Fante

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the writer, see John Fante.

The Fante or Fanti are an ethnic group from southern Ghana with some also in the Côte d'Ivoire. Currently they number about 1,850,000. During the eighteenth century they formed the Fante Confederacy. They were allied with the British during the Ashanti War (1873-1874). Fante can also refer to the Fante language.

Inheritance and succession to public office are determined mostly by matrilineal descent. According to their oral traditions, the Fanti arrived in their present habitat from the north by the 17th century They served as middlemen in the commerce between the interior and British and Dutch traders on the coast. In the early 18th century the Fanti formed a confederation, primarily as a means of protection against Ashanti incursions from the interior. Several Fanti-Ashanti wars followed. The Fanti were aided by the British, who, however, destroyed the strong Fanti confederation established between 1868 and 1872, believing it a threat to their hegemony on the coast. In 1874 a joint Fanti-British army defeated the Ashanti, and in the same year the Fanti became part of the British Gold Coast colony.

The Catholic prelate Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson is perhaps the most prominent Fante of the world.

Secretary General of UN Kofi Annan has Fante descent.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopaedia.