Ashanti is the name of a kingdom founded in West Africa around 1600 by a tribal group known as Akan. One of the curious customs of these people was their veneration of a sacred golden stool!
In the kingdom of Ashanti, this sacred stool was considered as the seat of royal power, just as a throne is the seat of the power of the European monarchs.
But the Ashanti people also thought that the stool contained the spirits of the present chief and the leaders who had ruled before him. The stools of the previous rulers were kept in the "stool house," where sacrifices were offered to the spirits that these stools represented.
In the 19th century, the Ashanti people began to invade European settlements along the coast of Africa. But they were defeated by the British. Ashanti is now part of the nation of Ghana.
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