Akan

The Akan are a Kwa-speaking ethnic group of West Africa, concentrated in southern and central Ghana and southeastern Ivory Coast, with major subgroups including the Ashanti, Fante, Akuapem and Akyem. Historically organized into powerful kingdoms and confederacies, most notably the Ashanti Empire, the Akan developed a matrilineal clan system and an elaborate stool-based system of chieftaincy that still structures much traditional authority today. Akan culture is closely associated with kente cloth weaving, goldweights used in historic trade, and the Adinkra system of symbols, and Akan languages, chiefly Twi and Fante, remain among the most widely spoken indigenous languages in Ghana.