FANTI CONFEDERACY

also spelled Fante, historic group of states in what is now southern Ghana. It originated in the late 17th century when Fanti people from overpopulated Mankessim, northeast of Cape Coast, settled vacant areas nearby. The resulting Fanti kingdoms formed a confederacy headed by a high king (the Brafo) and a high priest. It extended from the River Pra in the west to the Ga region (around Accra) in the east. To the south was the Atlantic coast, dotted with Dutch and British trading forts; to the north was the expanding Ashanti empire. The Fanti, as intermediaries in Ashanti-European trade, debased Ashanti gold before selling it to the British and Dutch and controlled the flow of European firearms to the Ashanti. After decades of hostility, the Ashanti king Osei Bonsu conquered the Fanti confederacy (180624) and gained direct access to the coast. After his death Ashanti power declined, and in 1831 the British administrator of Cape Coast, George Maclean, negotiated a treaty providing for Fanti independence and Ashanti use of trade routes to the coast. Britain thereupon extended an informal protectorate over the south. Resistance crystallized in the 1860s, after the British and the Dutch agreed to an exchange of forts (1867) without consulting any African rulers. The kings of the Fanti kingdoms, Denkyera, and other southern states met at Mankessim early in 1868 to establish a self-governing state free from European domination. The new Fanti Confederation had an executive council, a judiciary, an army, taxes, and a written constitution. Although short-lived, it was strong enough that the Dutch became discouraged and abandoned the coast. The British successfully exploited rivalries among members of the Confederation, and it disbanded in 1873. The next year Britain annexed the whole region south of the Ashanti empire as the Gold Coast crown colony.