13th century–1659 1659–1701 (Vassal to the Denkyira) 1701–1873 (as part of the Asante Empire) 1873–1935 (part of the Gold Coast Colony) 1935–1957 (as part of the Asante Kingdom) 1957–present (as part of Ghana)
Adanse or Adansi was one of the earliest Akan states in the southern part of present-day Ashanti Region, Ghana. Oral traditions regard it as an ancestral homeland of many Akan polities. Adansi became an early centre of gold production, regional trade, and clan-based governance, and is remembered as senior among principal Akan states. It influenced the formation of later polities including Denkyira, Akyem, Assin, and the Asante Empire.[11][12][13][verification needed]
The name Adanse derives from the Akan word adanseɛ, meaning “builders”. Traditions and historians explain that Adanse earned this name because they were the first Akan people to construct permanent homes and shrines, remembered as “those who build houses”.[14][15]
History
Origins and settlement traditions
Adanse is described as a spiritual and cultural origin of Akan civilisation, associated with the place where the art of building began.[15]Adansemanso is remembered as an ancestral settlement by lineages such as Asona and Bretuo.[16] Evidence suggests continuous occupation at Adansemanso, with early settlement as early as the 5th century CE in oral and environmental traditions,[17] and from the 9th century CE on radiocarbon dates and archaeology including early ironworking and building remains.[18]
By the 13th century, Adansemanso had become a large settlement. Ruined mounds extend over one square kilometre and have been described as “probably the largest ancient town in the central forest area of Ghana”.[4] Excavations uncovered linear mounds of collapsed house rows over 100 metres long and multiple superimposed clay floors, which indicate long-term rebuilding.[19] In tradition it appears among the “five original great towns of the Akan”.[20] Surveys show a main occupation between the 13th and 15th centuries. Iron and gold production formed key activities, with slag deposits and brass weights on-site, and possible, though inconclusive, glass production.[4][20] A large cemetery (asensie) outside the town used funerary pots and terracotta figurines for elite commemoration.[20] Kea situates Adansemanso within a wider regional city-state culture that took shape from the 9th to the 15th centuries and was anchored in craft production and long-distance trade.[21]
Decline of Adansemanso and growing political fragmentation of Adanse
Prior to archaeological investigations, historians such as F. K. Buah and K. Y. Daaku placed the centralization of Adanse under Awurade Basa at Adansemanso in the 16th or 17th century, when the Afenakwa sword symbolized political unity. Buah described Adanse at this time as the first organized Akan state, from which other polities later learned the art of government.[22][23] Other traditions attribute the decline to the migration of wealthy abirempon families who established new centers of power.[20] Some variations of Adanse traditions state that after the death of Awurade Basa, its authority fragmented into smaller autonomous states, including Ayaase, Dompoase, Edubiase, Fomena, and Ahinsan.[24][25] Archaeological research later revealed that Adansemanso was largely abandoned by the late 16th century, with only a few European trade goods in its final layers.[25]
Early 16th-century sources such as Duarte Pacheco Pereira refer to interior gold traders identified as Haccanys (Akani), Cacres (Akrokerri), Andese, and Souzos, linked to the forested gold zones later associated with Adansi. Europeans called these traders “Accanists” and the region “Accany” or “Arcania”, praised for pure gold known on the coast as “Akan sica”.[26] In 1517 envoys from a “King of the Akani” visited Elmina regarding conflict with neighbours, and by 1548 officials recorded “civil wars among the Akani”. These reports suggest organised inland polities with rulers, messengers, and coordinated military and commercial systems.[27] A 1629 Dutch map labelled “Acanni” and called its people principal merchants.[28] Later Dutch accounts use forms like “Accanien” and identify “Alance”, read as Adansi, within a “Kingdom of Arcania”.[29] Several scholars place “Accany” in the Adansi, Ofin basin area.[30]Although absent from early European accounts, sources identify Adanse as one of the principal states of the Akani confederacy.[31]
Adanse city-states and conflicts with Denkyira
Later traditions describe Adanse as a confederation of semi-independent city-states, notably Fomena, Ayaase, Edubiase, Akrokerri, and other centers.[32] A popular Akan proverb captured this loose structure: “Adanse nkotokwa, obiara ne ben o am,” meaning “the towns were like little crabs, each ruling its own hole.”[15] The Adanse states in the central Ofin–Pra basin were the dominant power in the first half of the 17th century.[33] According to Denkyira traditions, Abankeseso was founded by refugees fleeing Akrokerri’s control, before it rose to become Denkyira’s capital.[33]From the 1630s onward, the influx of firearms through European trade “sharpened competition” among the Akani states, including Adanse, and hastened the disintegration of the wider Akani confederacy.[34] Adanse was traditionally said to rely on “the wisdom of its great God Bona and not on force,” which left it ill-equipped for this new militarised era.[35]
