The Fante Confederacy refers either to the alliance of the Fante states in existence at least since the sixteenth century, or it can also refer to the modern Confederation formed in 1868. The Confederation is seen as one of the first and most prominent self-rule movements in Ghana and the entirety of Africa. Its mission was to shake off colonialism and establish a modern free democratic state.
All Fante substates including the Abura, Goamoa, Oguaa, Edina, Ekumfi, Asebu, Edith and many others, joined this Union.
Fantes, like all Akans, trace their ancestry to the Old Ghana Empire in present-day Mali. They believe the Akan people migrated further south after the collapse of Old Ghana. The Mfantefo (Fantes) settled in an area around modern-day Takyiman in Bono Ahafo. It was from there that their three revered warriors and leaders; Oson, Odapagyan and Obonomankoma led them further south to their current location in the Central Region of Ghana.
The Fante had long been in the region both inland and on the coast of what is today Ghana. In the sixteenth century, they began to expand along the coastal areas in order to defend from foreign invaders. The establishment of the confederacy was a proclamation of the several small independent kingdoms that made-up the Fante tribes.
The standard explanation has long been that the Fante states were forced to form a confederation by the rapid growth of the Ashanti Confederacy in the early eighteenth century that began to threaten the security of the surrounding region. Sanders argues that the same forces that were driving the expansion and centralisation of the Ashanti, the lucrative trade with the Europeans and the introduction of firearms and other weapons, also fueled the increasing unity of the Fante.
The Fante united and produced a confederacy to be recognised not only by the people of the Gold Coast, but also by the European powers. The confederacy was headed by the Chief of Mankessim, who was given the title of Breyni. It was the obligation of highest Chief to respect the wishes of a council of the leaders of the other major towns. Despite a similar political structure the Fante never managed to become as united as the Ashanti, though their differences were overcome when their kingdoms were under dire threat. During the early eighteenth century, the Fante expanded at the expense of smaller neighbouring states eventually annexing the lands of the Asebu, Cabesterra, and Agona. The Fante were allies of the British who supported their efforts against the rival Dutch, who were aligned with the Ashanti. The Fante Confederacy was smaller than the Ashanti, but through their control of the coastal trade and close links with the British, the Fante became the administrators of the entire Gold Coast. The Fante leaders were the best-educated and wealthiest of the people's in the region.
The Fante established long-distance maritime trade links with the kingdom of Kongo around the Congo-Angola region. This was accomplished with dugout canoes powered by sails of woven palm fronds. [1]
For the first half of the eighteenth century, the Ashanti were pre-occupied with expanding their confederacy to the north rather than against the stronger coastal groups. The next few decades saw internal disputes within Ashanti. The Fante subsequently intervened, lending material support to rebel groups in Ashanti and offering safe harbour to refugees and dissidents fleeing the Ashanti Confederacy. The Fante introduced laws forbidding the selling of firearms to the Ashanti and curtailing the amount of trade that could pass between over Fante lands, cutting off supplies to the confederacy.
By the early nineteenth century, the Ashanti had consolidated the large parts of the middle region under their rule and began to plan for a full-scale invasion of the Fante Confederacy. In 1806 the Ashanti-Fante War began. The British largely confined their role in the conflict to supplying the Fante with military equipment and supplies, continuing a decades-long tradition. [2]
The British continued sometimes to work with the Fante to curtail the Ashanti. With advice from the British in 1811 the Fante again went to war. While defeated in open battle the Fante were able to win the war by forcing the Ashanti to withdraw by employing guerilla tactics. For the next several decades the Fante worked to play the Ashante off against the British while maintaining their independence, over time, however, British influence came to dominate the Fante lands. In 1844 the Fante leaders agreed to a bond with the British that made the area a protectorate of the British, but guaranteed internal control would remain with the local rulers.
