Founder of the Asante Empire (Asanteman); first Asantehene; the central figure of Akan imperial history. Born c. 1660 CE in Kwaman to Manu Kotosi (sister of Obiri Yeboa) and his father Owusu Panyin; inherited the Kwaman chiefly stool from his maternal uncle Obiri Yeboa per Akan matrilineal succession norms. The 1701 foundational council of Kumasi — at which Komfo Anokye conjured the Sika Dwa Kofi (Golden Stool) down from heaven, containing the soul of the Asante nation — constitutionally established the Asante Empire and its sovereignty. The same year, Osei Tutu defeated the Denkyira Empire at the battle of Feyiase, ending Asante tributary submission and inaugurating the imperial expansion. The Sika Dwa Kofi remains the sacred constitutional anchor of the Asante nation: it was never to touch the ground; the Asantehene himself never sat on it (only proximately); its capture by enemies would mean the destruction of the Asante nation. (The 1900 War of the Golden Stool under Yaa Asantewaa was triggered by British attempts to seize and sit on the Sika Dwa Kofi.) Killed in war with the Akyem polity in 1717 CE; the Asante state-mourning produced the conventional Akan funerary rituals subsequently elaborated as the imperial-Asante death-ritual canon.