S3E29: Yaa Asantewaa

Outside of Ghana, Yaa Asantewaa is the most famous Ashanti historical figure by a wide margin. The queen-mother of Ejisu is widely cited as the pre-eminent symbol of Afro-feminism, a black African woman who advocated for the position of women and led Ashanti society in its last major resistance against British colonialism.

These depictions, while not necessarily incorrect, miss out on much of the context behind the rise of Yaa Asantewaa. They also often misunderstand the purpose of the rebellion she led, her role within that rebellion, and the context behind its beginning. So, who was Yaa Asantewaa? Why did she become such a dominant figure in Ashanti history? And how did the war of the Gold Stool begin?

Ashanti Goldfields Corporation mining facility in Obuasi - Taken 1910. From the Mary Evans picture library

After the British invasion of Asanteman in 1896, the Ashanti region was in a state of political paralysis. The British, while ostensibly now in control of the country, were initially largely absent. Though Prempeh was gone, the regional omanhenes continued to govern their territories as if nothing had changed at all. That all changed in 1897, when the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation moved in. Suddenly, with the influx of mining activity in Obuasi and the potential promise of expansion north, the British began to invest more heavily in their presence in Asanteman. Ghana saw its first inland railroad built, travelling from Cape Coast to Kumasi. The British increased the standards for road clearness to allow the movement of gold south, while abolishing the old systems of debt peonage and slavery. To replace these labor systems, though, they introduced a new system of conscript labor which resembled slavery in all but name to work on these new infrastructure projects. The British also began sending more soldiers to enforce this new occupation, including a garrison at the new fort build on the rubble of the Aban Dan, Fort Kumasi.

Today, Fort Kumasi is a military museum

Ashanti resistance to the British occupation was slow to develop. In the early years of the occupation, most of the Ashanti nobility were under the impression that the British presence was a short term thing. Surely the British would return the exiled Asantehene back to Asanteman and leave, albeit leaving the Ashanti as a de facto British puppet state. But, this is not what happened. The British governor, Frederick Mitchell Hodgeson, instead made a speech to the assembled asantemanhyiamu that he intended to rule Asanteman directly as a representative of queen Victoria, and that thusly he should be allowed to sit on the Golden Stool. While the demand for the stool would become the more infamous, perhaps more enraging was the governor's promise that Prempeh would never return. This confirmed to the Ashanti nobles present at the Asantemanhyiamu that the British occupation was not a temporary affair, but the first step of permanent conquest.

Ejisuhemaa and later Ejisuhene Yaa Asantewaa* 

Not everyone in the Asantemanhyiamu was sure what to do next. Doves, like Opoku Mensa, held out hope that negotiation with the British could lead to them withdrawing their forces and regranting Ashanti autonomy. The pro-war faction, on the other hand, supported organizing armed resistance against the British. One of the most prominent pro-war voices was Yaa Asantewaa, an important noblewoman from the town of Ejisu.

Yaa Asantewaa first rose to prominence due to her brother's loyal support of Prempeh during the later years of the Ashanti Civil War, adding their family into the inner circle of Prempeh's government. However, this strong relationship to Prempeh also led to her brother getting exiled alongside Prempeh after the British occupation of Kumasi. With her grandson too young to take up the mantle of Ejisuhene, no male relatives capable of taking the position, and a headstrong personality backing her up, Yaa Asantewaa instead became the omanhene of Ejisu, the only documented example of a female omanhene. Her title as omanhene allowed her to attend the asantemanhyiamu of 1900 as a key member, an opportunity she made the most of. During the meeting she persuasively scolded the other omanhenes present, questioning the masculinity of those who refused to support her policy of violent resistance to British occupation. Her rhetoric proved effective, and soon many of the moderate doves (including Opoku Mensa) decided to switch allegiance. Soon, they would organize militias in a war of resistance against the British. We will cover this war, its contentious outcome, and its legacy, in our next episode.

*This image is of dubious status. The image is very widely and popularly shared as Yaa Asantewaa, but is also often disputed as depicting an American art student. The veracity of either claim is very difficult to parse, as, after extensive searching, I was unable to discover the original source of this image. 

S3E28: Prempeh, the last Independent King of the Ashanti

 

Asantehene Prempeh I and some attendants (1900)

In this episode of the History of Africa Podcast, we examine the reign of Asantehene Prempeh I, the last man to rule the Ashanti kingdom as an independent state.

Agyeman Prempeh I was born under the name Kwaku Dua III, and had a difficult road to the Gold Stool. Born during a period of civil war, Kwaku Dua's parents, Owusu Koko and Yaa Akyaa, had previously enjoyed a brief position of privilege due to Prempeh's older brother, Kwaku Dua II, briefly holding the golden stool. However, in the aftermath of Kwaku Dua's short and disastrous reign, the family had to struggle to stay in a position of power. It wasn't until after his father's death at the hands of assassins that Prempeh was forced to step up and take charge as the new face of the Kumasi clique, a loosely associated group of generals, politicians, and businessmen who held power in the capital city. Throughout the first years of his unofficial reign, Prempeh had to endure wars against many of his rivals, including the kings of Bekwai, Kokofu, and Mampong. While not easy, Prempeh's allies eventually overcame his rivals, allowing him to officially become the first man in 4 years to hold the title of the king of a united Asanteman. 

