S3E16: The First Anglo-Ashanti War

 

Map of the Ashanti Empire, its clients, and its road networks in 1820

Prior to 1821, relations between the British and Ashanti Empires had been complicated. From the empire's birth until 1807, the empires had been peaceful trading partners, engaging in the immoral but profitable trade of enslaved people, as well as gold, kola nuts, finished goods, rum, firearms, and other goods. Tension between the empires first erupted in a brief spat in 1808, during the battle of Anomabu and again in 1811 at the Battle of Winnebah. Both of these conflicts were small theaters of larger conflicts between the Ashanti and their southern neighbor, the Fante confederation, and started due to the generally strong relationship between the Fante and British. However, by the resolution of these conflicts, the Ashanti emerged the victor. The Company of African Merchants signed humiliating treaties of submission in order to maintain trading rights in the region.

    However, the decline of Anglo-Ashanti relations was closely tied to the failure of the British Company of African Merchants. After Britain abolished their participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in 1807, the company struggled to make a profit. Many within the company continued to illegally participate in the trade, eventually leading the frustrated government to nationalize the company. The problem with this was that the Ashanti had signed their treaties not with the British government, but with the now non-existent British Company of African Merchants. One of the most important stipulations of the treaty was that the British recognize Ashanti overlordship over the Fante peoples. The British government, however, did not honor these agreements, and instead disembarked soldiers in coastal Ghana to begin signing protectorate treaties with Fante kings. This came much to the chagrin of Osei Bonsu and the Ashanti. An Ashanti army, seeking to force the holding of a conference before British expansion could continue. The army invaded the town of Abura, captured a local Fante military leader, and demanded that the British reaffirm their old treaty obligations. The British sent no response, and the Fante man was executed. The British governor of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, Charles MacCarthy, decided that this execution amounted to a declaration of war, and convened his Fante allies assemble an army to fight the Ashanti.
MacCarthy had led wars in Africa before, but only again small kingdoms in Sierra Leone, never an empire of the scale or military modernity of the Ashanti. He vastly underestimated the capability of the Ashanti as a result, and figured that a small group of Fante militiamen and British officers was sufficient to crush the Ashanti at Abura. At first, the British and their allies tried to attack the Ashanti at their base at Abura. However, poor logistics and superior Ashanti mobility allowed the Ashanti army to ambush and crush this invasion column. 

Ashanti Talking Drum, used for long-distance communication in both civilian and military contexts

So, MacCarthy devised a new plan. He ordered the creation of a new, much larger army. This army was divided into three columns. One would head west, attempt to provoke an anti-Ashanti uprising against the Wasa people of the Ashanti's western provinces. Another column in the east would try to do the same with the region's Akyem and Akuapem people. Finally, the largest column in the center would march straight towards Kumasi.

Map of Ashanti and British troop movements in the Nsamankow campaign of 1822-1823

The plan ended in disaster. MacCarthy's army was met by a larger Ashanti force almost immediately and forced into an orderly but costly retreat. They tried to meet with the western column for reinforcements. However, simultaneously, another Ashanti army to the west routed a group of Wasa rebels before continuing south towards the British western column. The British and Wasa dug out defensive positions at a village called Nsamankow, and were put under intense pressure. When MacCarthy met his western column, he did not encounter needed reserves, but rather a group of tired and nearly-beaten allies. Soon after, the two Ashanti armies converged and encircled the British. The Ashanti general, Amankwatia, ordered conservative probing attacks against the British, drawing their fire and forcing them to waste ammunition with no hope of resupplying. Once the British began to run out of ammunition, Amankwatia ordered his army to advance. The British were defenseless without ammunition and peppered by the better-supplied Ashanti gunmen. Of the roughly 5,000 British and Fante soldiers at Abura, less than 800 escaped the battle without being killed or captured. Even Charles MacCarthy himself was beheaded after being struck with an Ashanti musketball. His head was infamously hollowed out and kept as a trophy in the Ashanti royal palace.

Modern Illustration of Ashanti Soldiers

However, Osei Bonsu would not live long to enjoy the prestige of his victory. A few months after the battle of Nsamankow, the Ashanti king Osei Bonsu passed away. The responsibility to finish the war with the British fell to his younger brother, Osei Yaw Akoto. As we'll see in two weeks, Osei Yaw's performance would not live up to his brother's example.

S3E15: Daily life in the Ashanti Empire

A sad reality of the study of history is that comparatively little time and effort is dedicated to documenting the lives of the vast majority of the population of past periods. Typically, great effort is dedicated to understanding the attitudes, preferences, psychology, deeds, and achievements of rulers, nobles, artists, generals, and philosophers. As a result, few testimonies of the historical working classes reach modern eyes. In this episode, we attempt to shed some light on what life was like for the everymen of the Ashanti Empire and get a better sense of the life and routine of working Ashanti men and women.

