In 1680 in the forests of central and southern Ghana, the high priest to King Osei Tutu I called down a golden stool from the heavens and gave Tutu the divine foundation on which he would build the mighty Ashanti Empire. The Ashanti combined strength in war — conquering lands from what is now Ivory Coast in the west to Togo in the east and defeating British colonizers several times — with skill in art, particularly sculpture and cloth