Akyem Abuakwa oral accounts emphasize commercial rivalries and succession disputes weakened Adanse internally, while mounting pressure from Denkyira deepened the crisis. In the 1640s, Denkyira incursions combined with the rise of Asante power destabilised the region and spurred migrations of Asona and other Adanse groups eastward. [36]
Defeat and subjugation to Denkyira
In 1659 a Dutch report described wars in the “distant districts of Adansee” that nearly annihilated the state, noting that “Adanse had quietly disappeared”.[37][33] Oral traditions credit the decisive victory to Denkyira under Wirempe Ampem, though some accounts attribute it to Boa Amponsem I.[37] The defeat marked a major reversal, as Denkyira had earlier been subject to Adanse.[33] Adanse persisted as a polity, overshadowed by Denkyira until the rise of Asante in the late 17th century.[38]
Segments of the Asona moved from the Adanse heartland to establish Akropong, Abonse, and later Akyem Abuakwa.[36] Adansi traditions remember Akyem founders carrying sacred institutions into the east.[36] Lineages in Asante and Assin also claim Adanse origins, including Asona of Ejisu, founders from Kokoblante near Sodua, Assin groups from Nimiaso and Apagya, and others between the Pra and the Kusa range.[39] The Agona, founders of Denkyira, once held lands from Asokwa to the Obuasi–Akrofuom corridor.[28] Bretuo of Mampong and Kwahu trace origins to Ayaase and Ahensan, and the Oyoko royal clan to Abadwam and Edubiase.[28] Western states such as Sehwi and Aowin absorbed refugee lineages.[40]
After Asante defeated Denkyira at Feyiase in 1701, Adansi declared for Asante and became part of the state.[8][9][10] Adanse lay within metropolitan Asante and hosted nkwansrafo highway police at the Kwisa post under central authority. In 1839 Thomas Birch Freeman was detained at Kwisa until permission arrived from Kumase, with the Adansehene coordinating with officers there.[41] After the Katamanso war in 1826, Adansi opened peace contacts with the British due to safer passage to the coast.[42] In 1831 the Asantehene rewarded negotiators, including the Fomenahene Kwante and Gyamera Kwabena, with regalia to constitute their own akyeame.[43] In February 1872 Fritz Ramseyer recorded a Kumase council in which the Adansehene supported release of captives or, failing that, war against the British.[44]
In 1873 the Adansi chief Kobina Obeng sought independence from Asante, encouraged by proximity to British protection north of the Pra. British forces invaded Kumasi in 1873, deposed Kofi Karikari, and compelled negotiations. Mensa Bonsu restored control over most dependencies, with the exception of Kwahu.[45] The Treaty of Fomena in February 1874 imposed a 50,000-ounce gold indemnity on Asante and renounced claims over several southern territories.[46] Although Adansi had seceded, it fought with Kumasi in the 1900 War of the Golden Stool due to the stool’s religious significance.[47] In 1933 the Adansehene of whom him and his people were described as "true Ashanti" wrote a letter to the British government swearing an "oath that he was certainly prepared to call and serve Nana Prempeh as Asantehene; indeed, he felt sorry that ignorant people should refer to such a great man as 'Kumasihene and not as Asantehene." and in the 31st of January 1935 they re-joined the re-established Asante Kingdom.[48]
Society
Centralization and the afenakwa
Unity within the Adanse was embodied in the sacred sword Afenakwa, which served as the central symbol of political authority.[49] The sword was first associated with Awurade Basa of Adansemanso, then passed to successors in Bretuo and Asenee lineages at Ayaase and Dompoase. Although it was generally accepted that whoever had custody of the sword should lead Adanse in times of war, in peacetime the leader was not accorded special privileges.[1] Because succession was matrilineal, custody of the sword shifted between lineages until Bonsra Afriyie of the Ekona clan secured it permanently at Fomena, making the town the political capital.[23][49]
Oral traditions identify Adansi as the first Akan group to develop durable architecture in mud and clay, which later Akan states adopted.[50] Archaeology at Adansemanso shows planned rectangular compounds and long-term occupation.[51] Palatial compounds enshrined sacred items such as the Afenakwa sword, royal stools, and regalia as symbols of legitimacy.[52] Traditions credit rulers like Asare Nyansa with formal town-building and the establishment of councils (Abagua).[14] Accounts from Akrokerri ascribe sacred buildings and early symbolic signs to divine origins.[53]
Political organisation and offices
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, *mmusuatow* (abusua companies) emerged in Adanse as corporate bodies that managed obligations of credit, labour, and ritual among town-dwelling elites. Kea interprets them as instruments for incorporating dependants into urban households and for coordinating extraction and redistribution within the confederation.[54]
