Ashanti Tribe: Prologue
The Ashanti African Tribe Prologue We live in a modern day world of technology. However, what do we know about the past. There were many things that happened back then and that's why people were separated into tribes, like the Ashanti tribe. The Ashanti tribe lived in central Ghana in the rain forests of west Africa, 150 miles away from the coast. They were best known for their craft work especially their hand crafted stools and fertility dolls. An Ashanti fertility doll, Akua ba was mostly found in people's homes and given to the females of the village to bring them closer to the spirit of fertility gods. They lived in various houses or hut that are set up around a courtyard. The head of the household is the oldest brother who lived there and they were called father or house father, everyone would obey them. They ate things like fufu, (mixture of cooked cassava and plantains mashed together) yams, sweat potatoes, wheat, potatoes, and rice. The Ashanti's religion was a mix of spiritual and supernatural powers. They believed that plants and animals had spirits. They also, believed in fairies, tree monsters, and witches. The Ashanti participated in many ceremonies and 1 most frequent ceremony were funerals. Funerals in Ashanti usually lasted at least 2 days and normally everyone in town was expected to attend the funerals. Marriage, Puberty, and Birth were other ceremonies they celebrated. The
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Ashanti tribe was told to be an expertise in specialized crafts, Such as, wood carving, weaving, metallurgy, and ceramics. Woman were only allowed pottery making and men were restricted to the other crafts. Kente was an Ashanti ceremonial cloth that is hand-woven on a horizontal treadle loom. In a cultural context, Kente was more than just a cloth. It is a visual presence of philosophy, history, oral literature, moral values, social code of conduct, political thought, religious beliefs, aesthetic principles, and ethics. The Ashanti played a game
Page 2 of 3
Ashanti tribe was told to be an expertise in specialized crafts, Such as, wood carving, weaving, metallurgy, and ceramics. Woman were only allowed pottery making and men were restricted to the other crafts. Kente was an Ashanti ceremonial cloth that is hand-woven on a horizontal treadle loom. In a cultural context, Kente was more than just a cloth. It is a visual presence of philosophy, history, oral literature, moral values, social code of conduct, political thought, religious beliefs, aesthetic principles, and ethics. The Ashanti played a game