Kumasi

Kumasi (kmă`sē, –mä`–), city (1984 pop. 376,246), capital of the Ashanti Region, central Ghana. The second largest city in Ghana, it is a commercial and transportation center in a cocoa-producing region, and it has a large central market. Kumasi was founded c.1700 as the capital of the Ashanti confederacy. Although the British destroyed the Ashanti palace in 1874, the city remains the seat of Ashanti kings. A university of science and technology and other schools are in the city.

---

Kumasi

 formerly Coomassie

City (pop., 1998 est.: 578,000), south-central Ghana. A 17th-century Asante king chose the site for his capital and conducted land negotiations under a kum tree, which gave the town its name. Located on north-south trade routes, it became a major commercial centre. The British gained control of the city in 1874. Called the “Garden City of West Africa,” it remains the seat of Asante kings. Its central market is one of the largest in western Africa. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (1951) is located there.