Ashanti people

The Asante (Ashanti), last-born of the Akan civilisations, speak Twi, nine million strong, in Ghana's Ashanti Region. In 1670 Osei Tutu, advised by the priest Okomfo Anokye, forged the chiefdoms round the Golden Stool into the Ashanti Empire, with Kumasi, founded 1680, at the crossroads of the savanna and forest trade. Gold bullion, kola and captives made Kumasi a financial capital; loyalty to the Asantehene held a confederacy that humbled the British in 1824 before falling in 1901. Kente cloth, woven proverbs of silk and cotton, adinkra stamps, talking drums and the veneration of stools and ancestors order Asante life. The restored kingship still sits at Manhyia Palace, settling disputes and blessing the new yam; Asante funerals, in black and red kente, remain West Africa's grandest theatre. Kumasi goldsmiths still weigh bullion on the old brass scales, Osei Tutu's Golden Stool never touches the ground, and Asantehene courtiers pour libation before every festival.