ABSTRACT
While in the above quote Henty was referring to the British people, Edgerton’s comments suggest the Ashantis’ devotion to, and belief in, their people and empire. Edgerton’s quote could also be used to comment on the Victorian-Edwardian frame of mind regarding the British empire. The longest and most effective resistance to the British conquest of Africa took place on the west coast. Between 1807 and 1900 the Ashantis (Asante) of present-day Ghana fought battle after battle in attempts to maintain their sovereignty and dignity. Needless to say, the British were attracted to the enormous amount of gold that was to be found in the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana). When Thomas Edward Bowdich, the scientific observer for the parliamentchartered African Company of Merchants, visited Kumasi in the early nineteenth century and was invited to dine with the Ashanti king, Osei Bonsu, he was highly impressed. He observed: “…dinner was served on a large table under four scarlet umbrellas. The plates were gold, the knives, forks, and spoons were silver.” Later he wrote: “…we
never saw a dinner more handsomely served, and never ate better” (quoted in Edgerton 22-23). Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, and to the east of modern Ghana, three Empires (Ghana, Mali, and Songhay) rose and fell. The nineteenth-century Ghana bore resemblance to the old empire not only in wealth, but also in military capability and government bureaucracy. When the Portuguese arrived at Elmina in 1471, they became restive at the sight of the “flecks of gold that sparkled in the streams” (Edgerton 14). Europeans from the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and Prussia in search of gold, ivory, and slaves began to build forts (castles) along the coast. Trade disputes eventually erupted, not only among these European nations, but also between the Ashantis and the Fantis. The Ashantis had previously extended their empire at the expense of other neighboring kingdoms such as the Denkyira, Fante, Dagomba, and Gonja peoples (Edgerton 5).
