the mid-seventeenth century generated political instability. The region between the Pra and the
Ofm-the Adansie and Amansie districts of present-day Asante - had also become overpopulated by the seventeenth
century, and migration north (away from political turmoil and towards vacant land) was a powerful attraction. But
north lay the unconquered forest, and the name of the early state of Kwaman (Kwaeman -"forest state") reflects the
effort to domesticate aspects of nature. Although oral traditions on the origins of the Asante state focus on Asante's
military successes and the elaboration of the state, evidence of the earlier struggles against nature, and the social
organization this struggle spawned, is discernible in Asante religion, ritual, philosophy, and the history of abusua.
This is not to assume that Asante religion and philosophy consist of static bodies of knowledge, unchanging over
time. What is instructive in Asante religion, philosophy, rituals, and proverbs, is their ability to contain and reflect
divergent and/or opposing views of the Asante world.
the ‘origins’ and the early political developments

of the forests’ dwellers of Ghana.
Basically … the big-bang theory holds that before the fourteenth/fifteenth centuries, i.e. before the integration of
southern Ghana into the European bullion market and the opening of the Atlantic trade, the forest dwellers of this
part of forested West Africa were hunters and gatherers. It further stresses that the incorporation of the area into the
world market resulted in drastic changes in the social fabric and in the formation of polities.

Gérard Chouin

Karen Sanders
Throughout the Asante kingdom when a boy reached ‘the age of discretion’ his father would give him a small
amount of gold dust and his own set of gold-weights along with miniature spoons so that he could learn how to
measure the gold, trade with it, and to signify his passage into adulthood. This practice signifies the importance
which the Asante people placed on trade. These weights were passed down in a matrilineal line of descent through
the family. The family set of gold-weights was highly valued and kept carefully wrapped in leather or cloth when
not being used. In some instances the gold-weights would be buried alongside the owner.

of a ruler themselves. Other proverbs support that Page | 13
argument: “the rich man is the elder” is one example,
suggesting in addition to the fact that wealth comes
with power and it also comes with wisdom.
.
The earliest mention of the metal, gold; is in

stories which state that Neolithic man discovered
nuggets of gold in riverbeds around
the 6th millennium B.C.E.
T. C. McCaskie
Kumase grew in power at the expense of the union states,

pitting the Kumase chiefs (nsafohene) - appointees of the
Asantehene - against the amanhene (paramount chiefs of the
union states), who inherited their positions. Asante politics
remained fluid, "and the great officers of the kingdom, even
the king himself, were subject to rapid changes of fortune."

T. C. McCaskie
… how Akan-Asante society and polity came

into being between the 15th and 17th centuries. Page | 14
In 'Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries' Wilks explores the inter-national
competition for the trade of the Akan goldfields between Western Sudanic and European merchants. This suggestive
reconstruction is followed by the superb 'Land, Labor, Gold, and the Forest Kingdom of Asante', a piece in which
Wilks' forensic skill draws explanations of the embedding of matriliny, the rise of the accumulating 'big man'
[obirempon] and the mythico-historical origins of the Kumase dynasty from the most implacable of source
materials. Lastly in 'Founding the Political Kingdom: The Nature of the Akan State' he provides a chronological
framework for and a detailed account of the founding of the Asanteman by Osei Tutu and Komfo Anokye in the
later 17th century. The next four essays deal with wealth, with the spatial and temporal dimensions of Asante history
and with the vexed issue of 'human sacrifice'.
The earliest mention of the metal, gold; is in stories which state that Neolithic man discovered nuggets of gold in
riverbeds around the 6th millennium B.C.E.; however, they didn’t find the metal to be strong enough to be useful for
any of their present needs and therefore, didn’t develop methods of utilization for this metal. It has been estimated
that the majority of a person’s working hours were spent finding, collecting or hunting, and preparing food; before
hierarchical structures were formed in societies.
After hierarchical structures were formed in societies, the few people at the top now had a large portion of their day
free from food-related activities. The Egyptian civilization is a good example of the first well documented
hierarchical structured society. It was therefore, not until the time of the ancient Egyptian civilization that gold
became a commodity to be regarded as valuable by mankind. By the time of the Egyptians, people within the
society had divided themselves into different economic classes. Some, like the ruling families of Egypt were so
wealthy compared to the rest of society that they were able to hire people to take care of all their needs. This
‘freeing up’ of their time allowed them to focus on more trivial matters. This is when objects of beauty became
valuable to the world because, the wealthy were willing to pay money to obtain them and the poor needed the money
to purchase food so that they too could extract themselves from the daily activity of food procurement.
After the fall of the Egyptian empire many smaller scaled civilizations came into existence throughout the continent.
A number of these traded with the Asante for their gold deposits and were instrumental in building up the Asante’s
wealth and reputation.

T. C. McCaskie
In fact, Wilks does not draw on a body of evidence strong enough to argue that, prior to the fifteenth century, forest
subsistence strategies consisted of hunting and foraging. Subsequently, the proposed transformation to agricultural
production during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, coupled with extensive social change arising from the
import of slaves, integrated into the society through matriclans, and the position of the forest economy in the world
bullion market, needs further exploration and testing.
The third article in Forest of Gold about the genesis of the Akan order is entitled “Founding the Political Kingdom:
The Nature of the Akan State”. It is in this article, which deals mainly with the early history of the Asante, that
Wilks enunciates his ‘big bang’ theory: “I advance, contrary to his [Rattray’s] evolutionary view, a “big bang”
theory of Akan history. It comprises several theses. First, in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and in
the forest country between the Ofin and the Pra, a foraging mode of production gave way to an agricultural
one...Second, that in the course of this transformation the forest people reorganized themselves in a way such that
the bands appropriate to the older mode of production were replaced by the matriclans appropriate to the newer...But
third, that the transformation also engendered the emergence of political structures of a new kind: the aman.”
Here, the emergence of the aman - the Akan polities - is presented as a chain reaction like process where those who
controlled gold production and commercialization were also able to buy slaves. Using slave labour, they could clear Page | 15
large tracts of forest, which they then claimed as property. They formed a new class of “entrepreneurs” who quickly
built states from their original estates.
The ‘big bang’ theory incorporates the most substantive historical facts known for the late fifteenth- and early
sixteenth century Akan forest and shapes them into interpretive hypotheses: the existence of the world bullion
market, the importation of slaves from Benin, and the possible emergence of matriclans. Drawing mainly on Asante
oral traditions, Wilks proposes an appealing model in which small territories developed into complex polities. In so
doing, he tries to fill the gap between an alleged society of hunter-gatherers and a kingship - based society already
attested in European sources of the sixteenth century. Once again, however, his theory is constrained by limited
source material, and by retro-diction, that is writing history by glossing later sources to reconstitute the history of
earlier, undocumented periods.

Karen Sanders
Before, examining who traded with the Asante let’s first consider how the Asante discovered their gold deposits and
how they mined the gold from these sources. The Asante first discovered their territory contained gold deposits in
the 14th century near the Bono Manso area of Ghana. … The gold discovery in this region encouraged local trade
and small trading towns began to emerge and take root around the area. … trade towns such as Begho and Wenchi
as examples of towns which were able to emerge from the economic boost which the local gold trade brought to the
region. … as the gold trade developed the trade routes developed simultaneously. The mining of gold was open to
every common citizen within the Asante Empire.
R.S. Rattray and the Construction of Asante History

The Golden Stool was "a shrine" embodying "the soul of the Ashanti people." … the survival of the Golden Stool
pointed the contrast between the noble Asante, "clinging tenaciously to an ideal," and "a somewhat materially-
minded" (and by implication, spiritually impoverished) "Western world." … Certainly, the Golden Stool was (and
is) a sacred object, but its sacrality is part of a dualism, an ambiguity. If the sacrality of the Golden Stool encouraged
and coaxed an adoring, passive consensuality, then the historical record reveals that it also propagated and fertilized
dreams of power. Possession of the Golden Stool was a weapon, an enabling tool; it assisted to the commanding
heights of authority and it helped deliver into the outstretched hand the reins of power and government. If it could
elicit an objective obedience, then it might also command an enforced allegiance. In point of fact, the Golden Stool
is positively crusted with the mud of power politics.
R.S. Rattray and the Construction of Asante History
T. C. McCaskie
The Early History Of Ashanti 1700-1731

