2025 Lecture
Oheneba Akwasi Abayie | Asantehene Akomforehene- royal Chief Historian of the Manhyia Palace of the Asante
Distler Theater | Granoff Music Center | 20 Talbot Avenue
Keynote Lecture
Empire Rising: The Dynastic History of Asante from 17th to 21st Century
Since the first millennium, West Africa has witnessed the rise and fall of many a kingdom and empire, including Old Ghana, Old Mali, and Tukulor. Several other West African kingdoms have, however, withstood the test of time, evolving through complex and challenging historical processes. One such polity is the Asante Kingdom in present-day Ghana. The Kingdom of Asante forms part of the broader Akan ethnicity and boasts the last of all Akan polities to be founded in the late seventeenth century. Although the “youngest” of all the Akan States, Asante rapidly evolved as the most powerful Akan kingdom and one of the superpowers in coastal West Africa throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to the distinguished African historian Ivor Wilks, by the mid-nineteenth century, Asante had expanded so vastly, covering a territory bigger than present-day Ghana (Wilks, 1993: 203). Asante’s rapid expansion resulted from the military, diplomatic, commercial, and socio-political activities of its leaders, both kings and queens.
The 2025 Coit-Phelps Keynote considers Asante in history, exploring the position and contributions of its kings and queens in the making of the kingdom. Our keynote speaker, Oheneba Akwasi Abayie, an oral historian and a royal from the Asante king’s lineage, will offer an oral historical analysis of the Asante dynastic past from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Abayie will trace the successions of all Asante kings and queens and map historical relationships between these leaders across time and space. Abayie’s oral historical narrative will be punctuated by vibrant musical performances from master drummers, singers, and dancers of Asante, Ewe, and Dagbon musical traditions.
This lecture was part of the 2025 International Symposium on the Musical Arts of Africa, hosted by the Center for the Humanities and the Department of Music at Tufts.
