Many of the African kingdoms you have read about no longer exist.
But the Ashanti kingdom, in what is today Ghana, is different. In 2014, the current ruler of the Ashanti people, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, threw a big party. He was celebrating his 15th year as king. Their first great leader, Osei Tutu, began building the Ashanti empire about 400 years ago. According to Ashanti legend, the god Nyame sent a golden stool down from the sky to the Ashanti people. Nyame made Osei Tutu the guardian of the stool and urged the Ashanti people to unite behind him to build a great empire. Almost four centuries later, the Ashanti king proudly displays the golden stool and recounts the history of the Ashanti kingdom.