However, the British soon began to exceed the agreement, and intervened in life along the coast. The Fante leaders were displeased and felt the British were only interested in their trade. The most controversial action was an 1868 agreement between the British and Dutch to trade forts along the coast. Previously the entire coast had been a mix of British and Dutch forts. The British and Dutch governments agreed to exchange forts: the British would control all the forts east of the Kakum River, and the Dutch would get all the forts to the west, including most of those in the Fante areas.
These factors annoyed people throughout the region. Legally the local rulers saw the Europeans as tenants, and they demanded the right to approve the fort exchanges. The local rulers were not even consulted before the agreement was announced. The Fante also worried about the close relations between the Ashanti and the Dutch after fighting both on different flanks for years. The Fante were adept in battle, and stories of their prowess soon spread through Europe. Fante Asafo battle flags have become prized collectible items in Europe and the Americas. Examples can be found here https://vatican.com/2/Other-Fante-Asafo-Flag, http://www.amatuli.co.za/Blog/ID/22/Fante-Flags Archived 2020-08-06 at the Wayback Machine and http://www.theconservationcenter.com/articles/2019/6/28/asafo-flags-a-stitch-in-time.
This led to an 1868 meeting of the leading Fante Paramount Chiefs and also representatives of their Akan allies Denkyira, Wassa, Twifu and Assin, who met in Mankessim, the traditional Fante Capital Town and formed a Confederation. The Confederate States, due to war with the Dutch and Danish, became allies of the British, but also demanded the right to self-government. They also promised to prevent the Dutch from assuming control of the forts in the area.
The new state had a King-President as its head and below him a council of kings and elders and a national assembly representing a larger portion of the population. King Ghartey IV (c. 1820–1897) [3] of Winneba was elected as the first King-President, while King Nana Amfo Otu Gyandoh I of Abura was placed in charge of the United armed forces. The new government created a standing army of some 15,000 men, introduced a poll tax covering the region, and most importantly a judicial system that asserted the right of the Confederation, not the British, to mete out justice. This Confederation was paralleled in the east by the Ga-led Accra Native Confederation.
Amfo Otu the Paramount Chief of Abura Dunkwa and the de facto Defense Secretary and Supreme Commander of the Fante Army, marched the union forces to Komenda to join that city in its effort to prevent the Dutch from taking control of the fort vacated by the British. This effort was successful and the Dutch were rebuffed. Amfo Otu, one of the Great Fante War Lords, next turned to trying to take Elmina, the centre of Dutch power on the coast. The attempt to storm the city failed and the Fante forces became bogged down in a long war.
In 1871 the constitution was rewritten and a new Executive Council was created. Amfo Otu and Edu of Mankessim were elected co-King-Presidents, but shortly afterward Amfo Otu's role was switched to the General Field Marshal and Edu became the sole King-President.
The Fante Confederacy was substantially weakened by European powers including the British, Dutch and Danish. They saw it as a threat to their control and dominance of Africa. The long fighting around Elmina soon began to drain the resources of the state. It proved unable to collect much of the poll tax, and the British refused to allow the Confederacy to tax lucrative trade in the region. For a time the Ghartey brothers funded the state out-of-pocket, but soon the Confederacy's coffers dwindled. Moreover, the fighting with the Dutch and its allies had left the northern part of the Confederacy, on the border with the Ashanti, undefended and these regions felt the Confederation was failing to provide the needed protection.
While the confederacy waged war against the Dutch in the south-west, they also waged war on their northern Flank with the Ashantis in protecting their vast territory. This proved to be a stretch too far for the state.
British reaction to the Confederacy was mixed. Originally, the British had little interest in directly administering the region themselves and some felt a self-governing European style state was a positive development. However, other British representatives in the region and in London saw the Confederacy as a dangerous precedent that was anti-British and doomed to failure. The Dutch, while winning militarily against the Fante, could little afford to fight a war in West Africa and decided to abandon the entire Gold Coast. The British, now in control of the entire region, approached the leaders of the Confederation and offered them money and also sowed distrust among the Fante paramount chiefs. This infighting led to the Fante being amalgamated into the Gold Coast around 1873.