It is not known exactly when the Ashanti kingdom was first founded, and the law which makes any mention of
the death of a King a capital offence has conduced to the loss of much of its earliest history. From the traditions Page | 16
that are now current it appears, however, that after the flight of the Akans from the districts that they had formerly
occupied and the migration of the Fantis to the coast, the Ashantis remained and settled in the northern portions
of the forest country, where they established several minor kingdoms or principalities, which, though united by a
common interest, were nevertheless independent of each other. By 1640 this confederacy had acquired considerable
influence and was esteemed a powerful kingdom.
Asantehene Kwaku Dua Panin reportedly explained to the missionary Freeman, “If I
were to abolish human sacrifices, I should deprive myself of one of the most effectual
means of keeping the people in subjection”. This raises the question of whether he was
mistranslated by Freeman, and really was referring to the need of capital punishment in
order to maintain order in Asante and to confirm his power over life and death.
In Asanteman ("Asante nation") the Asantehene managed the Kumase central

government of key officeholders and main constituents of the polity. …
Euro-African Commerce And Social Chaos:
Akan Societies In The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries
Kwasi Konadu
The majestic bearing of the latter, their "bold and stately step," and their display
of a fine array of "rich cloths of native manufacture" (kente cloths) truly amazed
Freeman. He pondered over how the position of the ruling chiefs in Kumase
could be reconciled with what he called "the known despotism of the Ashantee
Government ... It naturally excites the inquiry of the reflecting traveller how
such strange contrarieties can exist in apparent harmony and concord?" (The
Western Echo).
Order and Conflict in the Asante Empire:

A Study in Interest Group Relations
Agnes A. Aidoo
Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History

the ritual execution of commoners of both sexes. Commoners,
The idea of universal indebtedness is mirrored in a number of Asante proverbs, one of which states: if there be a
debt in the village that owns no master, … it is a debt of the head of the village; if there be a thing found in the
village without an owner it belongs to the head of the village. This focus on ownership and the assignment of an
owner to all things and people within Asante may again stem from the deep-rooted awareness that nature continued
to threaten the established culture of Asante. It seems that all people were given to an ‘owner’ to protect them from
the reign of nature and its inherent threats. “If you have no master, a beast will catch you”.
Page | 17
Free people were not the only group integral to the creation and maintenance of the Asanteman. Slaves also played
an essential part. They were often allowed to own property, their own slaves, marry, and they could become heirs to
their masters. In addition, to kill a slave required official permission from a central authority, for the right to decide
over life and death was reserved exclusively for the Asantehene. He alone could decide on the execution of slaves
and criminals alike. This power underlined his connection with the world of the deceased. Acting on behalf of the
dead he could control the administration of death within Asante. It also emphasized once again the value placed on
people – they were viewed as so important to the well-being of the Asanteman that it should not be easy to diminish
their number.

Bonnat, who lived in Kumasi as a prisoner for a while, recalled: The tremendous importance of the king of Achanty
draws to Coomassie a large number of young men, belonging to the best families of the kingdom … they are drawn
above all by the hope of coming to the attention of the king, and they neglect no opportunity of pleasing him … one
sees them continually following in his footsteps, soliciting his favours and his smiles.
Kumasi did not produce its own food or goods and its small marketplace was dominated by luxury goods imported
from Europe. The officials residing in Kumasi sent followers to farms surrounding the capital in order to produce
food, but also so that they would not have to provide for their costly upkeep within the town. Allman argues that the
culture of Kumasi was not simply “Asante culture”, particularly because several different ethnic groups came
together there to do business. Kumasi culture “differed from the purely indigenous culture but progressively
influenced it”.
Thomas Bowdich, for example, noted in 1817 that when the amanhene attended national assembly
meetings in Kumase, each had "the dignitaries of his own province or establishment to his right and left;
and it was truly 'Concilium in Concilio' " (1819: 58). Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman, who visited
Asante several times between 1839 and 1848, observed that the chiefs enjoyed "more or less of a kind of
feudal independence" and assumed "almost regal state" in their own capitals. After a visit to Dahomey, he
was struck by the contrast between the submissive attitude of Dahomean chiefs and officials and the
"sense of aristocratic independence" of the Asante chiefs. The majestic bearing of the latter, their "bold
and stately step," and their display of a fine array of "rich cloths of native manufacture" (kente cloths)
truly amazed Freeman. He pondered over how the position of the ruling chiefs in Kumase could be
reconciled with what he called "the known despotism of the Ashantee Government .... It naturally excites
the inquiry of the reflecting traveller how such strange contrarieties can exist in apparent harmony and
concord?" (The Western Echo).
Agnes A. Aidoo
Page | 18
The Structure of Greater Ashanti (1700-1824)

Kwame Arhin
Dupuis described the Ashanti empire as a 'great political association of kingdoms'.94 What I have tried to do is to
distinguish the categories of ties, though these fluctuated with time and circumstance, within the 'association'. It
seems to me to be clear that 'Greater Ashanti' described as conceived to embrace the cultural and contignous group-
the Akans is distinguishable within the 'empire' or the totality of Ashanti subject-states.
Between the years 1700 and 1820 the Ashantis of central Ghana fought a number of wars in nearly all the territories
now comprising modern Ghana. Most interpretations of these wars have linked them with the European trade posts
on the southern coast and the Muslim trade settlements in the north. The Ashanti wars were therefore either raids or
attempts to open trade-routes to the trade posts.
These interpretations have been possible because writers have ignored the Ashanti expansionary movement before
1700, and have also been unable to interpret correctly the political significance of the institutions by which the
Ashanti attempted to extend their rule into some of the conquered territories, and to integrate them into what the
Ashanti conceived as 'Greater Ashanti'- a political community incorporating the conquered Akan states under the
rule of the Golden Stool, the supreme stool of Ashanti.
The provinces-like the Ashantis mainly Akan-speaking peoples were considered and treated as part of a Greater
Ashanti 'political structure'. The 'protectorates' were treated as allies or protected peoples according as economic or
political circumstance dictated. The tributaries formed the economic and manpower base of the Ashanti expansion.
But it must be noted that these relationships were fluid, and fluctuated with Ashanti military and political fortunes
Kwame Arhin
Trade, Accumulation and the State in Asante in the Nineteenth Century

Originally, when gold left the country it had brought in another resource crucial for the functioning of the state –
people. But gold leaving the country for the acquisition of luxury goods indicates a shift in priorities. As one crucial
state resource was leaving the country, it was not being replaced by another equally productive one.
McCaskie, on the other hand, does not conceive of the state as an agent of 'economic development' but of structured
accumulation, and hence of the differentiation of the rich men, asikafoo, from poor men, ahiafoo (McCaskie, 1980:
92; 1983). I have stated elsewhere (Arhin, 1983b) that before colonial rule, the asikafoo were actually the power-
holders and authority-holders, that is, the chief executives of the state and their appointed subordinates, who were
permitted to accumulate and exhibit wealth within the framework of the Asante economy, and that the aim of the
management of the economy was not the spread of wealth among the generality of the Asante people but the
maintenance of the political order. This political order was based on a regulated ranking system which, so the
power- and authority-holders held, might be subverted by the spread of wealth: wealth, like power, was regarded as
the privilege of the well-born and those they favoured and, therefore, the spread of wealth must be controlled.
Page | 19
Kwame Arhin
Peasants in 19th-Century Asante -

