c. 1680–1901 CE · state formation to colonial annexation · Africa · Empire
Osei Tutu and Okomfo Anokye helped unite Akan states around Kumasi and the Golden Stool; a sophisticated confederacy grew through military power, diplomacy, law and gold and kola trade.
Atlas dossier · Early Modern WorldFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
The c. 1680 opening represents a period of state formation around Kumasi, not a single founding day. The 1901 endpoint marks British annexation after successive wars. It does not mark the end of Asante authority, identity or institutions.
British Museum: Asante gold regalia ↗Gold regalia expressed offices, histories and relationships within Asante government. Many objects now in Britain were taken during colonial warfare or demanded as indemnity. Their museum presence must therefore be read as evidence of both Asante statecraft and imperial dispossession.
British Museum: Asante gold regalia ↗A museum film
Meet the people preserving Asante shrine architecture and living traditions near Kumasi. A contemporary film published in 2025, not archival footage of the empire. 7 minutes 11 seconds.
The lion photograph is a separate Met collection record, not a frame from the film.
Watch at The Met and read about the film ↗
Film: The Metropolitan Museum of Art with World Monuments Fund; directed by Sosena Solomon. Hosted on the museum’s official watch page; not an Atlas production.
A visual presentation accompanying this entry. Read each image’s attribution to distinguish archival records, later depictions and reconstructions.
Enlarge and examine the pictureModern photograph (2018) of the Okomfo Anokye sword site in Kumasi, associated with Asante foundation traditions.
Okomfo Anokye sword site, Kumasi, Ghana — Caupolicaningles; CC BY-SA 4.0; via Wikimedia Commons. Resized, cropped and converted to WebP for Atlas display.
Source and reuse terms ↗ · Read the licence ↗Enlarge and examine the pictureModern museum photograph. Lion Ornament, made by an Asante-Akan artist in Kumasi during the 19th century. Gold ornaments expressed royal power; the original use of this example remains uncertain.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.228). Public domain / CC0. Resized without cropping and converted to WebP.
Source and reuse terms ↗ · Read the licence ↗
Enlarge and examine the pictureModern museum photograph. Gold-weight (abrammuo): bowing man, Asante, 19th century. Cast in brass, this miniature figure belongs to a tradition of gold-dust weighing equipment associated with trade and proverbial imagery.
Image courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum. Gift of J. Lionberger Davis, Class of 1900 (y1961-5). Public domain. Resized without cropping and converted to WebP.
Source and reuse terms ↗ · Read the licence ↗Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
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