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Kumasi

City in Ashanti Region, Ghana

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Beautiful sky of Kronum in Kumasi, Ghana.
Maven Egote · CC BY-SA 4.0

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The city was the capital of the Asante Empire, which at its peak covered large parts of present-day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. After being taken over by the British in 1896, coupled with experiencing a fast population growth, Kumasi rapidly grew with improvements to its infrastructure, such as roads and the addition of railways. After Ghana gained independence in 1957, the city became the capital of the Ashanti Region. Kumasi remains the seat of the Asantehene. The city is often regarded as "The Garden City" after Maxwell Fry published his 1945 "Garden City of West Africa" plan for the city. Additionally, it is also due to the abundance of gardens and forestry in the city.

Kumasi is a commercial, economic, and trading hub in Ghana, home to the biggest market in West Africa: the Kejetia Market. The city is the centre of Asante culture, hence also being nicknamed "Osei-Krom" or simply "Oseikrom", along with attracting many visitors. The city is also home to numerous trade associations, such as the Aboabo Talia Producers' Association. Half of the country's timber processing takes place in the city. The Centre for National Culture, Wesley College of Education, and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital are all located in the city. The city is also home to an increasingly growing film industry, Kumawood, which mainly focuses on telling local-themed stories in the local language of Twi.

History

Etymology

Kumasi derived from the Twi word Kumase, meaning "under the kum tree" in which kum meant "the tree" and ase means "under". The word was the name of an Okum tree in Kwaman, planted by Okomfo Anokye.

Early settlement

Kumasi was founded in the 1680s by Asantehene Osei Kofi Tutu I as the capital of the Ashanti Empire. Various accounts exist on the formation of the city. One states that Osei Tutu negotiated for the land under a Kum Tree, providing the origin of the name Kumasi. Other oral sources state it was Nana Oti Akenten who negotiated with the chief of Tafo for a plot of land under a Kum tree. Other traditions indicate that Oti built Kwaman and it was his son Nana Obiri Yeboa who created Kumasi instead. The majority of oral sources attribute the choice of site to Okomfo Anokye who was said to have planted two Kum seeds; one in Kwaman and another in Kumawu as he decreed that the one which grew would be designated as the capital of Osei Tutu's empire. Kumasi was built over the eastern slopes of a ridge, rising from the marshes of the Nsuben rivers.

Ashanti Empire

Historical affiliations

The city rose to prominence in 1695, when it became the capital of the Ashanti Empire due to the activities of its ruler, Osei Tutu. The ruler of Kumasi, known as the Asantehene, also served as the ruler of the empire. With their 1701 victory over Denkyira, the Ashanti empire became the primary state among the Ashantis. In 1718–19, Aowin King Ebirimoro invaded Kumasi and sacked the capital. Asantehene Opoku Ware I was able to "beat back" this invasion.

European sources in the late 19th century mentioned the city's neatness such as the account of F. Boyle in 1874 who stated that Kumasi's smells "are never those of sewage", as well as Brackenbury, who wrote around 1873 that "the streets are generally very broad and clean, and ornamented with many beautiful banyan-trees affording grateful shade from the powerful rays of the sun." In contrast, William Butler described the city as "a filthier and far more blood-stained collection of mud and wattle hovels than any other village in the forest." Parts of the city, including the then royal residence, were burnt by the British in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War of 1874.

In 1888, R. Austin Freeman was disappointed with the ruins of Kumasi following the British destruction in 1874 and the Ashanti civil war before 1888.

Kumasi was a great disappointment to me, and my disappointment increased as I walked round and examined the town. It was not merely that so little existed, but that so much had been destroyed. As it stands, or then stood, the town was nothing more than a large clearing in the forest, over which were scattered, somewhat irregularly, groups of houses. The paths were dirty and ill kept, and between the groups of houses large patches of waste ground intervened, and on these, amidst the tall, coarse grass that covered them, were to be seen the remains of houses that had once occupied them. These houses once stood in wide and regular streets, but since the destruction of the city in 1874 the natives do not seem to have had heart to rebuild them. Yet there remained some few vestiges to show what Kumasi had been in its palmy days... A few broad, well-kept streets still existed, lined by houses, [of] ... admirable construction, careful and artistic finish and excellent repair...

— R. Austin Freeman.

Kumasi's population during the time of the Ashanti Empire varied. In the early 19th century, Ashanti sources estimated a populace of 100,000, while European sources gave a figure around 12–15,000. According to historian Ivor Wilks, the city may have had a population of 40,000 in the 1860s.

Lady Mary Alice Hodgson, the first English lady to visit Ashanti, wrote "The Siege of Kumasi", an account of the siege of the fort by the nationals of Ashanti and of the subsequent march to the coast. (She was the daughter of Hon. W. A. G. Young, CMG, former governor of the Gold Coast, and the wife of Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, KCMG, the governor of the Gold Coast in 1900.)

Colonial era

In 1926, following the return of the Ashanti King Prempeh I after 30-year in exile in the Seychelles Island, Kumasi was vested with ceremonial control over the Ashanti sub-states. The full role of king was restored by the colonial administration in 1935. The city holds an important place in the history of the Ashanti people, as legend claims that it was here Okomfo Anokye received the golden stool, an embodiment of the soul of Athe Ahanti nation.

Present era

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