Cape Coast is a city, fishing port, and the capital of Cape Coast Metropolitan District and Central Region of Ghana. It is one of the country's most historic cities, a World Heritage Site, home to the Cape Coast Castle, with the Gulf of Guinea situated to its south. According to the 2021 census, Cape Coast had a settlement population of 189,925 people. The language of the people of Cape Coast is Fante.
The Ashanti–Fante War (1806–1807) was a war fought between the Ashanti Empire and the Fante Confederacy in the region of what is currently the Republic of Ghana.
The modern Mfantsefo or Fante confederacy is a combination of Akan people and aboriginal Guan people. The Fante people are mainly located in the Central and Western regions of Ghana, occupying the forest and coastal areas. Their land stretches from the eastern part of western region in the west to Gomoa in the east. The Fante can be broadly categorized into two groups - the Borbor Fante and the Etsii Fante who are also aboriginal Guan people. Over the last half century, Fante communities have been established as far as Gambia, Liberia, and even Angola due to fishing expeditions. Major Fante cities in modern Ghana include Oguaa, Edina (Elmina),Agona Swedru, Mankessim, Saltpond, Komenda and Anomabo.
Osei Bonsu also known as Osei Tutu Kwame was the Asantehene. He reigned either from 1800 to 1824 or from 1804 to 1824. During his reign as the king, the Ashanti fought the Fante confederation and ended up dominating Gold Coast trade. In Akan, Bonsu means whale, and is symbolic of his achievement of extending the Ashanti Empire to the coast. He died in Kumasi, and was succeeded by Osei Yaw Akoto.
The Akan people are a Kwa group living primarily in present-day Ghana and in parts of Ivory Coast and Togo in West Africa. The Akan speak dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family. Subgroups of the Akan people include: the Agona, Akuapem, Akwamu, Akyem, Anyi, Ashanti, Baoulé, Bono, Chakosi, Fante, Kwahu, Sefwi, Wassa, Ahanta, and Nzema, among others. The Akan subgroups all have cultural attributes in common; most notably the tracing of matrilineal descent in the inheritance of property, and for succession to high political office.
The Central Region is one of the sixteen administrative regions of Ghana. It is bordered by Ashanti and Eastern regions to the north, Western region to the west, Greater Accra region to the east, and to the south by the Gulf of Guinea. The Central Region is renowned for its many elite high schools and an economy based on an abundance of industrial minerals and tourism. The Central region boasts of many tourist attractions such as castles, forts and beaches dotted along the region's coastline.
John Canoe, also known as January Conny, was the European name given to an Akan warrior from Axim, Ghana. He was a chief of the Ahanta people in the early 18th century, who established a stronghold in the defunct Fort Fredericksburg and fought multiple wars with European traders for twenty years. The stronghold finally fell in 1725, though Canoe's fate is unknown. He is commemorated in the Junkanoo festival held in the Caribbean each December.
The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch, beginning in 1612. The Dutch began trading in the area around 1598, joining the Portuguese which had a trading post there since the late 1400s. Eventually, the Dutch Gold Coast became the most important Dutch colony in West Africa after Fort Elmina was captured from the Portuguese in 1637, but fell into disarray after the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century. On 6 April 1872, the Dutch Gold Coast was, in accordance with the Anglo-Dutch Treaties of 1870–71, ceded to the United Kingdom.
Denkyira or Denkyera was a powerful nation of Akan people that existed before the 1620s, in what is now modern-day Ghana. Like all Akans, they originated from Bono state. Before 1620, Denkyira was called Agona. The ruler of the Denkyira was called Denkyirahene and the capital was Jukwaa. The first Denkyirahene was Mumunumfi.
