Constitution of the Fante Confederacy

( 1871 ) Commentary by Ezekiel Walker, University of Central Florida

Questions for Further Study

1.: Describe how the Fante Confederacy became a first step toward African unity, as represented later by the Constitutive Act of the African Union.
2.: Describe the role of economics and trade in the rivalry between the Ashanti and the Fante Confederacy.
3.: Compare the role of the British in Ashanti-Fante relations with its role in India as reflected in such documents as the British Regulating Act and Queen Victoria's Proclamation concerning India.
4.: Imperialism is often regarded derisively as characteristic of the European nations, which maintained colonies in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East. To what extent did the imperialism of the Ashanti resemble the European imperialism that provided the context for such documents as Columbus's Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America, the D'Arcy Concession, or the Proclamation of the Algerian National Liberation Front?
5.: How was the confederation of Fante states similar to and different from the confederation of Dutch states that formed the Dutch Republic at around the time of the Dutch Declaration of Independence? What cultural and historical factors would account for the differences? What common human aspirations would account for any similarities?