The Asante World provides fresh perspectives on the Asante, the largest Akan group in Southern Ghana, and what new scholars are thinking and writing about the "world the Asante made." By employing a thematic approach, the volume interrogates several dimensions of Asante history including state formation, Asante-Ahafo and Bassari-Dagomba relations in the context of Asante northward expansion, and the expansion to the south. It examines the role of Islam which, although extremely intense for just a short time, had important ramifications. Together the essays excavate key aspects of Asante political economy and culture, exemplified in kola nut production, the kente/adinkra cloth types and their associated symbols, proverbs, and drum language. The Asante World explores the Asante origins of Jamaican maroons, Asante secular government, contemporary politics of progress, governance through the institution of Ahemaa or Queenmothers, epidemiology and disease, and education in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Featuring innovative and insightful contributions from leading historians of the Asante world, this volume is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars concerned with African Studies, African diaspora history, the history of Ghana and the Gold Coast, the history of Islam in Africa, and Asante history.

This authoritative military history chronicles the significant but overlooked colonial wars between the British and the Asante of West Africa. Throughout the nineteenth century, Britain fought three major wars, and two minor ones, with the Asante people of West Africa. Like the Zulus, the Asante were a warrior nation who offered a tough adversary for the British regulars. And yet these wars are rarely studied and little understood. In this insightful and vividly detailed volume, Stephen Manning sheds much-needed light on the history of this neglected colonial conflict. In the war of 1823–6, the British endured a defeat so absolute that the British governor’s head was severed and taken to the Asante king. Fifty years later, Sir Garnet Wolseley overcame many of the challenges British expeditionary forces faced in the jungle region known as ‘The White Man’s Grave’. Finally, the 1900 campaign culminated in the epic defeat of the Asante at the British fort in Kumasi. Stephen Manning’s account, which is based on Asante as well as British sources, offers a fascinating view from both sides of one of the most remarkable and protracted struggles of the colonial era.

A historical rationale and the proper translations and usage of African names from the four comers of the continent

There is a paradox about Africa: it remains a subject that attracts considerable attention yet rarely is there a full appreciation of its complexity. African historiography has typically consisted of writing Africa for Europe—instead of writing Africa for itself, as itself, from its own perspectives. The History of Africa redresses this by letting the perspectives of Africans themselves take center stage. Authoritative and comprehensive, this book provides a wide-ranging history of Africa from earliest prehistory to the present day—using the cultural, social, political, and economic lenses of Africa as instruments to illuminate the ordinary lives of Africans. The result is a fresh survey that includes a wealth of indigenous ideas, African concepts, and traditional outlooks that have escaped the writing of African history in the West. The new edition includes information on the Arab Spring, the rise of FrancAfrica, the presence of the Chinese in Africa, and the birth of South Sudan. The chapters go up to the present day, addressing US President Barack Obama's policies toward Africa. A new companion website provides students and scholars of Africa with access to a wealth of supporting resources for each chapter, including images, video and audio clips, and links to sites for further research. This straightforward, illustrated, and factual text allows the reader to access the major developments, personalities, and events on the African continent. This groundbreaking survey is an indispensable guide to African history.

Engaging Modernity is the definitive history of Asante royal regalia and music ensembles. This second edition includes an ethnographical account of the 2014 Asanteman Grand Adae festival that prominently features the complex heritage of the visual and the performing arts in motion. Ampene's contextual account illuminates the historical narratives the regalia objects render as they move through space and time, as well as the metalanguage embodied in the objects and the symbolic language they convey in Akanland. The book combines text with over three hundred color photographs to construct subtle and nuanced views of the material culture associated with Asante royal court in the twenty-first century. Engaging Modernity is an essential and a vast transdisciplinary resource for the humanities and beyond.

The ancient tradition of African dance has influenced dance styles all over the world. It is used to commemorate many annual ceremonies and activities, such as rites of passage and the harvest, and it is also an important form of recreation, religious expression, and storytelling. In African Dance, Second Edition, the varied cultures of Africa and their respective dances are explored, along with the effects that colonialism had on the art form.