Chale Wote and a deep dive on the Ashanti
21st-27th Aug Ghana is partying for Chale Wote street art festival!
Welcome to your evening plan! Music, history, food and a movie. Turn the music up!
While we are on the Audio section - I couldn’t recommend more the History of Africa podcast. Their season on the Ashanti Empire largely informs the history section below.
🇬🇭Ghana
This one doesn’t start with the Empire of Ghana.
Ghana and the Empire of Ghana never overlapped! Between 300-1100 the Ghana empire existed (green) in what is now Mali and Mauritania and was known for wealth and warriors, and in 1957 the name Ghana was picked by the new nations leaders for the same reason. Before then the British called the area the Gold Coast for its abundance of gold!
What is now Ghana was home to various tribes throughout the ages, including the Ashanti - a group that beat the British at the height of their power!
The Ashanti begins (c. 1680)
The Ashanti grew from a vassal state for the dominant Denkyira Empire before it. The Denkyira took all the vassal states heir princes as prisoner / for educating at their capital and that is where our story begins with Osei Kofi Tutu.
Osei Kofi Tutu formed a forbidden relationship with a married Denkyiran princess who became pregnant. Osei fled to various vassal states, hiding but also befriending many of these states.
His uncle who was the king (or hene) of his state died, and hence there was a strong call for Osei to come out of hiding - which would almost certainly start a war. Osei drew on his supporting states and formed a repelling force that defeated the Denkyira Empire and set him to be the leader of an empire. That empire was named Asante/Ashanti - meaning ‘because of war’ - and Osei became the first Asantehene.
Osei Kofi Tutu reforms
Immediately after the war, Osei pushes to secure peace via federated politics - even allowing powers for his court to overrule him!
During this process, the ancestral Gods also bestow him a powerful Golden Stool that embodied the ancestors and hence embody the leadership of the Ashanti people.
This is a fantastic result as many kingdoms and states struggle during succession disputes. In fact in Ashanti and other Akan states, heirs to the throne are not the dependents of the king but the king’s sister - as through this way they can be sure of the bloodline of the ancestors is persisted. It was not just the Kings either. Ashanti culture focused on a matrilineal system - where children were part of the mothers family, not the fathers as we do in the West.
For the next 150 years, the Ashanti continues to grow against the other empires in the region.
The first Ashanti - Anglo war (c1820)
Throughout this time, the coastal regions had been controlled by different native and colonial empires - including the Portuguese and British where the international slave trade started.
At this time though, the slave trade began to stop growing and hence pressures from home and personal greed to be a successful colonising legion led the British to expand their hold on what they called the Gold Coast - first by proxy-wars using the other native empires like the Fante and then using their own troops.
The British stormed into Ashanti lands expecting to hit the advanced guard. Instead, the full force of the Ashanti was waiting for them - well equipped with muskets, well drilled soldiers and with ‘talking drums’ that helped communicate strategy faster than the British could. The British were surrounded and defeated and the British leader was killed and his skull was later turned into a gold lined drinking cup.
The Ashanti saw this as the time to strike further and began an attack on Accra. The British defended Accra but only due to the thunderous first deployment of Congreve Rockets in Africa - which caused heavy casualties and would have been the first experience of the Ashanti soldiers with such a terrifying weapon.
Both sides had huge casualties and further smallpox then ravaged both. The British signed a treaty with the Ashanti, admitting defeat and terms around their presence in the region.
The 2nd, 3rd and 4th Anglo-Ashanti wars
The second was similar disastrous for both sides. The British once again underestimated the Ashanti in battle, but ultimately did little other than to create a wider rift between the two powers.
The Third was different. The British began sourcing quinine to prevent malaria (learnt from the natives years previous but finally accepted as the correct action) and also bought and brought backup in the form of Hausa armies. Moreover, the gun technology the British had access to was much more advanced than the Ashanti had as the British had forced the Dutch out of the area and the Dutch traded with the Ashanti.