Kwame Arhin
First, there was the Kumasi state, administered like any other Asante state by the Asantehene and his council
members. Second, Kumasi, together with the neighbouring Asante-Twi-speaking states, formed the Asante Union,
with a council consisting of the Asantehene, some members of the Kumasi state council, and the heads of the other
Asante states. Third, there were the "provinces," consisting of the other Twi-speaking peoples north and south of
Asante. Fourth, there were the non-Twi-speaking protectorate and tributary states southeast and north of the Twi-
speaking peoples. The provincial, protectorate, and tributary states were either conquered or in some other way
brought into subordination to the Asantehene between about 1700 and 1807.
Captives from the wars of conquest were sold into slavery, and the conquered were made to pay war indemnities and
tribute in cash (gold nuggets or gold dust) or in natural or craft products such as human beings, livestock, gold,
cotton, threads, and lime. The distinction between provinces and tributaries, from the fiscal point of view, was that
the former were subject to taxes and levies similar to those paid by the peoples of the Asante Union, while the
protectorates and tributaries were subject to set annual payments (Bowdich 1819: 319-21; Arhin 1967b; Wilks 1975:
64-71; Terray 1975: 1 19).
Throughout the 18th century and the early 19th, conquered peoples revolted and thus invited punitive expeditions,
the victims of which were sold to European slavers, but it is a mistake to state, as Howard does, that the subjects of
the empire were periodically raided and the captives sold into slavery. The provinces, protectorates, and tributaries
contributed a good deal towards the maintenance of the court and of Asante military domination of the region. Their
contributions were paralleled, however, by those of the producers within the union, who paid funeral, installation,
ritual, and war taxes and levies on game and on gold. Visitors to the Asantehene and his officials passing through
the villages of the union were billeted on the village heads, who demanded contributions from the villagers for their
upkeep (Bowdich 1819, Dupuis 1824, Freeman 1844, Ramseyer and Kuhne 1874). …Traders in gold or slaves were
taxed in gold at the borders. The seller in the Kumasi market was taxed by the toll collectors (dwa beresofo). Gold
dust dropped in the course of transactions in the marketplace had to be left untouched to be gathered and cleansed
for the state at the end of the year through communal labour (Bowdich 1819: 320). The king's palace attendants
(nhenkwa) were permitted raids on the market goods for their upkeep (Bowdich 1819: 291). Finally, the state seized
part of the movable property of deceased entrepreneurs, mainly sub ordinate power holders who had collected
commissions on tributes and been permitted to trade on their own behalf and that of the state (Bowdich 1819: 319;
Rattray 1929: 107-9).
In sum, the state heavily extracted surpluses from all producers for its upkeep and for the purpose of military and
political expansion (Arhin 1982). It is clear that in this framework one can indeed speak of a "peasantry," unless one
insists on distinguishing between the extraction of surpluses by the state and that by "international capitalism."
In Asante, then, there was an awareness of a Kumasi culture, moulded

out of courtly practices, the intermingling of various ethnic groups, and
encounters with representatives of foreign cultures, that differed from

the purely indigenous culture but progressively influenced it.
Kwame Arhin
Page | 20
Greene on McCaskie, 'State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante'

T. C. McCaskie - Reviewed by Sandra E. Greene
But nowhere does McCaskie give any evidence that the Asante state was really so
exploitative and onerous. Instead, he continually emphasizes throughout the text the
extent to which the state apparatus, located in the capital of Kumase, operated largely in
isolation from the rest of the society. Accordingly, his use of the Gramscian model--
which is of great value in itself, in helping one understand how the Asante state operated-
-attempts to resolve a problem for the existence of which there is no evidence. We never
see beyond the boundaries of Kumase.

Kwame Arhin
There was, indeed, differentiation within Asante on the basis of proximity to Kumasi and the corresponding
presumed relative participation in its culture. The people of Kwabere and Atwima, within 8-12 miles of Kumasi,
who were the main suppliers of the Kumasi markets and were in daily touch with it, were supposed to be more
"civilized" (womo ani ate) than the peoples of Amansee, Mponua, Asante Akyem, Sekyere, Ahafo, and Brong, who
lived farther off and came to Kumasi annually to the Odwira festival or on summons to the court. In other words, the
culture of Kumasi, which was becoming increasingly urbanised, was seen as drawing within its orbit the peoples of
Asante in degrees determined by their spatial distance from Kumasi. In Asante, then, there was an awareness of a
Kumasi culture, moulded out of courtly practices, the intermingling of various ethnic groups, and encounters with
representatives of foreign cultures, that differed from the purely indigenous culture but progressively influenced it. It
may be difficult, as Fallers points out in the case of Buganda, to estimate the extent and scope of the difference
between the two "cultures" and the degree of mutual awareness of their differences in culture between the Kumasifo
and nkurasefo. However, all of the 19th-century travellers to Kumasi commented on the elaborate culture of urban
Kumasi in contrast to the simplicity of the villages, and the shouting of "kuraseni" as a term of abuse at an
antagonist clearly antedated colonial rule, just as it had long been known that Kumasifo ani ate (lit. "the eyes of
Kumasi dwellers are open," i.e., "they know the ways of the world").
Kwame Arhin

Slaves became an important pillar to the kingdom of Asante in two ways: they
helped in the creation of culture within the ever-encroaching forest, and they
were the basis of wealth for many powerful men in Asante, in addition to the
gold resources within the country.
Page | 21
The Asante were and are acutely aware that their culture, in the most literal
sense, was hacked out of nature. And this understanding … engendered the
abiding fear that, without unremitting application and effort, the fragile
defensible place called culture would simply be overwhelmed or reclaimed by
an irruptive and anarchic nature.
T.C. McCaskie

The unremitting effort which McCaskie talks of required large numbers of working hands, more than Asante itself
could provide. As a result, slaves were acquired, either through trading at the European ports, or through northward
military expansion. Slaves became an important pillar to the kingdom of Asante in two ways: they helped in the
creation of culture within the ever-encroaching forest, and they were the basis of wealth for many powerful men in
Asante, in addition to the gold resources within the country.
The successes achieved in the battle to hack culture out of nature are mirrored in reports by European travelers who
visited Asante. They discovered a country with an elaborate infrastructure and a sophisticated bureaucratic system.
Asante's capital Kumasi, which had expanded throughout the eighteenth century, was well connected with other
towns within the federation by means of wide roads. Checkpoints along them allowed for the collection of taxes on
trade goods that were carried throughout the kingdom and along two major trade routes: one leading north, and the
other south. Eight major roads led from Kumasi into all corners of the Asanteman and to important trading centers
outside its borders, along the coast as well as in the northern hinterland. This road system served as a spatial grid of
federal authority. Keeping the roads clear in itself took effort and central planning and was a very visible
demonstration of the power and the reach of the state.

Kwame Arhin
people. But gold leaving the country for the acquisition of luxury goods indicates a shift in priorities. As one crucial
Asante’s Southern trade was dominated by exchanges with the Europeans, and had rested mostly on slaves up to the
nineteenth century. With the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and the gradual change to legitimate trade, its main
commodity became gold. It is interesting to note the way in which the trade in people and gold shifted over time in
Asante. At first, gold was exported in order to acquire slaves to build the Asante state, strengthen its matrilineages,
and create civilization out of wilderness. At the second stage, as Asante no longer relied on the constant influx of
labor, slaves were exported in order to obtain European goods: arms and luxury items for the rich and powerful.
After the transatlantic slave trade came to an end, gold was again exported, this time to continue the import of
European goods. This shift is crucial and deserves more attention.
people. But gold leaving the country for the acquisition of luxury goods indicates a shift in priorities. As one crucial Page | 22

The Golden Stool. The stool itself was more important than the individual who occupied it at any given time, just as
the titles existed independently of those who held them. Amanhene served primarily as the human agents of their
stool, just as the Asantehene acted as the agent of the Golden Stool. Asante was essentially a federation of stools. …
Each stool holder had a court comparable to that of the Asantehene in Kumasi, albeit on a smaller scale. An
Amanhene was surrounded by a group of elders, Mpanyimfo, who guided him in the administration of his stool.
Some were also given a specific military title which allotted leadership of certain military units to him in war time.
At first, gold was exported in order to acquire slaves to build the Asante state,
strengthen its matrilineages, and create civilization out of wilderness. …This
shift is crucial and deserves more attention. Originally, when gold left the
country it had brought in another resource crucial for the functioning of the state
– people. But gold leaving the country for the acquisition of luxury goods
indicates a shift in priorities. As one crucial state resource was leaving the
country, it was not being replaced by another equally productive one.
Agnes A. Aidoo
Thomas Bowdich, for example, noted in 1817 that when the amanhene attended national assembly meetings in
Kumase, each had "the dignitaries of his own province or establishment to his right and left; and it was truly
'Concilium in Concilio' " (1819: 58). Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman, who visited Asante several times between
1839 and 1848, observed that the chiefs enjoyed "more or less of a kind of feudal independence" and assumed
"almost regal state" in their own capitals. After a visit to Dahomey, he was struck by the contrast between the
submissive attitude of Dahomean chiefs and officials and the "sense of aristocratic independence" of the Asante
chiefs. The majestic bearing of the latter, their "bold and stately step," and their display of a fine array of "rich cloths
of native manufacture" (kente cloths) truly amazed Freeman. He pondered over how the position of the ruling chiefs
in Kumase could be reconciled with what he called "the known despotism of the Ashantee Government .... It
naturally excites the inquiry of the reflecting traveller how such strange contrarieties can exist in apparent harmony
and concord?" (The Western Echo).
The Asante were and are acutely aware that their culture, in the most literal sense, was hacked out of nature. And
this understanding … engendered the abiding fear that, without unremitting application and effort, the fragile
defensible place called culture would simply be overwhelmed or reclaimed by an irruptive and anarchic nature. …
The successes achieved in the battle to hack culture out of nature are mirrored in reports by European travelers who
visited Asante. They discovered a country with an elaborate infrastructure and a sophisticated bureaucratic system.
Asante's capital Kumasi, which had expanded throughout the eighteenth century, was well connected with other
towns within the federation by means of wide roads. Page | 23
Mobility In Pre-Colonial Asante

