Constitution of the Fante Confederacy

Context

The Fante are members of the Akan-speaking group of people. The historical evidence suggests that the Fante migrated from their homeland in the West African savanna to the West African coastal areas in the fifteenth century, whereupon they created self-contained farming communities. Agricultural production engendered population growth that increased the size of the Fante clans. These clans later coalesced into small states. The increased demand for gold, which newly arrived Europeans found in commercial quantities in the equatorial forests, would facilitate the growth of the Fante states. The Fante states were thus incorporated into the framework of international trade, which included the Portuguese and itinerant Dyula long-distance traders. (The Dyula, a caste of merchant-traders, were part of the larger Mandé ethnic group.) The Portuguese had embarked on voyages of exploration, in part to gain access to the rich gold-producing areas of the West African forests and also for the more distant objective of finding a direct sea route to the Far Eastern markets. The Dyula traders were the veritable intermediaries in the emerging trade, as they provided slaves to the Akan miners in exchange for gold. The slaves were deployed to the crucial task of clearing the forest for agricultural production.

The leaders of the Akan communities apportioned the newly opened arable land to immigrants in exchange for certain obligations. International trade took on a new dimension with the arrival of new European powers such as the Dutch, French, and British. The northern European powers, with their more advanced technology, not only began to supplant Portuguese power on the West African coast but also offered the Akan chiefs a wider range of manufactured goods, the most important one being firearms.

The acquisition of firearms bolstered the military power of the Akan states and facilitated the process of territorial expansion, especially by the Fante and the great inland Akan state, Ashanti. The wide-ranging opportunities created by international trade would exacerbate intra-Akan rivalry and pit one Akan state against the other. The Fante expansion was in part a consequence of their ability to capitalize on their strategic location by becoming middlemen in the productive trade between the Europeans and the states in the hinterland. In the closing years of the seventeenth century, the Fante expanded at the expense of the Etsii, who were earlier settlers in the area. Between 1700 and 1730, the Fante embarked upon wars of conquest against the non-Fante states in the coastal areas, including Asebu, Fetu, Aguafo, and Agona. The historical evidence suggests that up to the 1730s, the Fante created a cohesive group under the authority of the braffo, who also doubled as the king of Mankessim. The king of Mankessim also served as the chief priest of their deity.

The dominant themes in the history of the Fante from the mid-seventeenth century onward were the rivalry with the Ashanti from the powerful Akan state in the north and relations with the northern Europeans on the coast, especially the Danes, the Dutch, and the British. By the end of the eighteenth century, the Ashanti kingdom had emerged as the most powerful Akan state. The primary objective of the Ashanti was to annex the Fante states that blocked the path to direct access to the coastal markets. This was compounded by the Ashantis' accusations of flagrant malpractices by Fante merchants, including adulterating products such as gold and rum by mixing them with other substances. Further, the incessant closing of trade routes at the slightest rift exacerbated the dangerous tensions between the two Akan states. The Ashanti instigated three attacks on the Fante between 1727 and 1776, which all ended in a stalemate.

The stalemate that existed between the Ashanti and the Fante in the eighteenth century was to give way to a more aggressive, forward-looking policy by the Ashanti under the aegis of the indomitable Osei Bonsu. Asantehene (“king of the Ashanti”) Osei Bonsu was determined to maintain the territorial integrity of the empire he had inherited from his illustrious predecessors. He was also committed to bringing to fruition the constitutional changes that they had begun. The reforms were intended to find a balance between the immense powers of the king and the demands of the provinces for political voice within the empire. The Fante, on the other hand, inserted themselves into the precarious politics of the Ashanti Empire by supporting provincial states, including Wassa, Akyem, and Akwapim, as they rose in protest against Ashanti overlordship.

The Fante kings sought to create a buffer zone of friendly states that would provide a bulwark against Ashanti imperialism and allow them to retain their middleman position. For Osei Bonsu, this position was untenable. In the early nineteenth century, he launched a series of attacks against the southern Akan states, including the Fante. In February 1824 the Ashanti defeated an army comprising the Wassa, Denkyira, Fante, and a British contingent under the leadership of Sir Charles MacCarthy. Shortly after this victory, Osei Bonsu died, but this was the Ashanti Empire's finest hour; it had reached the zenith of its power. This key moment in Ashanti's history was short-lived, as it put the empire on a collision course with the rising current of British imperialism.

