African Kingdoms

Kwaaman / Kumaseman (Akan Clan State) (Africa)

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It would seem that Akan people in Africa migrated into the southern edges of the forests of what is now Ghana. They came from a broad band of territory on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Their migration took place around the eleventh century AD, during a period in which the kingdom of Old Ghana was dramatically weakened by a devastating conflict with the Almorivids.

When Old Ghana fell in AD 1237, the trading state of Bonoman (Bono Manso) was established by the Abron people. In various waves, Akan groups migrated away from the increasingly wealthy Bonoman state to found their own settlement areas. Farming prospered, producing wealth in food, and some of the Akan communities in time coalesced into small states and minor kingdoms.

At least two of these new states became prominent: those of Akwamu in the south and Denkyira (pronounced Dench-ii-ra, and otherwise known as Denkyera) in the central western area of Akan territory. A third state - Kwaaman - was the product of continued conflict between the other two. The origins of these states are almost entirely obscure, just like those of the far greater kingdom which they would cause to be founded: Asante.

Otherwise known as 'Kwaaman State', Kwaaman or Kumaseman started out as a small clan state but became prominent and powerful. For around a century and-a-half Denkyira held the upper hand in central Ghana because it had the best gold reserves, and gold meant power.

Kwaaman origins are almost entirely obscure. It seems to have begun as a small settlement which was founded by one of the last groups of Akan migrants to arrive in the area. They and their fellow migrants started clearing areas of the forest and cultivating food crops, allowing their numbers to increase. They needed more labour to clear additional areas of the forest, so they took slaves to help. Farming prospered, producing wealth in food, and that drove on the Akan to achieve more.

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from Akwamu 1640-1750 - A Study of the Rise and Fall of a West African Empire, Ivor Willks, 2001, from the BBC documentary series, Lost Kingdoms of Africa, first broadcast on 5 January 2010, from History of West Africa, J F Ade Ajayi & Michael Crowder (Longman, 1985), from Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), from English Chief Factors on the Gold Coast 1632-1753, R Porter, from Ghana: A Country Study, Berry La Verle (Ed), 1994, and from External Links: Ghana Web, and Manhyia Palace (dead link, but available via the Internet Archive), and Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Ghana (Country Studies), and BBC Country Profiles, and World Statesmen, and The Rise of the Akwamu Empire, 1650-1710, Ivor Wilks (Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, Vol 3, No 2, 1957, pp 25-62, and available for download as a PDF from JSTOR), and British Battles, and The British Empire.)

c.1570

Various clan states have already been formed in Old Ghana's territory by the immigrant Akan communities, Denkyira is becoming prominent in what is now central Ghana while Akwamu is located in central southern Ghana. One of the last states to form, Kwaaman starts off small and insignificant.

Akan people - photographed here around the beginning of the twentieth century - migrated into regions of modern Ghana from around the eleventh century AD, but probably in smaller family groups rather than as a single mass movement of people

c.1570 - ?

The first surviving name in a list of Akan Kwaaman rulers.

? - c.1600

Kwaamanhene of Kwaaman.

c.1600 - 1630

Kwaamanhene of Kwaaman.

1621

The 'English Gold Coast' is created by England's 'Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea' (referred here for reasons of economy as the CMTG, and known as the 'Company of London Merchants' from 1651), with Kormantin as its chief post.

The Kwaaman state is separated from this coastal strip by the Fante people, so that the first effects of its creation are not felt this far inland (but this also means that neither Akwamu or Kwaaman are properly recorded for posterity).

The forests of Ghana have suffered from deforestation for centuries, notably when the Akan people started clearing areas for crops but even today, with organisations such as Client Earth trying to repair the problems it has caused

c.1630 - 1660

Kwaamanhene and then kumasehene of Kwaaman.

c.1640

The Kwaaman clan state expands under the leadership of Otumfuo Nana Oti Akenten. He wages a series of successful military operations against neighbouring Akan states, bringing a larger surrounding territory into alliance with the Kwaaman state, which can also be known as the Kumaseman state from this point forwards.

This suggests that the chief settlement of Kwaaman has already been renamed Kumasi or Kum-ase and that the tale of its founding by Osei Tutu has been lifted from earlier tradition. The rulers of the expanded state are titled kumasehene, but Denkyira is still the region's dominant state.

1642 - 1644

Six employees of the 'Company of Merchants Trading to Guinea' - otherwise known as 'English Gold Coast' - manage the administration of the trading colony during this period. Their names are unknown.

Denkyira's main centre of interest and occupation was around the coastal region of what later became Ashantiland (shown here in the nineteenth century), which later developed into the Gold Coast area, close to modern Ivory Coast but still within Ghana's borders

c.1660 - 1680

Kumasehene of Kwaaman.

1663

Francis Selwyn's term of office as agent for the 'Royal Company of Adventurers' is followed by a short period between September 1663 to May 1664 in which seven merchants are rotated as agents on a monthly basis.

c.1680

Obiri Yeboah has steadily been building up a union which will become known as Asante. His death places the future of that union in doubt, but he is succeeded by his sister's son, Osei Tutu, who has a father who is from Akwamu. Osei Tutu not only continues his uncle's work in regard to the union but now ensures the protection of Akwamu when he offends the dominant king at Denkyira.

c.1680 - 1701

Nephew. Turned Kwaaman into Asante kingdom around 1701.

c.1680 - 1701

Denkyira's neighbours begin to band together under the leadership of Osei Tutu who is largely protected by Akwamu. The subsequent destruction of Denkyira as a leading power gives birth to the Asante kingdom under Osei Tutu.

He forms a capital at Kumasi and he and his successors rule as the asantehene, the king of all Asante. They use their newfound wealth to ensure prominent displays of gold as a symbol of their grip on power.

The British probably met up with the Asante leaders at an early point in the expansion of Gold Coast, although this 1819 illustrates a meeting of its own time, as confirmed by the headgear worn by the British soldiers at the back

Previously independent neighbouring states are gradually integrated into the expanding kingdom. Their chiefs are made subjects, and their territories are made regions of the new kingdom. Captive enemy warriors are enslaved and put to work in feeding the economy and helping to further expand the kingdom. Akwamu to the south remains an honoured friend and supporter.

c.1701

Around this time the growing Kwaaman clan state has built up enough momentum to form the kingdom of Asante in what is now central Ghana. Only now does it begin to come into contact with the Gold Coast territories to its south.