From A Historical Perspective
Akosua Perbi
… the subject of mobility in Asante in greater detail with special emphasis on the involvement of slaves and people
of servile origin in the process of political and social mobility in pre-colonial Asante. Mobility in this context refers
to the movement of persons as individuals or in groups from one social position to another either horizontally or
vertically.
Osei Tutu … institutionalised the proverb 'obi nkyere obi ase' (No one should disclose the origins of another) and
some non-Asantes became citizens. The Process of mobility reached a climax during the reigns of Asantehene
Opoku Ware (1717-1750) and Osei Kwadwo (1764-1777) when succession to political office in Asante became
based not only on birth but on merit and achievement. The precedent which had been set in the 17th century was
carried on into the 18th century.
Mobility In Pre-Colonial Asante

From A Historical Perspective
Akosua Perbi
Agnes A. Aidoo
… the African Times of London urged the invasion of Asante in October 1873 because the empire had "one of the
richest goldfields in the world" and the British could reap "thirty or forty millions sterling value of gold per year, for
many, many years to come" (XII, 148, 10/30/1873: 195-96). The war correspondent, H.M. Stanley, argued: "King
Coffee [Kofi Karari] is too rich a neighbour to be left all alone with his riches, with his tons of gold dust and
accumulations of wealth to himself." He estimated that the loot from Kumase would pay "twenty times over" the
cost of Woseley's expedition (1874: 18).
Asante's known and unknown wealth acted as a powerful magnet for British commercial speculators and political
agitators. Thus, the African Times of London urged the invasion of Asante in October 1873 because the empire had
"one of the richest goldfields in the world" and the British could reap "thirty or forty millions sterling value of gold
per year, for many, many years to come". The war correspondent, H.M. Stanley, argued: "King Coffee [Kofi Karari]
is too rich a neighbour to be left all alone with his riches, with his tons of gold dust and accumulations of wealth to
himself." He estimated that the loot from Kumase would pay "twenty times over" the cost of Woseley's expedition
(1874: 18).
A great deal of the wealth that fired the imagination of the Englishmen came as a result of the intense and sustained
economic changes in Asante. Travelers' accounts from 1839-1848 and 1869-1874 show that prosperity was general,
and it affected other social groups besides the king and his chiefs. Extensive farms and abundant supplies of yams,
cocoyams, corn, plantains, rice, groundnuts, tomatoes, onions, oranges, bananas, and pineapples were reported Page | 24
everywhere in Adanse, Bekwae, Kumase, and Dwaben. Weaving, pottery, and goldsmithing were invigorated;
builders improved the quality of houses, towns, roads, and market centers (Freeman, 1868; Ramseyer and Kuhne,
1875). It was the time when wealthy com moners could ask for the king's permission to wear the nyawoho cloth.
The ruling chiefs, however, showed most conspicuously the social effects of all the economic changes. In Kumase,
Adanse, and Dwaben, they imported coastal carpenters to build their houses. In the latter two states the houses were
imposing one and two-storey mansions. This was also the period in the 1840s when Asante hene Kwaku Dua I
hosted splendid state dinners for Reverend Freeman, Governor William Winniet, and other visiting British officials
with a brilliant display of European silverplate and assorted wines. Dressed in European clothes com plemented with
the impressive Asante gold regalia, the asantehene and his guests were entertained on these occasions by a special
band of musicians trained by the Dutch at Elmina (Freeman, 1868: 138-43; Western Echo, sup plement). Kwaku
Dua I designed most of his own rich kente and nwontoma cloths at this time; he also created new stools (offices) for
specially skilled goldsmiths who fashioned his impressive gold and silver regalia (Rattray, 1927: 235-49;
Kyerematen, n.d. [1961] : 13; IAS/AS 14: Asomfuo stool history).
In order to avoid knowing that killing - sacrificial death - lies at the core
of the ideology of nationalism, we treat violence as if primitive and morally suspect:
a “failure of social structure rather than an elemental component.” When violence
occurs it is presented as a “last resort,” a “challenge to civilized modernity.”
We prefer not to say that violence is inherent in the nature of the nation-state.
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Totem Rituals and the American Flag
Review by Richard A. Koenigsberg, Library of Social Science.
… the foundation of the Asante kingdom and the distribution of rights and
privileges to the different chiefs was a ritual process: a direct consequence of
sacrificial exchanges. …to grasp the enormous difference between the pre-
colonial and colonial conceptions of chieftaincy and kingship in Asante. …
Analysts of Asante society usually attribute the superiority of the Asantehene’s
office to its “aura of mystical preeminence”, which is derived from its
connection to the Golden Stool (Sika Dwa Kofi, lit. ‘Friday’s Golden Stool’)
(Fortes 1969, 142).

Kwame Arhin
Kumasi was the political, administrative, religious, and cultural capital of the Asante Union and of Greater Asante.
In the 19th century, the culture of Kumasi, with its heterogeneous population including peoples drawn from all over Page | 25
the territories under the Asantehene, Muslims from as far afield as the Maghreb and Mecca, and European visitors
from the coast, took a shape distinct from that of the surrounding villages (Bowdich 1819, Freeman 1967 [1898]).
If in fact, one left Asante in order to evade taxes, for example,

one was committing a crime. ... If an Asante returned from a journey outside
the kingdom’s borders with tattoos on his body, indicating another identity
or allegiance, he could be executed by the king. … he had stolen himself
from the Asante state, a deeply antisocial act.
Despite the importance placed on people, a small group of slaves was viewed as consumables. These slaves were
referred to as nkyere (sg.akyere). They were destined to be sacrificed for ritual purposes. Whole villages in Asante
served as homes to these nkyere where they could live for years before being summoned to be sacrificed at an event
such as Odwira, to provide servants in the afterlife.
Nkoa and slaves alike belonged to a particular stool or stool holder, who in turn belonged to the highest stool, the
Golden Stool, or the highest office holder, the Asantehene. The importance assigned to all groups of people within
Asante and the obligations put on them also had implications for their freedom to leave the state. If in fact, one left
Asante in order to evade taxes, for example, one was committing a crime. The high value placed on people in Asante
meant that they were assets of the state. If an Asante returned from a journey outside the kingdom’s borders with
tattoos on his body, indicating another identity or allegiance, he could be executed by the king. By changing his
identity and choosing not to be Asante any longer, he had stolen himself from the Asante state, a deeply antisocial
act.
at the root of urbanist celebration

and pastoral lament is the crime of fratricide, which myth
tells us is the origin of the city and politics. the myth of cain:
fratricide, city building, and politics
george m. shulman
new asantehene was installed.
Page | 26
… the underlying cost of all society is the violent death of

some portion of its members. … Our deepest secret, the
collective group taboo, is the knowledge that society depends
on the death of this sacrificial group at the hands of the group
itself. This is the totem principle concretized. … the group
becomes a group by agreeing not to disagree about the group-
making principle.
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion
Carolyn Marvin and David W. Ingle
"An exceptional emergency demanded a human victim," because

such a one was the best mankind could offer. "The ancient Germans
laid it down," says Brinton, "that in time of famine beasts should first
be slain and offered to the gods. Did these bring no relief, then men
must be slaughtered; and if still there was no aid from on high,
then the chieftain of the tribe himself must mount the altar; for
the nobler and dearer the victim, the more pleased were the gods!"
Atonement in Non-Christian Religions - The Atonement of Fear
George S. Goodspeed
The world capitalist system strongly influenced the

development of the Asante empire for three centuries.
Enid Schildkrout Department of Anthropology,
American Museum of Natural History, New York
To this day Asante is a notably hierarchical society, avid for money and everything else that supports status. It is an
unequal, striving, noisy, and even bombastic culture with strong investments in its own sense of virtue. I have lost
count of all the times I have been told what a misfortune it is for me that I was not born Asante.
A piece I wrote in 1986 on Komfo Anokye drew an unusually
large (in those days) postbag. I was praised for attempting to “open up”
African history, and condemned for doing the same thing. Page | 27
McCaskie, Asante History

