Kumasi & Ashanti Heritage: Manhyia Palace, Kente & Kejetia Market
Discover Kumasi — seat of the Asantehene and capital of Ashanti culture. A guide to Manhyia Palace, kente weaving in Bonwire, Kejetia Market and more.
The Asantehene's palace, the looms of Bonwire and the biggest market in West Africa — Kumasi is where Ashanti culture runs at full volume, all within a day's reach of Accra.
By Peter Mensah · October 4, 2026 · 5 min read
Every country has a city that carries its soul. For Ghana, it is Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti Region, seat of the Asantehene, and the city where kente cloth, royal drumming and West African commerce have converged for centuries. About 200 kilometres north of Accra, in the rainforest country around Lake Bosomtwe, Kumasi is Ghana's second largest city with 443,981 residents, and undisputedly its cultural capital.
The old Asante Empire, at its peak, covered large parts of present-day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Its capital is still here, still royal, and still gloriously busy.
Manhyia Palace: where the kingdom still lives
The Manhyia Palace, Akan for 'gathering of the people', is the seat and official residence of the Asantehene, the monarch of the Ashanti. The story of the buildings on the hill mirrors the story of the kingdom itself: the original Aban Palace was demolished by the British during the War of the Golden Stool, and the palace that replaced it in 1925 was offered to Nana Prempeh I on his return from exile in the Seychelles, after he insisted on paying its full cost.
Two kings lived in that building before a new palace rose beside it; today the reigning Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, resides in the new palace, while the old one, converted into a museum in 1995, opens its rooms of royal history, regalia and photographs to visitors. A visit here is not a peek at a museum kingdom, it is an audience with a living one.
Bonwire and the cloth of kings
No visit to the Ashanti heartland is complete without kente. According to Asante oral tradition, the craft was born in Bonwire, a village near Kumasi, where weavers first copied the patterns of Anansi the spider. The name itself comes from kɛntɛn, 'basket' in the Asante dialect, for the cloth's basket-like patterns, and locals call it nwentoma: 'woven cloth'.
Kente is made from hand-woven strips of silk and cotton, traditionally worn in toga-like fashion by the Asante, Akan and Ewe. So valued is it that Ghana officially recognises kente as a geographical indication to protect its authenticity and origin. At Bonwire, master weavers still work the long wooden looms by hand, and yes, you can watch them, buy a length, and wear it home. Wearing kente has become widespread across Ghana to mark weddings, naming ceremonies and festivals, and in Bonwire you can choose your own length, pattern and story.
Kejetia: the biggest market in West Africa
For the other half of Kumasi's story, go where the city's pulse is loudest. Kejetia Market is, by size, the biggest market in West Africa, more than 10,000 stores and stalls spread across a vast, multi-level world of spices, cloth, tools, produce and conversation that has trading roots running back generations. Half of Ghana's timber processing happens in this city, and the market energy explains why: Kumasi has always been where goods and people meet.
Kumasi's swagger is backed by hard numbers: the Ashanti Region accounted for roughly a fifth of Ghana's total economic output in 2014, and nearly half of that was generated here, the city sits at the crossing point of Ghana's main roads, with cocoa farms spreading through the hinterland around it.
The city is also nicknamed 'Garden City', a label dating to Maxwell Fry's 1945 'Garden City of West Africa' plan, thanks to its abundance of greenery and forest, and 'Oseikrom' among locals who say the city's name with their whole chest.
Making the most of Kumasi
Manhyia Palace Museum , royal history in the old palace, a short drive from the centre Bonwire kente village , watch the looms, meet the weavers and haggle for a strip of cloth Okomfo Anokye’s sword , planted in the ground by the founding priest of the Ashanti kingdom, said to be removable only by the same magic that placed it The Centre for National Culture , the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum's regalia and reproduction of the Golden Stool, plus crafts, drumming and dance Fort Kumasi , the 1896 fort that now houses a city museum Kejetia Market…