🇬🇭 Ghana
Kumasi
Kumasi is the capital of the Ashanti Region of Ghana — a city of 3.5 million people in the forest belt of central Ghana, 270km north of Accra. Kumasi is the cultural capital of the Ashanti (Asante) people: the seat of the Asantehene (the king of the Ashanti), one of the most powerful traditional rulers in Africa (the Ashanti Kingdom (Asante Empire) was the dominant power in West Africa from its founding in 1701 to its conquest by the British in 1902 — a 200-year period during which the Ashanti controlled most of present-day Ghana, enforced the largest gold-production system in pre-colonial Africa, and developed a distinctive material culture (gold weights, kente cloth, the Golden Stool (Sika Dwa Kofi)) of extraordinary sophistication). The Kejetia Market (Kejetia — the 'mother market' of Kumasi) is the largest open-air market in West Africa (10,000+ stalls in 11 sections covering 11 hectares, serving 1 million shoppers per week), and the Central Market (Kumasi Central Market) is the commercial backbone of the entire region. The Manhyia Palace Museum (the official palace of the Asantehene) and the Ashanti Cultural Centre are the primary heritage sites. Kumasi is the origin of Kente cloth (the most famous textile of Africa — a hand-woven silk and cotton fabric with complex geometric patterns in gold, green, and black (the royal colours of the Ashanti)), woven on a horizontal narrow-band loom by Ashanti master weavers. Best months: November–March (the dry season).