Kumasi was the center of the federation, and despite the similarities of the political structure, it was different from
other towns. While other towns in Asante served as large trading centers or centers of production, Kumasi was a
“government town” and McCaskie has suggested that it was filled with office holders and those who were hoping to
become office holders themselves one day. Bonnat, who lived in Kumasi as a prisoner for a while, recalled:
The tremendous importance of the king of Achanty draws to Coomassie a large number of young men, belonging to
the best families of the kingdom … they are drawn above all by the hope of coming to the attention of the king, and
they neglect no opportunity of pleasing him … one sees them continually following in his footsteps, soliciting his
favours and his smiles.
Kumasi did not produce its own food or goods and its small marketplace was dominated by luxury goods imported
from Europe. The officials residing in Kumasi sent followers to farms surrounding the capital in order to produce
food, but also so that they would not have to provide for their costly upkeep within the town.37 Allman argues that
the culture of Kumasi was not simply “Asante culture”, particularly because several different ethnic groups came
together there to do business. Kumasi culture “differed from the purely indigenous culture but progressively
influenced it”.
That is, throughout much of its eighteenth and nineteenth-century history, Asante was a highly centralised state with
the locus of government firmly rooted in Kumase. … And the Asante of the early colonial period was in itself a
"peculiar institution." Briefly, and I have explored the matter elsewhere, from the reign of Opoku Ware (ca. 1720-
1750) to that of Kwaku Dua Panin (1834-1867), the political history of Asante is that of the systematic
aggrandisement of Kumase and its office-holders at the expense of the territorial divisions and provinces. However,
this centralizing tendency was sharply reversed in the last two decades of the nineteenth century; …. Consequently,
the Kumase observed by Rattray was a rump structure, leaderless and severely (and rapidly) weakened in the course
of a generation. Moreover, at least until the mid-1930s, British overrule deliberately maintained Kumase in its
truncated condition, at the same time sedulously reinforcing - in the interest of functional colonial government - the
principle of decentralization.
R.S. Rattray and the Construction of Asante History: An Appraisal
T. C. McCaskie
Gun Culture In Kumasi - T.C. McCaskie

… during the chaotic dynastic wars of the 1880s, Kumasi 'youngmen' or non-office holders (nkwankwaa) forced
access to the rapidly evolving industrial products of European gunmakers - weapons with rifling, breech-loading
magazines, ever higher rates of fire and killing power - and used them to compensate for their lack of a political Page | 28
voice as marginalized commoners.
The point of this story. Guns, originally muskets, have long been a potent icon of manhood status in Asante. They
were mythologically charged, for they were instrumental in the creation of Asante. Authoritative tradition associates
Komfo Anokye with the magical power of Asante weapons and with the occult enfeeblement of enemy guns. At the
epochal battle of Feyiase (1701) he is said to have made a tree swell itself to receive all the musket fire of the
Denkyira, and then resume its normal size so that the Asante volleys found their mark.
Guns literally made Asante, and magical guns are features of many traditions. Throughout Asante history guns were
also politically charged, for they were the irreducible tools of force and power. Nineteenth-century Asantehenes
stored the latest model guns in royal arsenals so as to offset any challenge to their own authority. Then, during the
chaotic dynastic wars of the 1880s, Kumasi 'youngmen' or non-office holders (nkwankwad) forced access to the
rapidly evolving industrial products of European gunmakers - weapons with rifling, breech-loading magazines, ever
higher rates of fire and killing power - and used them to compensate for their lack of a political voice as
marginalized commoners.
The gun has been salient as an icon of power throughout Asante history. Its cultural politics are suffused with
signifiers. Like other key components of Asante identity its intentional status is complex, but also ambiguous. It has
served both to assert and to challenge received socio? political hierarchy and order in, it should not be forgotten, a
culture marked by violence and bloodletting.
Gun Culture In Kumasi
T.C. McCaskie

Kwame Arhin
Every Asante aspired towards becoming a Kumasi dweller. It has long been mandatory for the heads of the states of
the Asante Union to maintain houses in the capital for both political and cultural reasons. Kumasi was the political,
administrative, religious, and cultural capital of the Asante Union and of Greater Asante. In the 19th century, the
culture of Kumasi, with its heterogeneous population including peoples drawn from all over the territories under the
Asantehene, Muslims from as far afield as the Maghreb and Mecca, and European visitors from the coast, took a
shape distinct from that of the surrounding villages (Bowdich 1819, Freeman 1967 [1898]). Kumasi dwellers
believed themselves, and were believed to be, more refined than villagers, and the term kuraseni became one of
insult, meaning a "rude" person. The word Kumasisem, meaning "the Kumasi way of life," was in turn applied to the
new settler in Kumasi who outdid the old-timers in exhibiting the Kumasi life-style.
The city of Kumasi was the seat of the Asantehene and thus the centre of power of the ancient kingdom. The
paramount chiefs of the ‘provincial’ chiefdoms took an ancestral oath of allegiance to the Asantehene directly and
their ‘sub-chiefs’ did it through their overlords. The chains of allegiance that linked the chiefs to the common centre
were crosscut by relations of kinship, marriage, and friendship between the different stools, the nature of which were
decreed by complicated principles of seniority (see Kallinen 2004, 69 – 134). The structure of the capital city of the
kingdom was somewhat different from the common type described …. While the Kumasi army was also divided
into task-oriented fighting units, the basic difference lay in the fact that in Kumasi each unit was composed of
several offices (and their subjects) of diverse lineage and clan origins. In fact, such a unit comprised a group of
chiefdoms, each of which was organized internally according to the traditional model. Consequently, a member of a
group was theoretically capable of waging war either as a component of his own group (and the Kumasi army) or
separately as an independent chiefdom.
Page | 29

Kwame Arhin
The primacy of politics (and later the economy) in Western ideology often deters our understanding of different
kinds of ideologies. As a result, in the classic anthropological studies of divine kingship, the divinity of the ruler and
the rituals he performed were often separated from the political sphere and seen as a part of a cultural superstructure
which only reflected the more fundamental social order (McKinnon 2000, 41- 42).
Kwame Arhin
Asantehene Kwaku Dua Panin reportedly explained to the missionary Freeman, “If I
were to abolish human sacrifices, I should deprive myself of one of the most effectual
means of keeping the people in subjection”. This raises the question of whether he was
mistranslated by Freeman, and really was referring to the need of capital punishment in
order to maintain order in Asante and to confirm his power over life and death.
Asante: Human Sacrifice Or Capital Punishment?

An Assessment Of The Period 1807-1874
A few authors have accepted that human sacrifice existed and have then gone on to place it in its cultural context
without resorting to heavily value-laden judgments. Such is the nature of the work of R. S. Rattray who, as a "seeker
after truths," was keen to dispel the "bloody savages" mythology surrounding the Asante, but was not prepared to
ignore matters which would not hold the Asante in good light to Europeans, such as human sacrifice.\\
Boyle's 1874 work, especially his chapter entitled "The Metropolis of Murder," perhaps illustrates how far
descriptions would go to help justify European military action against the Asante. He describes Kumase as: A town
where blood is plastered, like a pitch coating, over trees and floors and stools - blood of a thousand victims; yearly
renewed, where headless bodies make common sport, where murder pure and simple, monotonous massacre of
bound men, is the one employment of the king, and the one spectacle of the populace. Boyle goes on to remark,
"The odour of putridity is the air approved by its inhabitants. The sight they love is severed necks, and spouting....
The people positively like to have the odour of dead flesh in their nostrils."
Somewhat less sanguinary, but still exaggerated, are many missionary accounts of Asante. Missions generated more
enthusiasm among missionaries and more generosity among donors by painting the Asante as savage. It is in the
context of Asante society, not Victorian values, that we need now to view human sacrifice. Ancestors formed the
custodians of moral and ethical behavior in Asante "traditional" society, and they required sacrifice, among other Page | 30
things.
Asante: Human Sacrifice Or Capital Punishment?
An Assessment Of The Period 1807-1874 Clifford Williams
Four Years In Asante

