S3E22: The Elmina Crisis

 

Enslaved Ewe people (left) and Swiss missionaries (center), are led back to Kumasi by Ashanti Soldiers (left)

In 1872, the British and Dutch agreed on a deal. In exchange for territory in modern-day Indonesia, the Dutch would trade the town of Elmina and other territories they controlled in southern Ghana to the British. This deal threatened to give to Britain something unprecedented. Since the beginning of European maritime contact with West Africa, there had never been a point in which a single European power monopolized trade coming in and out of the coast of Ghana. Now, the British did. Not only that, but the Ashanti had always viewed their relationship with the Dutch as one of tenant and landlord. They charged the Dutch rent for the right to stay in Elmina, which, from the Ashanti point of view, meant that the territories still belonged to them. The Dutch, apparently, disagreed. They traded the land anyways.

Ghana - 1870

Ghana - 1872 (After the sale of the Dutch Gold Coast + Bofour's Campaigns

This new exchange of land provoked an outraged response from the Ashanti government. However, the Ashanti were not in consensus on how to respond. Some favored maintaining peace with the British, such as the young general Adu Bofour. Bofour had just returned from a series of successful campaigns against the politically city-states and villages past Ashanti's eastern border. He even seized some coastal territories that could potentially undermine the threat of a British coastal monopoly. Meanwhile, the Asantehemaa Afua Kobi also opposed going to war, but for entirely different reasons. In particular, her reasoning revolved around the ethics of the way that the Ashanti had handled the negotiations surrounding the return of a group of European missionaries and merchants that Bofour had captured on his campaign. The Europeans were taken as prisoners to Kumasi, where they were kept in a comfortable state of imprisonment. At first, the asantehene Kofi Kakari tried ransoming off the prisoners to the British for a hefty price. This worked, and the British offered to pay up. However, the king then withdrew his offer when he heard about the trade with the Dutch, and dramatically upped his asking price to a complete British withdrawal from the Dutch territories. This displeased Kobi, who believed that her son was provoking divine wrath by acting in such a dishonest manner.

A crowd of onlookers welcomes the captured Europeans into Kumasi

Meanwhile, the pro-war crowd was led primarily by the aging general Amankwatia IV. Amankwatia saw the war as an opportunity for him to lead the Ashanti to a great victory, and finally entrench his superior status over the young up-and-comer Bofour. He also believed that refusing to meet the British on the battlefield would give the British the impression that the Ashanti were pushovers, ensuring that future, more severe provocations would happen again in the future.

Kofi Kakari chose to side with the pro-war faction, and, under uproarious applause, mobilized his armies for war.