The Ashanti Confederacy, based in what is now Ghana, was one of the most powerful states in West Africa during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Much of that power was built on its participation in the Atlantic slave trade.
The Ashanti military machine was designed in significant part to generate enslaved people. Ashanti armies regularly raided neighbouring peoples, including the Dagomba, the Gonja, and various smaller groups, taking large numbers of captives. Some captives were incorporated into Ashanti society as domestic slaves. The majority were marched to the coast and sold to European traders at ports including Elmina and Cape Coast.
Ashanti leaders were sophisticated commercial operators who understood the market they were selling into. They negotiated prices, managed supply, and used the wealth generated by the trade to fund military expansion and consolidate political power. The Asantehene, the Ashanti king, maintained direct relationships with European trading companies and was well aware of the conditions into which enslaved people were being sold.
The Ashanti trade with Europeans was not coerced or imposed. It was a business arrangement entered into freely and pursued aggressively. When the British eventually sought to suppress the trade, the Ashanti resisted, in part because the trade was central to their economy and their political structure.
Ghana is today one of the leading voices in the African reparations movement. Its government has hosted “Year of Return” events encouraging people of African descent to visit and connect with their heritage. The historical relationship between the Ashanti kingdom and the Atlantic slave trade is not a prominent feature of that campaign.