Ramseyer’s Manuscript & Kuhne's Diary
The king's chairs were very curious, and quite new to us. About twenty of them were of mixed Ashantee and
European workmanship, and had one or two bells, reminding us of the cow-bells of our beautiful Switzerland;
although finely ornamented they were all stained black with human blood. The real throne is a chair of the country,
about four hundred years old, so patched with golden wire and plates that the original wood is scarcely visible. An
immense umbrella is carried over it, and not until he has taken his seat in this chair is a new sovereign looked upon
as king. [...] Over him [the King] was held the most beautiful of his umbrellas, of red and black velvet, and laced
with gold [with a golden lion on top]. [Footnote: It is the same umbrella which is now in the museum at South
Kensington.] He, like most of his chiefs, was clothed ["locally printed cloth" - in other words adinkra, an Akan cloth
that was specially manufactured for mourning"] in calico, the symbol of mourning, no doubt on account of the war.
In a country with such customs and laws it seems that the number of
misdeeds ought to be less than in other countries; yet the opposite is the
case. Where is as much stolen as here? … They play with death like
children. … Their theft is very often punished by death. Help from
above, oh, that many hearts may pray for Aschante!"
Adam Jones
The Killings on 8 April 1871

On Sunday, April 8th, new horrors were perpetrated. The king went to Bandama to repair the roof of the royal
burial-place, which had been injured in the late storm. Every ceremony connected with this building was
accompanied by the shedding of human blood, to appease the wrath of the deceased kings. On this occasion the
cheeks of three poor boys were perforated with knives on the usual plan, and their hands were bound behind them.
This fearful cruelty was lightly spoken of as a very common thing.
Such victims are mostly criminals, but how trifling often was the offence. Everyone who used the king's oath, or
spoke rudely of the royal house, was laid in irons. If a poor Odonko negro, in a fit of home sickness, tried to escape
from his cruel master, he was caught and chained. Thus there were always a number of these doomed creatures
ready, for once chained they were seldom pardoned, though it was in the power of the king to set any of them free.
… a sudden death plunged the palace and the town into great grief. On our [daughter] Rosa's birthday the 2nd crown
prince Mensa Kuma died, at sixteen years of age. The deceased prince had besides several wives of royal blood,
three of low birth, who when they heard of his death ran away and hid themselves. The king supplied their places by
other girls, who, painted white, and hung with gold ornaments, sat around the coffin to drive away the flies-and were
strangled at the funeral. The same fate befell six pages, who, similarly ornamented and painted, crouched around the
coffin which was carried out at midnight. [...] Page | 31
From the 1st to the 10th of September, the slaughter continued. The King himself actually killed some members of
the royal house, many slain corpses lay exposed, and in forty days the same dreadful doings were to be repeated.
Only undertakings that pose a serious risk to group survival have

magical force for believers. At the outset the outcome of ritual effort must
be genuinely uncertain. Great ritual uncertainty requires the most potent
magic, which is blood. …
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion
Carolyn Marvin and David W. Ingle

The origins of blood sacrifice are lost in the mist of prehistory. Nevertheless, inferences can be drawn from
archaeological research and from the practices and beliefs of people whose rituals continued into the historical
period. The same societies usually performed other types of sacrifices as well, … an approved component of social
policy.
environments.
Robert Kastenbaum
Some Chiefs Are “More Under” Than Others

Timo Kallinen
Customarily, he had the right to levy a wide range of taxes and mobilize his subjects for war or communal tasks
(Fortes 1969, 139–150). Kurankyi-Taylor (1951, 18) called the Asante lineage a perpetual corporation, meaning that
it consisted not only of its living members but also of the dead and unborn. In this scheme of things, the office of the
chief held a nodal position since it stood between the living who were considered the guardians of “the fortunes and
affairs of the whole body corporate” (ibid., 172) and the ancestors (asamanfoɔ) who had absolute power over the
former.
As noted above, the ancestors were considered to be benevolent towards their successors, but shameful deeds by the
living that disgraced the ancestors invited punishment (ibid., 191–192). Hence, the kinship relation between the
ancestors and the living was not severed by death and the descendants of the dead chiefs were perceived as the most
appropriate persons among the living to approach the ancestral spirits with offerings and petitions (Busia 1968
[1951], 23–37).
As Fortes (1963, 59) put it, the Asante matrilineages were committed to being “of pure freeborn descent” because Page | 32
“their entire social existence hinges on their prerogatives of hereditary office and rank; and these would be
jeopardized if the established laws of kinship, descent, inheritance and succession were set aside in the slightest
particular”. In other words, the imperative of keeping the lineage, from which the chiefs were elected, a closed
group ultimately arose from the relationship between the living and the ancestors, which had its nexus in the office
and its occupant. The principal occasion for ancestral sacrifice was the Adae ritual that took place twice during
every ‘month’ of the Asante calendar, that is to say, in every successive period of forty-two days (adaduanan).
It was the religion that exacted a bloody sacrifice that made

the Romans of pagan times strong and that invested them with their character
of conquerors and rulers. Machiavelli says: "When I meditated on the reason
why people were more in love with freedom in those ancient times than
they are now, I saw it was because they have grown weaker now than
formerly, which is a result of the difference in education, this again
being based on the difference of their religion from ours. This may be seen from
many of their institutions, counting first among them the magnificence of
their sacrifices as compared with ours. …."'
Pagan sacrifice in the Italian renaissance.
F. Saxl
Robert Kastenbaum. On sacrifice.

Participants in blood sacrifice rituals experience a sense of awe, danger, or exaltation because they are daring to
approach the gods who create, sustain, and destroy life. … Morale is strengthened by the ritual killing because the
group has itself performed the godlike act of destruction and is now capable of renewing its own existence. The
underlying philosophical assumption is that life must pass through death.
environments.
Robert Kastenbaum
George Goodspeed.
Atonement in non-Christian religions.
Archbishop Magee has collected in his Dissertations on Atonement "an array of facts showing beyond a doubt that
human sacrifices in antiquity were widely regarded as the most potent means of propitiating an offended deity. The
Phoenicians and Carthaginians gave up their children because these were their dearest treasures, and hence the Page | 33
devoting of them was most likely to secure divine favor." Similar explanations of the same rite by Greek and Roman
writers make it clear that such was the notion held in classical antiquity.
"An exceptional emergency demanded a human victim," because such a one was the best mankind could offer. "The
ancient Germans laid it down," says Brinton, "that in time of famine beasts should first be slain and offered to the
gods. Did these bring no relief, then men must be slaughtered; and if still there was no aid from on high, then the
chieftain of the tribe himself must mount the altar; for the nobler and dearer the victim, the more pleased were the
gods!" And accordingly we are told that when in Carthage slave boys were substituted for the children of the nobles
in the offerings to the gods, the deities were angry and brought greater woe upon the state. The doctrine that
suffering was the sign of and punishment for " sin" was a commonplace of ancient religion.23
Rather, violent acts performed by society are inherent to the nature of the nation-state. …
The authors conclude that cohesion in enduring groups requires violence as a “structural rather than contingent
social force.” Contained within each nation is a sacred idea or ideal. The truth of this sacred ideal is established
when members of society die (or are maimed) for it. Warfare constitutes a “representation of society to itself.”
Sacred truth comes into being through a “blood sacrifice ritual performed on the bodies of supplicants.”
To understand how war is ritual sacrifice, recall that the raw material of society is bodies. Organizing and disposing
of them is the fundamental task of all societies. The social is quite literally constructed from the body and from
specific bodies that are dedicated and used up for the purpose. The enduringness of any group depends at least partly
on the willingness of its members to sacrifice themselves for the continuing life of the group. … the underlying cost
of all society is the violent death of some portion of its members. … Our deepest secret, the collective group taboo,
is the knowledge that society depends on the death of this sacrificial group at the hands of the group itself. This is
the totem principle concretized. According to Durkheim, the group becomes a group by agreeing not to disagree
about the group-making principle.
at the root of urbanist celebration

and pastoral lament is the crime of fratricide, which myth
tells us is the origin of the city and politics. the myth of cain:
fratricide, city building, and politics
george m. shulman
new asantehene was installed.


