ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that within nineteenth-century Ashanti two distinct systems of government co-existed. There exists, for the student of Ashanti government in the nineteenth century, an extensive range of documentary source material in Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hausa, and Twi. The Ashanti are a Twi- or Akan-speaking people in Ghana, and are divided into a number of chiefdoms composed of dispersed matriclans. The Gyaasewahene was also closely involved in the management of the public sector of the Ashanti economy, namely, in such state enterprises as mining, trading, and ivory collection. The Ashanti system of government of its conquered territories and protectorates was basically one of indirect rule. The pivot of government in Ashanti was the office of king, which was vested in a single segment of the Oyoko matriclan, the right of which to supply rulers was never challenged.
