Aluka, the online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa, announces the addition of The Ashanti Stool Histories, a valuable source for the social and political history of the Asante.
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Quoting from its press release,
The Ashanti Stool Histories, a two-volume, 1300-page collection, ... is a history of the political offices developed within the Asante state from its beginnings as an upstart confederacy in the late 17th century to its height as a formidable 19th-century empire with a complex bureaucratic government. It is also the history of the officeholders, bureaucrats, and civil servants who, through inheritance or by appointment, worked within the Asante government. The term ‘stool’ was coined by the British to describe the intricately carved wooden Asante seats that, to this day, serve as symbols of political office and ritual observance. Originally existing primarily in oral form, the histories of these offices were collected and translated by Joseph Agyeman-Duah and were compiled by K. Ampom Darkwa and B. C. Obaka.
Containing a wealth of information on the structure of the Asante political system as well as the social history of the Asante people and their West African neighbours, this collection is indispensable for any Africanist anthropologist or historian and invaluable for any student of Asante history and culture.
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