enjoyed the same status in the after-life as in their lifetime, which justifies Page | 34
On Victor Turner.
When sacrificial destruction is seen as the expression of a particular politics, in which whole groups are categorized
as expendable while others are designated as beneficiaries, the more generous aspects of the rite begin to disappear.
No matter how fully camouflaged it is by a bureaucratized role in a modern system of exchange, regardless of the
context in which it appears, sacrificial thinking invariably reduces at some points to its fundamental identification
with ritual violence.
Her main point on strictly theoretical grounds - that sacrifice holds societies together by victimizing one category of
creatures or people to the benefit of the collective - is unvarnished Durkheimianism.
The Science of Sacrifice:
American Literature and Modern Social Theory
Susan L. Mizruchi
The legitimization of such an economic rebate has very important implications for the practice and the theory of
sacrifice. On the one hand it allows the sacrifice to be performed with much greater frequency than would certainly
be the case if the sacrificial material was always destroyed. On the other hand it necessitates special beliefs about the
manner in which the gods or spirits take their fill. Either they must be satisfied with the killing and display of the
sacrificed object, or they must be satisfied to consume its least valuable portions, or to absorb some immaterial
aspect or equivalent of it. In other words, the practice of reservation of the sacrificial material for the human
participants almost inevitably demands some theory of essences, representations or symbols.
Offering and Sacrifice: Problems of Organization
Raymond Firth
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation by Marvin and Ingle

A Review
The continued existence of any societal group, according to the authors, depends at least partly on the willingness of
its members to sacrifice themselves for it. Yet, the creation of national sentiment requires that members remain
unaware of the mechanism that maintains the group. The knowledge that the “underlying cost of society is the
violent death of some portion of its members” must remain secret.
In order to endure as a sacred object, the nation requires that people kill and die in its name.
However, for the ritual of war to remain effective, societies must remain unconscious of the relationship between the
institution of warfare and the maintenance of the idea of the nation. Our deepest secret, the authors claim - the
“collective group taboo”– is the knowledge that society depends for its existence on “violent, sacrificial death at the
hands of the group itself.”
To admit that we kill our own is unacceptable, for if there is not shared agreement about who will be sacrificed, Page | 35
violence may become chaotic instead of ordered; the group may be destroyed. To keep the sacrificial secret, an
acceptable pretext to slaughter group members must be created. What Girard calls the ritual victim constitutes this
pretext. In the nation-group context, this is the enemy.
Our god - our nation - must be “inexpressible, unsayable, unknowable,

beyond language.” But this god may “not be refused when it calls for sacrifice.”
When the god commands it, we must perform the “ritual sacrifice -
war - that sustains the group.
Blood Sacrifice and the Nation by Marvin and Ingle

A Review
Marvin and Ingle describe the tension between the “violent sacrificial mechanism that sustains enduring groups” and
the “reluctance of group members to accept responsibility for enacting it” as a taboo. To protect ourselves from
acknowledging that sacrificial death is the source of group unity, citizens “render totem violence and its symbols
sacred.” The fundamental “secret” that maintains the group is knowledge that it must sacrifice its own.
In order to avoid knowing that killing - sacrificial death - lies at the core of the ideology of nationalism, we treat
violence as if primitive and morally suspect: a “failure of social structure rather than an elemental component.”
When violence occurs it is presented as a “last resort,” a “challenge to civilized modernity.” We prefer not to say
that violence is inherent in the nature of the nation-state.

If a man was approved of having accumulated enough wealth to be recognized for it, he was made an abirempon, a
term traditionally applied to the earliest Akan entrepreneurs who had been essential in founding the first Akan
villages and chiefdoms within the forest. The term abirempon literally meant “big man”. The making of an
abirempon was richly symbolic. As part of the custom, a slave would tie a symbolic Elephant’s Tail around his
waist, and the man would have to “hunt” him. He would then be awarded the right to have an Elephant’s Tail (mena)
carried in front of him whenever he walked in public.
… By accumulating a large amount of gold, the abirempon had worked towards the good of Asante society as a
whole, because upon his death, his wealth would flow into the royal chest to be redistributed for the good of the
Asanteman. Just as one man killed the elephant to feed many, it was one man who had accumulated the gold, but
many people who benefitted from it.
Also, at the end of the ceremony, the new abirempon would plant a spear in the market place and challenge others to
do what he had just done, thereby encouraging emulation of his achievement. … The custom of vying for the honor
of receiving an Elephant’s Tail provided a controlled form of competition among Asante men. It can be seen as an
arena in which men could challenge each other to excel under the auspices of the state. Through this established
system of the Elephant’s Tail, the state served as the fount of honor achieved through the fulfillment of civic
obligations. Honor in Asante was enjoyed in the form of advancing in rank in the social hierarchy. Honorable
actions such as the accumulation of wealth were not rewarded by receiving more gold but rather by a public
acknowledgment of one’s achievements.
… three factors were the main causes that held the Asanteman together: gold, an intricate system of social relations
and civic duty, and sunsum. Gold was a means of rewarding civic duty and fostering accountability, and
strengthening relations within the federation and among the Amanhene. It also encouraged people to strive for
working for the good of Asante and increasing its wealth. As long as wealth continued to increase and gold
regulated civic actions, rulers were found to be ruling in accordance with sunsum and their power was thus
legitimized.
Page | 36

On our [daughter] Rosa's birthday the 2nd crown prince Mensa Kuma died, at
sixteen years of age. This was publicly announced at four o'clock, … Our small
affairs were now forgotten, for a sudden death plunged the palace and the town
into great grief.
… our informant, came to us just after four o'clock, warning us that we should let none of our people go out, for
otherwise it might well happen that one or other again fall into the hands of the odumfo, who had been sent into all
the streets to search for victims.
He proceeded to tell us that all the chiefs had been summoned to the palace half an hour before. When they were all
sitting there with their servants a messenger appeared and said a few words to the king. Hereupon His Majesty
stopped down, rubbed the tips of his fingers on the red ground and painted his forehead red.
On this signal all the servants, great and small, rushed out of the room [Zimmer] and the palace as fast as they could.
He of course did the same, not needing to be told twice, although he did not know why. On the street everyone was
running away.
Mensa Kuma died, at sixteen years of age. This was publicly announced at four o'clock, but before that hour royal
servants occupied all the streets to catch the fugitives. Kwabena, the captive son of the chief of Peki, who had often
been our informant, brought us the news, warning us to let none leave the house lest he should fall into the hands of
the odumfo, who were searching everywhere for victims.
His master Kwantiabo had been sitting in council half an hour before in the palace with the other chiefs, surrounded
by their followers. A messenger suddenly appeared and whispered to the king, who stooping down, rubbed the tips
of his fingers with red earth, and painted his forehead. On this all the servants rushed from the palace, and on a sign
from his master our young informant did the same, without really knowing why, for this was his first experience of
this savage custom. Soon after came Dawson in a state of alarm, to enquire the reason of the awful tumult. The
people outside were frantic, seizing poultry and sheep, killing them and throwing them away, and men were
everywhere falling victims to the odumfo's knife. From one of Bosommuru's followers we afterwards heard that the
king's brother had died, and that nearly a hundred and fifty men would be sacrificed at his funeral. [...]
The deceased youth was to be followed to the grave by slaves only, some of his own, and others who had long been
languishing in irons. It was expected that every great chief would offer a gift of human life, and many men who
were going about free, fell beneath the knife of the odumfo. Up to mid-day the king and his followers had been
sitting at the north side of the market-place under the tree where we used to preach. Around him were crowds,
playing the wildest music, who all fasted, but drank the more. These offerings from the chiefs were presented--
dresses, silk cushions, gold ornaments, sheep and MEN! In the afternoon he resumed his seat in the marketplace,
and all who had guns fired them; at this signal some victims fell.
M. Bonnat and Kiuhne, who were in the street for a few moments, saw three odumfos rush upon a man standing
among the crowd, pierce his cheeks with a knife and order him to stand up; they then drove him before them with
his hands bound like a sheep to the slaughter.
… Somewhat later, at about five o'clock, Mr. D[awson] came to us in a great state of alarm, to see if perhaps we
knew the reason for this terrible tumult in the town. On the streets one sees nothing but people running back and
forth, catching chickens, cutting their throats and then throwing them away. Others are doing the same with sheep. Page | 37
The deceased prince had besides several wives of royal blood, three of low birth, who when they heard of his death
ran away and hid themselves. The king supplied their places by other girls, who, painted white, and hung with gold
ornaments, sat around the coffin to drive away the flies-and were strangled at the funeral. The same fate befell six
pages, who, similarly ornamented and painted, crouched around the coffin which was carried out at midnight. [...]
From the 1st to the 10th of September, the slaughter continued. The King himself actually killed some members of
the royal house, many slain corpses lay exposed, and in forty days the same dreadful doings were to be repeated. …
people were slaughtered; for one after the other the various chiefs from outside [Kumase] arrived, bringing their
victims with them. Many were also decapitated in the villages, whereupon their heads were sent here in earthern
basins. The King himself is said to have killed an ohene ba (king's child) and three ohene nena (king's
grandchildren). Even today many freshly slaughtered corpses are lying around. And even if the 'custom' is over for
the time being, in forty days the slaughter is to begin again.