The British pushed through the Ashanti up to their capital, Kumasi. Kumasi had countless books, a huge mausoleum, many baths and a grand palace, as well as vast amounts of gold. The British burnt it to the ground and looted everything they could.
The 4th war started as the British pushed harder for the Ashanti to become a protectorate - meaning taxes. The British marched to the capital and deposed the Asante-hene and sent him to the Seychelles in a coup. In this ‘war’ however, not a single bullet was shot - yet still many British died from sickness. The Ashanti had lost their ruler, and their sovereignty.
The fifth and final Ashanti War - the War for the Golden Stool (c. 1900)
During a British visit to the Ashanti, a British general demanded that he should be treated better and should sit on the Golden stool himself. The problem was that even the Ashanti-henes of the past never sat on it. It was the symbolic seat for all the ancestors.
The general persisted and battles began as British soldiers searched for the stool. The kingless Ashanti was led by Ya Asantewaa - the mother of the King discussed in Drunk Histories below and pictured at the top of this section! She is celebrated for her bravery and leadership in defending Ashanti sovereignty in the War of the Golden Stool" in 1900.
Ya Asantewaa’s Ashanti pushed the British to the their last city and lay siege. The British broke the siege and ended up overturning the Ashanti, expelling the leaders and capturing the golden stool. Thus began direct British control over the Ashanti people.
World War 2
Due to U-boat dominance the British demanded its empire produce goods for the war, and did this by investing in outsourcing manufacturing. In the British Gold Coast (today Ghana), this focused on textiles, lumbar and ceramics/tile manufacturing specifically.
It also demanded servitude - at least 65,000 soldiers joined the war from Ghana.
The beginning of Ghana
Returning servicemen, a recession post war and a broke Britain quickly brought unrest to the Gold Coast. Luckily, Kwame Nkrumah was prepared.
Kwame Nkrumah was not particularly rich, but was a brilliant student and managed to study in the USA and then did a PhD in London. During his time studying, he strongly pushed a Pan African lens of development aand organised the Pan African Congress in 1945, where the future leaders of Malawi, Kenya and Nigeria attended.
When the British selected Ghanian’s to draft a constitution they intentionally left Kwame out, and later arrested him for causing violence. While in prison he smuggled notes to his aids and even ran for an electoral seat. Finally, he was released and asked for form a government.
After 5 years of political work, Ghana gained independence as the first British colony in Africa to become independent.
There is so much from here to cover that I can’t - the fall of Kwame Nkrumah, the Busia government, Jerry John Rawlings coup and premiership and the present day!
Fun Fact - child naming
One thing I found tricky was how popular names kept coming up and I found out an interesting reason why this happens! The day you are born may dictate what your name is:
So Chale Wote?
Imagine the soulful beats of highlife music mingling with the intoxicating aroma of street food, all under the African sun. It's not your average arts festival; it's a kaleidoscope of creativity, where artists from all corners of the globe come together to celebrate African culture through music, dance, visual arts, and fashion. You'll find jaw-dropping graffiti transforming ordinary walls into canvases of imagination, and performers donning costumes that blur the line between reality and fantasy. It's a fusion of tradition and modernity, where tradition wears a fresh, hip coat. Chale Wote isn't just a festival; it's a journey into the heart and soul of contemporary African artistry, a living, breathing masterpiece that paints the streets of Accra in colors you've never seen before.
Nkate, you already love it 🥜
Main
So this is tricky as the recipe I have done is a Jamie Oliver and Idris Elba’s Ghanaian Groundnut Stew in Jamies Comfort Food. The closest online that I can see is this Nkate Nkwan with a rice ball (Omo Tuo). They are esssentially tomatoes, onions, chilis, penut butter, stock, smoked paprika, pepper and garlic all cooked down, with roasted chicken cooked and then added.
Dessert
Nkate cake or Peanut brittle.
Movies
Romeo and Juliet - but in Ghana!
Micro-budget and 100% on rotten tomatoes
A father is in an abandoned gold mine, as his daughter travels through a spirit land to save him.