Book

Forests of gold: essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante

Ohio University Press • Athens, Ohio • Published In 1993 • Pages:

By: Wilks, Ivor.

Abstract

This is a detailed study of the cultural and political history of the Twi (Asanti, Ashanti) people of west Africa from approximately the fifteenth to the late twentieth centuries (1980s). Much of the earlier material deals with the Akan kingdom of the fifteenth to seventeeth centuries from which the modern Twi nation evolved. The book consists of ten chapters. Chapters 1-3 deal with the conditions under which Akan society emerged in its historic form. Chapters 4-7 describe various aspects of Ashanti culture, as for example, the pervasive importance of wealth in the society, the ‘mental mapping’ of the kingdom for purposes of trade and government, and with reference to so-called human sacrifice, the close relationship between the status of the living and the dead (p. xiii). Chapter 8 reviews the careers of the incumbents of the highest military offices in the administrative capital of Kumase, and Chapter 9, those of a number of functionaries in the civil administration. The last chapter (chapter 10) presents a biographical sketch of an Ashanti woman who, on the behalf of the ASANTEHENE (the king), conducted negotiations with British, Danish, and Dutch on the Gold Coast in 1831.

HRAF PubDate

2000

Region

Africa

Sub Region

Western Africa

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Type

Historian

Document Rating

4: Excellent Secondary Data

Analyst

John Beierle ; 1994

Field Date

no date

Coverage Date

fifteenth century-1980s

Coverage Place

Ashanti; Ghana

Notes

Ivor Wilks

Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-375) and index

LCCN

93000473

LCSH

Ashanti (African people)/Ashanti (Kingdom)/Akan (African people)