Many of the industries that Prempeh sought to introduce to the Ashanti Empire, like cocoa production, remain staples of Asanteman's economy to this day

Prempeh's plan for invigorating the flailing Ashanti state began with re-empowering the region's economy. He planned for the introduction of three industries that, with some state support, could gradually grow to become self-sufficient private enterprises. These three industries, coffee, cocoa, and rubber, would find dramatically varying degrees of success. Coffee proved to be a dud, with international competition being too intense for the Ashanti to find a niche. Rubber proved more successful. Industry in Europe was rapidly expanding, and rubber was a necessity for many new industrial devices. But it was cocoa that proved the most successful. Cocoa was a product with enormous demand in Europe and very few large scale suppliers. As a result, the product proved incredibly profitable. Cocoa plantations arose with great speed across Asanteman.

Throughout Prempeh's rule, the Ashanti economy expanded considerably but also wracked up a large foreign debt. This debt would provide the British Empire an excuse to expand into Asanteman. British ambitions in Asanteman were motivated primarily by fear of other European powers expanding into the region. In 1884, the Germans created their first colonies in Togoland, while France began expanding its influence in the Ivory Coast. Britain had long sought to expand their own influence into the regions north of Asanteman, namely towards the city of Salaga. Not only did French threaten the British route to Salaga, but they also threatened British access to Ashanti cocoa production. The French already possessed the equally cocoa-rich area of the Ivory Coast, and possession of Asanteman would give French merchants an enormous competitive advantage over British cocoa sellers. At first, the British and French each sought to limit the other's expansion by supporting their enemies. The British, through their ports in Sierra Leone, helped the great Mande general Samori Toure fight his wars against the French by providing his armies with guns and ammunition. On the other hand, the British were afraid to attack Prempeh due to the fear that the French would similarly support the Asantehene to foil their own expansionist ambitions. The British and French eventually agreed to stop funding each other's enemies, and Asanteman was fair game for British expansion. The governor of the Gold Coast marched an army towards Kumasi. Prempeh, seeking to avoid a destructive sacking of the city, capitulated before fighting could begin. 

Prempeh is forced to genuflect before British colonial troops just before his arrest in 1896.

After his capitulation, the British arrested Prempeh and exiled him to the Seychelles, marking the official end of the Ashanti Kingdom. But, the end of the kingdom is not the end of the Ashanti history. Next episode, we will introduce a famous Ashanti noblewoman who will lead a rebellion to preserve Ashanti nationhood: Yaa Asantewaa.

S3E27: The Ashanti Civil War

The short-reigning Asantehene Kwaku Dua II pictured in the center of the frame. He was the first asantehene to be photographed during his rule.

The Ashanti civil war was rooted in the aftermath of the impeachment of Asantehene Mensa Bonsu. Following the old king's exile, a short succession dispute broke out between Mensa Bonsu's brother (also a previously impeached Asantehene) Kofi Kakari, and the official heir to the stool elected by the asantemanhyiamu, Kwaku Dua II. Kwaku Dua II, with the help of his father Owusu Koko, managed to defeat Kakari's supporters. Rather than reconciling with his defeated enemies, Kwaku Dua II lured Kakari's remaining supporters into a trap by promising amnesty before mass-executing them all. Kakari himself was killed shortly after, marking the first time in history that a former Asantehene was executed.

The rebuilt royal compound at Bekwai (pictured in 1900.)

The brutal killing of Kakari's supporters restored stability for a brief period. However, Kwaku Dua II died of (ostensibly) natural causes shortly thereafter. Due to the brutal trap that the king had sprung on Kakari's supporters, few Ashanti elites were willing to risk travelling to Kumasi to elect a new asantehene. As a result, for the first time since the foundation of the state, the golden stool was empty in 1884, and would remain so for four years. This time is periodized as the "Civil Wars" era of Ashanti history, and for good reason. The lack of a central authority resulted in Asanteman collapsing into a series of localized conflicts. Conflicts that ordinarily would have been small, brief disputes, such as questions of the succession of minor omanhene stools, escalated into outright wars when there was no central authority to arbitrate them. Omanhenes also engaged in freebooting conflicts, such as when the omanhene of Bekwai decided to try and reconquer the breakaway province of Adansi. The Adansi king managed to frustrate the Bekwaihene's attempt, and even launched a counterattack on Bekwai, killing the Bekwaihene in the process. The new Bekwaihene managed to reverse course though, and conquered Adansi in a particularly bloody fashion, depopulating much of the region in the process.

Ashanti kingdom in 1886

The Ashanti kingdom remained disunited until 1888, when a political movement led by the future Asantehene Kwaku Dua III, more commonly known by his later nickname Agyeman Prempeh I, reunited the state and ended the period of civil war.