A compound of shrines outside Kumasi: an example of traditional Ashanti architecture

Ashanti family life did not revolve around the nuclear family (that is, a family composed of two parents and their child. Rather, Ashanti family units were extended, composed of the child's parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents, great aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. In Ashanti daily life, the family unit was the most important institution, as it was responsible for not only the distribution of resources and wider social standing, but also the education of children. Families typically lived together in housing compounds composing four or more houses connected by a shared courtyard.

Ashanti people outside of a housing compound, taken in the early 20th Century

For an Ashanti subject to advance into a middle-class position, usually some degree of higher education was necessary. Ashanti higher education took the form of an apprenticeship, in which the apprentice would learn from an experienced bureaucrat, craftsman, artist, linguist, military leader, or other skilled work position.

One of the most important elements of Ashanti daily life is also one of the darkest elements of the empire's legacy. Slavery is, unfortunately, an institution that dominates outside perceptions of Ashanti history. In the United States, when people recognize the name of the state, typically its reputation is reduced to "one of the empires that sold slaves to European merchants." Ashanti participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is well documented, and something that we have covered in passing brief mentions in numerous episodes of the show. However, Ashanti slavery as an institution extended beyond the kingdom's role in the slave trade, also playing a major role in Ashanti domestic life.

"Slave" is an English word and therefore doesn't necessarily illuminate the complexity and nuances of various forms of slavery practiced by the Akan peoples, including the Ashanti. This has led to a great deal of confusion in evaluating the historical role of enslaved people and their treatment in the Ashanti Empire. In a few cases, it has led to exaggerations, as in the cases of European explorers who argued that all Ashanti slaves were executed en-masse upon their owner's death. On the other hand, and more commonly today, it has led to a nasty apologia for the institution in academia and beyond. Anecdotally, I specifically remember a professor during my undergrad studies uttering a phrase, "In West Africa, slaves didn't have it so bad." In my experience, these arguments emerge to dissuade comparisons between race-based, trans-Atlantic slavery and Ashanti slavery. However, the value of comparing the immorality of these institutions comes across to me personally as splitting hairs. Human beings suffered immensely under both systems.

Enslaved people (Domum class) in Kumasi pose with a pair of European missionaries, 1885.

However, trying to understand the life of "slaves" in the Ashanti Empire is difficult for multiple reasons. For starters, there are very few narratives written by enslaved people themselves. Almost all primary sources about Ashanti slavery are told either directly or indirectly from the perspective of slave owners, which obviously frames the institution in a more conciliatory tone. Ashanti society accepted the existence of multiple, very different classes of people who outsiders labeled under the catch-all term "slave." The first of these enslaved classes was the domum. Domum were people who were taken as slaves through war or as tribute. Their treatment resembled chattel slavery, regarded as property that could be used and abused as their owner pleased. For this reason, domum made the majority of enslaved people sold to European slave merchants on the coast. They were also typically assigned the most difficult and dangerous labor in mines and plantations.

Enslaved people bought from a slave merchant, rather than captured through war or acquired through tribute, were called odonko. The ideology which justified the enslavement of odonko argued that odonko were essentially a junior branch of their owner's family, as this would be a socially acceptable reason for odonko to do unpaid labor. Of course, odonko were not originally members of the family, but "adopted" through force. However, due to this familial justification, odonko status was typically not hereditary. Children were integrated into the families of their parent's owners as free people. While they were technically now free, the stigma of being descended from odonko often resulted in discrimination and being regarded as a social inferior. Odonko filled multiple labor positions, including plantation workers, domestic servants, miners, porters, and more.

Akyere is the term reserved for people enslaved as punishment for a serious crime. Typically, akyere slavery was a temporary status, a waiting period before the execution of criminals. Akyere acted as servants to the upper echelon of Ashanti society, especially the asantehene himself. This role of subservience to the asantehene prior to execution served an important symbolic role in Ashanti civic culture, symbolizing the dominant role of the asantehene as a protector of law and justice, and a master over those who would dare disrupt order. A few Akyere who showed considerable remorse or skill were spared from execution, but most were executed either at the end of their akyere sentence or during the death of the asantehene.

The final major form of Ashanti slavery was awowa, or debt peonage. Awowa were technically not enslaved, but more akin to the western concept of indentured servitude. They were free people who incured major debts, and would turn to wealthy Ashanti elites to pay off their debts in exchange for a period of unfree servitude. Awowa filled a major role as a backbone of the Ashanti labor system. As the Ashanti economy became more complex and integrated in the early 19th century, the population of awowa ballooned to form a major part of the Ashanti population. As we'll see in a future episode, future administrations will have to come up with solutions to the problem of an ever-expanding number of awowa.

T.E. Bowdich's illustration of Ashanti leisure, 1819.

Anyways, as we discussed at the end of this episode, the spare time of Ashanti workers was typically spent doing domestic chores, making music, and working on crafts. Perhaps the most unique type of Ashanti art is the use of the talking drum. This particular technology allowed Akan people to replicate the tones of the Akan language through drum beats. Talking drums could be used essentially as megaphones, allowing the drummer to send a loud message over long distances, while also used artistically to recite poetry or oral histories. Here is a demonstration of the instrument in use.