Kingdoms, Rulers & ResistanceAsantedocumented history
Under the Kum Tree: how Kumasi got its name
Anokye needed to know where the capital should be, so he did what a priest does: he set up a test.
Kumasi; Bantama; and Kumawu, an hour northeast.
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Under the Kum Tree: how Kumasi got its name
Anokye needed to know where the capital should be, so he did what a priest does: he set up a test.
He took seedlings of the kum tree and planted them at three different places — the tradition names Kwaman, and Kumawu, and a third site — and said that the answer would come from the trees themselves.
At one place the tree withered and died. That place was called Kum-awu — "the kum tree has died" — and it is Kumawu still.
At Kwaman the tree took hold and spread and threw shade, and the chiefs began to meet under it, and the court sat under it, and the market grew around it. That place became Kum-ase — "under the kum tree" — and it is Kumasi, the capital of the Asante, a city of millions built around a tree that is no longer there.
The original trees are gone. The last is associated with Bantama, near the royal mausoleum. The story survives in the names Kumawu and Kumasi, one remembering the tree that died and the other the tree that took root.
If you visit Ghana. Kumasi; Bantama; and Kumawu, an hour northeast.
Anokye needed to know where the capital should be, so he did what a priest does: he set up a test.
He took seedlings of the kum tree and planted them at three different places — the tradition names Kwaman, and Kumawu, and a third site — and said that the answer would come from the trees themselves.
At one place the tree withered and died. That place was called Kum-awu — "the kum tree has died" — and it is Kumawu still.
At Kwaman the tree took hold and spread and threw shade, and the chiefs began to meet under it, and the court sat under it, and the market grew around it. That place became Kum-ase — "under the kum tree" — and it is Kumasi, the capital of the Asante, a city of millions built around a tree that is no longer there.
The original trees are gone. The last is associated with Bantama, near the royal mausoleum. The story survives in the names Kumawu and Kumasi, one remembering the tree that died and the other the tree that took root.