Origin of Name and Race.—The word Fanti, which is merely an English pronunciation for Mfantsi, is supposed to be derived from fan, the name of a vegetable like wild cabbage, and ti, di, or dzi, to eat, the explanation being that the Fantis, in their first keen necessities on entering the northern limits of the primitive forest, were obliged to subsist on some such plant.  A similar origin is sought for the name Ashanti, from Asan, an unknown plant, and ti.  It seems as likely that the word might be o-sa, war, nsā, strong drink, or o-san, a barn, for they would all indicate the peculiarities of the negro and his passionate references, in which he cannot be said to be alone among mankind, to the delights of food and drink.  However true this be, there is no doubt that the Fanti belongs to the Great Bantu stock, both in race and language, whose members reach from Senegal to Tanganyika and from that sheet of water to the land of the Hottentots.  Interspersed among these races may be found peoples like Jollofs, Bambarra, Fulāni, and Haūsa, who can hardly be considered the same, and for whose race and language the term Hamitic seems more appropriate.  The Haūsawa or Haūsas form the irregular troops in Fanti-land, and have gradually created settlements there, characterised by industry, order and respect for authority. (The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, v.26, 1897).