ABSTRACT
The author believes that Ivor Wilks found himself in a similar situation with his observations about oral histories in Asante. In light of the previous observations, the author examines the history of Asante court music and verbal arts within a framework of selected reigns and events. A combination of oral and written sources lead to dense narratives, but due to space constraints, the author examines only a few reigns, events, and wars within these broader chronological frameworks. Confirming the accounts of European merchants, the Akan themselves produced graphic images of court musicians, instruments, and royalty on diverse media, which provides us with insights into the types of instruments and the form and function of musicians and performers that existed before the advent of the Asante Kingdom. The search for a successor became dire when two potential candidates declined the invitation to be enstooled.
