Journal of a Residence in Ashantee

"Dupuis' diplomatic assignment in Asante is reliably known because he issued a treatise on it in 1824...titled Journal of a Residence in Ashantee." - The Asante World (2021)

"Home Government, anxious to cultivate a friendly intercourse with the King of Ashantee, had appointed as Agent...Joseph Dupuis...he was admitted to an audience of the King and was well received." - Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements (2013)

"Joseph Dupuis wrote...Ashanti...power extended over most of modern Ghana and parts of the Ivory Coast...Dupius mentions three categories of Asante subject states: tributary, protectorate and provincial states." - Odwira and the Gospel: A Study of the Asante Odwira Festival (2011)

"Asantehene told Dupuis to tell the king of England that he could readily supply him with 10,000 prisoners of war who would work for him." - Reclaiming the Human Sciences and Humanities Through African Perspectives (2012)

Why was Great Britain, the most powerful empire in the world, so anxious to gain favor with the West African regional power known as The Asante Empire?

In 1824, Joseph Dupuis (1789-1874), sent as an Agent to gain the good graces of the King of the Asante Empire, shed some light on British interactions with the Asante Empire in his 1824 book "Journal of a Residence in Ashantee."

In introducing his book, Dupuis writes:

"It was explained to me, in England, that my appointment originated in an earnest desire on the part of His Majesty's government, to cultivate the existing harmony with the king of Ashantee, and, upon the basis of a mutual confidence, to nurture the seeds of an accidental friendship as an essential preliminary step to the advancement of certain hopeful expectations connected with the manufacturing and commercial interests of Great Britain; whereby government, it would seem, had built upon the probability, through the auspices of the king, not only of enticing all, or the greater part of Ashantee commerce, to the several British settlements on the Gold Coast; but also of inducing that monarch to suffer the traders from the more inland districts to visit the British markets in common with the Ashantees themselves."

The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: Asanteman) was an Akan empire and kingdom from 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include the Brong-Ahafo Region, Central Region, Eastern Region and Western Region of present-day Ghana as well as some parts of Ivory Coast and Togo. Due to the empire's military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture, the Ashanti Empire has been extensively studied and has more historic records written by European, primarily British authors than any other indigenous culture of Sub-Saharan Africa.

About the author:

Joseph Dupuis (1789-1874) was appointed as Consul and Vice-Consul for the British Government between 1811 and 1842, with various postings to Africa during that period, including one as Vice-Consul in Mogador and Agent to the King of the Asante Empire.

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