Thursday, March 25, 1999 Published at 23:00 GMT


Ghanaians mourn Ashanti king

The land of the Ashanti is one of Africa's main gold producing regions

By West Africa Correspondent, Mark Doyle, in Kumasi

Public ceremonies to bury the king of the Ashantis, one of the most
influential
traditional leaders in Africa, are drawing to a close.

The Asantahene rules over the largest ethnic group in Ghana. Otumfuo Opoku
Ware II was the 18th Asantehene.  A private ceremony is being held overnight
on Thursday to bury the king after ceremonies in the central city of Kumasi.

Funeral processions

The city teamed with hundreds of thousands of mourners throughout the final
day
of the burial ceremonies.

This was not just the funeral of a revered traditional king, but an
affirmation of the
importance of an enduring African culture.   The funeral ceremonies were
accompanied by dancing and singing.

Traditional warriors fired muskets and cannons, while members of the Ashanti
royal
family performed processions around the city of Kumasi, protected from the
hot sun
by huge billowing parasols.

Ancient influence

Power of the historic kingdom is based on gold
The land of the Ashanti in Ghana is the home of an ancient empire, which
still wields
considerable influence and is widely revered beyond the borders of the
modern day
republic.

The Ashanti empire was built on gold wealth which in ancient times was
exchanged for
salt in trans-Saharan trade.

Today, in modern Ghana, the successful enterprise which mines the gold, is
the only
African owned company outside South Africa which is quoted on the London and
New
York stock exchanges.

The Ashanti dynasty, and the social structures of Ghana's other tribes, have
been a fixed
cultural reference point for this country as it has moved through a
turbulent post-colonial
history.

Ashanti intellectuals say that the social cohesion conferred by their
dominant ethnic group
was a stabilising factor through Ghana's difficult years.