The British had long been apprehensive of Ashanti dominance of the southern Akan states. The Ashantis' political control meant that they now held the forts and trading settlements along the coast and ultimately had the upper hand in international trade. This was a position that British trading companies on the coast and Christian missionaries who were on a proselytizing mission in African were unwilling to accept. These groups put pressure on the British government for a more aggressive policy toward Ashanti, which would allow them access to the interior. To this end, the British created an administrative system that gave a committee of merchants the authority over the forts. In addition, a governing council was created with executive functions. Captain George Maclean, who was the leader of the governing council from the mid-1820s to 1843, was able to fortify British control of the coastal areas primarily through skillful diplomatic relations with the Ashanti. In 1831, Maclean negotiated a treaty that provided for Fante independence but gave the Ashanti use of trade routes to the coast. Maclean's conciliatory leadership took the edge off Ashanti's imperial ambitions. Meanwhile, Maclean was behind a massive increase in trade: Exports from British forts increased from 90,000 pounds in 1830 to more than 325,000 pounds in 1840, while imports grew from 131,000 pounds to more than 422,000 pounds.

Nevertheless, some elements in the British community on the West African coast believed that Maclean's approach was not adequately advancing the interests of the trading companies and missionaries. He was replaced by the British Crown in 1843 but was retained as an official in the judiciary. Shortly afterward, the Crown signed treaties known as “bonds” with Fante chiefs. These treaties made the Fante states de facto British protectorates. In 1863 the Ashanti launched a massive offensive against the so-called protectorates. This invasion had two important consequences. First, it strengthened the resolve of the British government to conquer Ashanti. To this end, the British bought out the Dutch in February 1871 after the two nations agreed to exchange forts in 1869 in an effort to get out of each other's way. This exchange had led the king of the Ashanti to restate rather aggressively his claims to the former Dutch forts. Second, it set the stage for the emergence of the Fante Confederacy.

In the aftermath of the Ashanti offensive of 1863, great uncertainty grew regarding the future of the British presence on the West African coast. Although the Fante Confederacy was formed in 1868, the movement to bring the Fante states together in a union dates back to the 1830s. The movement, which comprised states such as Wassa, Denkyira, Assin, and Twifo (often spelled Twifu and Twifa) began, in part, in response to the expansion of British power and influence on the Gold Coast and also because of the ever-present fear of Ashanti control of the coast. This movement was galvanized by the nascent educated class that had been created by the tremendous economic gains made by the Fante states in the early nineteenth century and the social changes engendered by missionary activity on the Gold Coast.

The ascendancy of British power on the coast had led to the attenuation of the power of the traditional Fante chiefs and a diminution of the independence that the Fante had won from the Ashanti. In reaction to the curtailment of their power, various Fante states began to protest as early as the 1830s. First it was the king of Denkyira and then the king of Nzima. These protests were against the imposition of British law in the Fante states, the implementation of a poll tax, the enactment of an annual license fee of £2 sterling to be paid by sellers of alcoholic beverages, and the proposed plan to abolish domestic slavery.

The Fante Confederacy movement was also designed to rally a concerted effort against renewed Ashanti imperialism. This fear reached its apogee in the 1860s in the wake of the Ashanti invasion of 1863 and the tepid support given to the Fante by the British. The movement toward confederation of the coastal and inland Akan states gained a new sense of urgency with the Anglo-Dutch exchange of forts of March 1869. The exchange of forts between the British and the Dutch alarmed not only the Fante but also the Denkyira, Wassa, and Tonfu. The wishes of the southern Akan states were not taken into consideration before the exchange was made. Moreover, they feared that the areas that were controlled by the Dutch would be the weak link in the chain of resistance against Ashanti imperialism, for the Dutch were allies of the Ashanti. The Fante chiefs and members of the educated elite began making plans for educational, economic, and political reform. These plans would eventuate in the creation of the Fante Confederacy in 1868 and the writing of a new constitution in 1871.