This corresponds with the conventional view of religion and politics on the part of modern, secularist social science
which is that in the ancient past the political, that is, secular, ambitions of men gave birth to oppressive superstitions
(Asad 2003, 192–193) and the task of the analyst is to reveal the political underneath the religious veneer. However,
we should realize that in the Asante ideology such layering did not exist and the political was ordered by the
religious. Thus in the following I explain how the foundation of the Asante kingdom and the distribution of rights
and privileges to the different chiefs was a ritual process: a direct consequence of sacrificial exchanges. This will
also help us to grasp the enormous difference between the pre-colonial and colonial conceptions of chieftaincy and
kingship in Asante.
Sacralizing political structures? Analysts of Asante society usually attribute the superiority of the Asantehene’s
office to its “aura of mystical preeminence”, which is derived from its connection to the Golden Stool (Sika Dwa
Kofi, lit. ‘Friday’s Golden Stool’) (Fortes 1969, 142). The histories concerning the birth of the kingdom and
emergence of the stool are widely known and they may be summarized as follows. The chiefdom of Kwaman (later
renamed Kumasi) was held as a tributary state by the kingdom of Denkyira, a southern neighbour of Asante.

Timo Kallinen

those who have gold will be elevated to the position Page | 38
of a ruler themselves. Other proverbs support that
Gold and Accumulation of Wealth

The importance of gold in Asante is evidenced by a great number of proverbs dealing with its role in society. One of
them establishes that “gold is king”. This can be interpreted on two levels: the first and obvious one is referring to
gold and its position in society; just as the king and the paramount chiefs it had a considerable amount of influence
and judicial power.

of a ruler themselves. Other proverbs support that
The accumulation of wealth was a crucial civic duty in Asante.

Wealth could consist of gold, nkoa and slaves, and landed property. However, the only accepted currency for state
interactions was gold dust. All taxes were therefore paid in the form of gold dust, and people and land had a value
attached to them, measured in gold. Gold was both the currency of state power and the standard of value. It was also
in and of itself a status symbol as those who had reached a certain threshold of wealth were allowed to adorn
themselves and their wives with elaborate gold ornaments. Those men who were particularly successful in
accumulating wealth could choose to make a public display of all their wealth – parading through Kumasi their
wives and their slaves, as well as chests filled with their gold dust, themselves being covered in gold ornaments.
Gold dust also proved vital in hacking culture out of nature. It allowed for the purchase of slaves, to provide labor
for the Asante state. The importance of gold did not diminish as Asante had established itself and a labor surplus
was secured, however. It continued to play a vital role, it served as the blood in the veins of the administration of the
state. Page | 39
new asantehene was installed

Finally, the treaty dealt with the issue of human sacrifice in Asante. This issue was a constant irritant in British-
Asante relations, and had an important influence on jurisdictional disputes between the governments. To what
degree the executions witnessed by English travelers were really human sacrifices as opposed to judicial executions,
is hard to determine. Some travelers claimed that during festivals, “criminals and prisoners of war were sacrificed in
unlimited numbers to the spirits of the dead kings”.
However, Dupuis observed that many of those killed on occasion of these festivals were “delinquents, and are so far
deserving that anathema, as having been convicted of … having violated the civil laws”. Asantehene Kwaku Dua
Panin reportedly explained to the missionary Freeman, “If I were to abolish human sacrifices, I should deprive
myself of one of the most effectual means of keeping the people in subjection”. This raises the question of whether
he was mistranslated by Freeman, and really was referring to the need of capital punishment in order to maintain
order in Asante and to confirm his power over life and death.
What is certain is that the Asante did perform human sacrifice during funerals of important individuals, in the belief
that this custom was providing servants for the afterlife of the deceased. Slaves were often used on these occasions,
as mentioned earlier. The reported numbers, however, seem greatly exaggerated, probably due to the keen interest
among Europeans to hear about them, and Williams asserts that it was often the case for judicial punishments to be
falsely reported as being human sacrifices. In addition to the public interest in hearing news of sacrifices, it also
proved to be a useful tool in matters of policy. To provide refuge for those running from being sacrificed, was more
easily legitimized than providing shelter for those who simply sought to escape punishment for criminal acts they
had committed. Especially as the nineteenth century progressed, the issue was exploited “for polemical purposes, to
justify … the European conquest of Africa”.
While bringing short term peace and stability to the region, the 1831 treaty thus laid the groundwork for a host of
issues that would bedevil Anglo-Asante relations in the future. It raised questions about trade, authority and
jurisdiction, and the civilizing mission of the British with regards to human sacrifice and law and justice within
Asante.

The Structure of Greater Ashanti (1700-1824) Page | 40

Kwame Arhin
If modern Ghanaians wish to re-enact their 'past experience' and to engage in a 'dialogue' with their ancestors, they
must examine and analyse their institutions. Our examination here shows that whatever may have been the origins,
in the sense of reasons, of the Ashanti wars, there was developed the notion of uniting principally the Akans in
political subjection to the Ashanti king. Whether one believes that this notion sprang from economic motives or
from the fairly universal human desire to create larger political aggregates, especially in locally contiguous areas
with cultural homogeneity, depends on one's own view of human nature or of history in general; or in some cases,
on whether or not one believes that the African was different from others from the point of view of the
considerations that shaped his history. After all, to a man like Hugh Clifford, Governor of the Gold Coast early in
this century, the Ashantis' wars were no more than a 'barbaric display', a mere 'romantic thing', of interest only to the
antiquarian. It was easier to extend Ashanti rule over the Akans than over the tributaries. The latter could only
gradually begin to appreciate Akan political and judicial institutions; they were too far from Ashanti in a period
when communications were undeveloped. It was militarily difficult; the Ashanti kingdom would not have lasted for
as long as it did if it had been obliged to combat resistance in the four corners of Ghana.

Dupuis described the Ashanti empire as a 'great political association of kingdoms'. What I have tried to do is to
distinguish the categories of ties, though these fluctuated with time and circumstance, within the 'association'. It
seems to me to be clear that 'Greater Ashanti' described as conceived to embrace the cultural and contignous group-
the Akans-is distinguishable within the 'empire' or the totality of Ashanti subject-states.
When, then, the pre-1700 Ashanti tradition and the introduction of Ashanti judicial, political and politico-religious
institutions into some of the conquered territories are carefully considered, it becomes clear, in the writer's view, that
the so-called Ashanti 'empire' should be divided into three categories of states: provinces, 'protectorates' and
tributaries, on the basis of their political distance from Ashanti. The provinces-like the Ashantis mainly Akan-
speaking peoples were considered and treated as part of a Greater Ashanti 'political structure'. The 'protectorates'
were treated as allies or protected peoples according as economic or political circumstance dictated. The tributaries
formed the economic and manpower base of the Ashanti expansion. But it must be noted that these relationships
were fluid, and fluctuated with Ashanti military and political fortunes.
Kwame Arhin
But nowhere does McCaskie give any evidence that the Asante state was really so
exploitative and onerous. Instead, he continually emphasizes throughout the text the
extent to which the state apparatus, located in the capital of Kumase, operated largely in
isolation from the rest of the society. Accordingly, his use of the Gramscian model--
which is of great value in itself, in helping one understand how the Asante state operated-
-attempts to resolve a problem for the existence of which there is no evidence. We never
see beyond the boundaries of Kumase.
Greene on McCaskie, 'State and Society in Pre-colonial Asante'
T. C. McCaskie - Reviewed by Sandra E. Greene

City of Blood: A People Because of War

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Through a system of group-forming rituals, a myth of blood sacrifice organizes the meaning of violent events after the fact.

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