The Mankessim Kingdom (1252–1844) was a pre-colonial African state in modern-day Ghana. It is regarded as the heartland of the Fante people, and operated as capital of the Fante Confederacy in the 19th century. The town of Mankessim still exists, and is located in the Central Region of Ghana, about an hour and a half drive west of Accra. The Mankessim Kingdom's influence was quite vast; it extended to the whole of the Fante people, and at times the entire coast of modern-day Ghana.
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The Asante Empire, today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana and also parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British, authors than any other indigenous culture of sub-Saharan Africa.
The Ahanta/Ayinda are Akan People who live to the north and east of the Nzema. The Ahanta land has been historically known as one of the richest areas on the coast of what is now Ghana.
Asebu was a former Fante chiefdom and town in the Abura/Asebu/Kwamankese District, Central Region, Ghana. In the history of the Gold Coast, Asebu is notable for being the first Fante chiefdom to sign a treaty with the Dutch Republic in 1612. The treaty allowed the Dutch to establish Fort Nassau at Mouri, now known as Moree.
Asafo are traditional warrior groups in Akan culture, based on lineal descent. The word derives from sa, meaning war, and fo, meaning people. The traditional role of the Asafo companies was defence of the state. As the result of contact with European colonial powers on the Gold Coast, the Fante, who inhabit the coastal region, developed an especially complex version of the concept in terms of its social and political organization based on martial principles, and with elaborate traditions of visual art, including flag banners with figurative scenes, and designs alluding to historical events or proverbs.
The Komenda Wars were a series of wars from 1694 until 1700 largely between the Dutch West India Company and the English Royal African Company in the Eguafo Kingdom in the present day state of Ghana, over trade rights. The Dutch were trying to keep the English out of the region to maintain a trade monopoly, while the English were attempting to re-establish a fort in the city of Komenda. The fighting included forces of the Dutch West India Company, the Royal African Company, the Eguafo Kingdom, a prince of the kingdom attempting to rise to the throne, the forces of a powerful merchant named John Cabess, other Akan tribes and kingdoms like Twifo and Denkyira. There were four separate periods of warfare, including a civil war in the Eguafo Kingdom, and the wars ended with the English placing Takyi Kuma into power in Eguafo. Because of the rapidly shifting alliances between European and African powers, historian John Thornton has found that "there is no finer example of [the] complicated combination of European rivalry merging with African rivalry than the Komenda Wars."
The Asafo flags are regimental flags of the Fante people, an ethnic group that mainly resides in Ghana's central coastal region. The flags are influenced by a combination of Akan proverbs, visual imagery, and European heraldic tradition.
The Accra Native Confederation in 1869 was aimed at bringing the city of Accra under the British rule, for Ghana to be a self-governing nation under European control.
The documented history of Elmina begins in 1482 with an agreement between the Portuguese navigator Diogo de Azambuja and the ruler of Elmina, called Caramansa by the Portuguese. In it, the Portuguese were allowed to build the first European fortress in sub-Saharan Africa. For the next 150 years until the conquest by the Dutch in 1637, Elmina was the capital of the Portuguese bases on the Gold Coast, then for about 250 years the capital of the Dutch Empire in West Africa. Since the capture of the lease for the two fortresses of Elmina by the Ashanti in 1701, the city was also important to the Ashanti Empire. Until the 19th century, Elmina was one of the most populous cities in the Gold Coast, surpassing Accra and Kumasi. The trade in gold, slaves and palm oil brought the city into direct contact with Europe, North America, Brazil and, through the recruitment of soldiers, also with Southeast Asia. It was not until the takeover and destruction of the city by the British in 1873 that Elmina lost its prominent position in the Gold Coast.
Kwadwo Egyir, later renamed Brempong Kojo and later Europeanized as Caboceer Cudjo, was born around 1700 in Ekumfi in a Fante chiefdom on the Gold Coast, the village being located in what is now the Ekumfi district of Ghana, and died on March 24, 1779, in Cape Coast. He was a slave trader in the service of the British Gold Coast in Cape Coast.