Adanse and other inland states maintained formal administrative hierarchies in which major towns exercised authority over subordinate ones.[55] Governance was organised as a confederation of towns bound by shared traditions and ritual authority.[23] The Adansehene presided with the advice of divisional chiefs and elders, while defined offices carried specific responsibilities: the Akokyerehene served as chief soul washer (Akradwarefohene), the Ayaasehene as chief executioner, the Akrofuomhene as treasurer, the Edubiasehene as spokesman, and the Dompoasehene as Gyaasehene or steward.[56][57]
Religion and ritual cohesion
Adanse unity rested more on shared rituals than on centralized bureaucracy. The tutelary deity Bona, worshipped at Patakoro, served as the main spiritual focus of the state.[58] The Bona priesthood and the Bonahene led annual ceremonies, including a yam festival in late August or early September and a year-end dance. At these events, sacred water (Bonasuo) from the Bona cave was distributed to purify the stools of chiefs and the wider community.[59]
Each town also kept a Bonsamboɔ stone for sacrifices, linking local rituals to the broader Bona cult.[56] The shrine at Patakoro reinforced political legitimacy, as leaders turned to its oracles during disputes or crises.[60] Alongside the Afenakwa sword, which embodied political authority, the Bona cult provided a second source of cohesion, one sacred and one political. Even after Adanse’s political decline, these rituals continued, showing how religion preserved a shared Adanse identity.[60]
Economy
Gold production and fiscal administration
From the 12th century onward, gold extracted in the forest belt sustained regional exchange.[61] In Adanse, mining was conducted under royal authority: the Adansehene retained rights over all discovered nuggets and received one-third of gold from stool lands, while the Sanaahene managed state revenue and the royal treasury.[52]
By the 16th century the Pra–Ofin basin, including Adanse, was among the most productive gold zones in West Africa, supplying over half of the gold exported through both coastal ports and inland savanna markets.[62] Adansi’s traders were advantageously positioned, with access both to the Mande market at Begho in the north and to European forts on the coast, placing the state at the intersection of trans-Saharan and Atlantic routes.[38] By the late 16th and 17th centuries, rising European demand for gold and ivory expanded the consumption of imported goods in the forest belt. This stimulated competition and sharpened acquisitive rivalries among Adansi and its neighbours.[38]
Trade and merchant networks
Adanse occupied a central position in long-distance commerce. Akan producers exchanged gold with Wangara merchants at towns such as Begho, linking the forest zone to Sahelian and trans-Saharan markets.[63] Traded goods included salt, cloth, copper alloys, and enslaved persons.[63]
Caravan routes connected Adanse to coastal ports and interior markets by two main arteries: the Twifo road and the Arcania road.[64] On the Arcania route, tolls were collected at border posts such as “Atchersee” on the Assin–Adanse frontier before caravans moved further north.[65] Brokers based in Adanse, Kaase, Kwabre, Tafo, and Akyem extended their operations as far as Bighu and Bono Manso.[66] By the mid-17th century, Akwamu merchants were also active, conducting regular trade in Adanse and Manso.[67]
Inland wars, particularly the struggles between Adanse and Denkyira in the later 17th century, disrupted the gold trade to the coast. Between 1668 and 1676 the Dutch received only 3,150 marks of gold, a decline attributed to conflicts involving Akwamu, Adansi, and Denkyira.[68]
Geography
Precolonial extent
Early contemporary accounts suggest that Adanse contained about thirty-two towns, of which perhaps seven were paramount.[69] At its height in the 16th and 17th centuries, Adanse occupied the forest belt between the Pra and Ofin basins. It bordered Bekwai, Kokofu, and Dwaben to the north, the Pra frontier with Denkyira to the south, approaches to Asante Akim and Kwahu to the east, and western hills near early Twifo settlements to the west. Major towns included Fomena (traditional capital), Akrokerri, Dompoase, and New Edubiase, with ancestral villages such as Ayaase, Abadwam, and Kokoblante. Obuasi was noted for gold production.[39][70] The state functioned as a confederation of autonomous but culturally linked settlements under the Adansehene.
Prosperity from trade encouraged population growth, with frequent migrations from the Adansi region cited as evidence of demographic expansion.[71]
Present day
Obuasi is the largest contemporary Adansi settlement and the capital of Obuasi Municipal District. It lies south of Kumasi and is known for the Obuasi Gold Mine.[72][73]
Legacy
Adansi is remembered for its role in gold production and as a civilisational origin for several Akan states. It remains a traditional area within the Ashanti Region and the Republic of Ghana.[74][75][76]
Wilks, Ivor (2004). "The Forest and the Twis". Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana. New Series, No. 8 (8): 1–81. JSTOR41406709. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
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Ashanti Region 
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