Word: ashantis
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...last of the great ancient kingdoms of West Africa is the Ashanti, whose 2,000,000 tribesmen last week proudly anointed a new king, Nana Opoku Ware II. It was the first time in 35 years that the ceremony, perhaps the most magnificent tribal ritual in all Africa, had been conducted. TIME Correspondent James Wilde went to Kumasi in central Ghana for the fete and wrote this report...
Tribal legend traces the solid-gold Stool to a sorcerer, who produced it to help the first Ashanti king unite seven tribal clans. The British tried many times to capture it in battle, but they always failed. During the last Ashanti war, in 1900, the tribe rebelled against the British governor's demand that they surrender the Stool and allow him to sit on it in the name of Queen Victoria. They were also angry with the British for exiling their ruler, Prempeh I to the Seychelles. The British won the war but lost the Stool, which disappeared...
Bound to Serve. The new King is a British-educated Anglican lawyer, J. Matthew Poku, 51, who had just been appointed Ghana's Ambassador to Rome when he learned that the Ashanti Queen Mother and the tribal chiefs' council had decided that he would succeed his uncle as King. "I had my tickets, my traveler's checks, everything," he says. "But when I was caught by the net, I had no choice." As Asantehene, he may leave Kumasi only with permission from the council and is forbidden by tribal taboo ever to be alone...
...Ashanti tradition, a king's death calls for the sacrifice of as many as 1,000 men and women. Last May, after Prempeh II had "gone to his village,'' as the Ashantis put it, fear swept the kingdom. In fact, the announcement of the death was delayed for four days so that the royal executioners could seek out their unsuspecting victims in stealthy leisure. Villages formed vigilante groups to protect them from prowling executioners, and several European priests were shot at by panicky villagers. It is generally believed that despite the precautions, several dozen lost their lives...
...return to civilian rule. Politically ambitious, Ankrah needed the money to pay for a survey that assessed his chances of winning the presidency. There may also have been tribal jealousies involved. Ankrah is a member of the Ga tribe, dominant around the capital, and Afrifa belongs to the Ashantis. Furthermore, Afrifa is a supporter of a fellow Ashanti, former Opposition Leader Kofi Abrefa Busia, who is a candidate for the presidency...