Hello, I'm Professor Suzanne Ellipscombe, and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit,

the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Berlin to the Aztecs,

from Holbine to the Huguenoes, from Shakespeare to

samurai. Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and

witchcraft. Not in other words just the tutors but most definitely also the tutors.

I've been doing an audit of our geographical coverage on not just the Tudors. It's not terrible.

We frequently cover English and Scottish history and we have drawn on stories from the Caribbean, Japan, China, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, France, Mexico, Ireland, the Netherlands, Iran, Russia, America, Spain, Canada, India, Hungary, Peru, Malaya, Latvia, Sweden, South Africa and Iceland.

But for all that we've covered, I'm aware that there are vast areas of the world about which I know

practically nothing of their 16th and 17th century indeed 18th century history and

today we're tackling that lacuna in a small way by heading to West Africa.

At the end of the 17th century a small small Akan clan in West Africa began its growth into what

would later become the powerful Ashanti Empire.

The state grew rapidly in both wealth and land throughout the 18th century until it spanned most of modern

day Ghana, the Ivory Coast and Togo. Fierce resistance to British colonialism

throughout the 19th century saw a series of increasingly violent wars as well as periods of peace before a final

submission to British rule in 1992. Here to fill us all in on the Ashanti Empire

is Luke Pepper, historian, anthropologist and broadcaster.

His first monograph motherland 500,000 years of African history, cultures and identity

will be out next year.

Cannot Wait.

And his documentary, Africa, written out of history,

charting the why and how of African Erazia

...