Vwegba Blogging World

A powerful West African kingdom, the Ashanti Empire ruled over much of the "Gold Coast" in the 18th and 19th centuries. Though they were mostly known for their vast deposits of gold, they were also known for their involvement in the slave trade — and human sacrifice.⁠ ⁠ One English explorer who visited the Ashanti Empire in the early 1800s described a grisly scene of a man being sacrificed: "A knife was passed through his cheeks, to which his lips were noosed like the figure of 8; one ear was cut off and carried before him, the other hung to his head by a small bit of skin; there were several gashes in his back, and a knife was thrust under each shoulder blade." The British would later use scenes like this as a pretext to annex the territories held by the Ashanti. But the Ashanti people refused to give up their land — and fought back against British colonization in a series of bloody wars.⁠ In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ashanti Empire ruled over much of modern...