A union of states
At the end of the seventeenth century, Osei Tutu I brought together a number of Akan states around Kumasi. With the counsel of Okomfo Anokye, his chief priest, he forged them into a single nation bound by shared allegiance to one king and one stool. The victory over Denkyira at the Battle of Feyiase in 1701 marked the birth of the Asante Kingdom as an independent power.
The Golden Stool
The union was sealed by the Golden Stool, Sika Dwa Kofi, which tradition holds was summoned from the heavens by Okomfo Anokye. It embodies the soul of the Asante nation, and every Asantehene since has ruled as its custodian.
Growth and resistance
Through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the kingdom extended its influence across much of present-day Ghana, with Kumasi at the centre of trade, government and culture. The Anglo-Asante wars of the nineteenth century, the exile of Asantehene Prempeh I in 1896 and the War of the Golden Stool in 1900 tested the nation, yet the Asante people kept the Golden Stool safe and their institutions alive.
Restoration
Prempeh I returned to Kumasi in 1924, and in 1935 the Asante Confederacy was restored under his successor, Prempeh II. The Asantehene has since presided over the Asanteman Council of paramount chiefs, upholding custom and tradition within modern Ghana.
Today
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was enstooled as the sixteenth Asantehene on 26 April 1999. From Manhyia Palace he leads Asanteman in its ceremonies and festivals, settles matters of custom, and champions education, health and development through the Otumfuo Charity Foundation and the institutions of the kingdom.