Fanti

Fanti, a negro people of the Gold Coast, who belong to the same stock as the Ashanti, and speak the Aketn, a dialect of the same Tshi language. But from remote times the Fanti have been the deadly enemies of the Ashanti, and have always allied themselves with the English in their wars against that nation. Their chief town is Abra, twelve miles from the coast, and the English stations of Elmina, Cape Coast Castle, Anambu, and Winebah are all in Fanti territory, which is now comprised in the British protectorate. Those of the seaboard are chiefly occupied with fishing and navigation, while the more inland tribes are traders, hunters, and agriculturists. Like all Tshi-speaking peoples, the Fanti are of the true negro type, as distinguished from the negroids of the Mohammedan states to the north, and the Bantu populations of the Congo regions to the south. In the 17th century they extended from the Iron Hills to Salt Pond, and at that time their territory comprised the states of Commani, Fetu, Sabu, and Fantyn (Fanti), all of which have disappeared except the last. (Brackenbury and Huyshe, Fanti and Ashanti, 1873; Major A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, 1887.)