Flag of the Ashanti Empire in PDM, featuring the Golden Stool.
Ashanti represents the great Ashanti Empire, a powerful African Empire (or Confederation) which dominated Ghana (in West Africa) from 1670 to 1902. The Ashanti grew rich and powerful from long involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade, in which they traded slaves with the European in exchange for luxury goods and Firearms. The Ashanti fiercely resisted European encroachment during the 19th century, fighting many wars against the British (see: Anglo-Ashanti wars), but were eventually defeated and made part of the British Empire.
Ashanti is an Animist state with Akan as its primary culture and "African minor" as an accepted culture.
Playing as Ashanti can be challenging since you share borders with the colonial enclaves of three powerful European countries (the UK, France and the Netherlands), but having a fairly large population and territory means you can effectively resist and have a good change of surviving and eventually westernising.
Tag: ASH - Ashanti