Yaa Asantewaa (born October 17, 1840 – October 17, 1921) was an influential Ashanti queen at the beginning of the twentieth century and she remains a powerful symbol till today. Her birthdate is contested; she is generally believed to be born between the 1840s to 1860s in the Ashanti Confederacy in present-day Ghana.
She was a skilled farmer before ascending to the title Queen Mother in the 1880s.
Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire, now part of modern-day Ghana
It is believed that she was chosen for this title due to the matrilineal aspect of the Ashanti culture and that her elder brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase the Edwesuhene, or ruler, of Edwesu who was a powerful ruler at the time, appointed her to the role.
As the Queen Mother, Yaa Asantewaa held many responsibilities, including being the Gatekeeper of the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool is an emblem of the Ashanti kingdom, cultural system, and power. Since the Queen Mother is elected to be the mother of the reigning king, she presents candidates for when the occupant of the Stool (the chiefdom) becomes vacant, and in turn, protects the establishment of authority.
Additionally, since the Queen Mother is the main adviser for the King, and thus is the second highest position within the empire, she fulfills the role of guarding the Golden Stool.
In 1896, the Ashanti began to rebel against the British presence in their lands, and the British attempt to construct the “Gold Coast” colony. To retaliate, the British captured and exiled Asantehene Prempeh I, the then King of the Ashanti Kingdom, as well as Yaa Asantewaa’s grandson Kofi Tene, who was also a powerful leader. The British removed and exiled the king and other Ashanti leaders to the Seychelles Islands in an effort to acquire the Golden Stool.
While the remaining leaders within the community debated on how to best respond to the British threat, Yaa Asantewaa held her ground and rallied the troops to battle. Her leadership and passion led to her role as Commander-in-Chief of the Ashanti army. In turn, the ‘Anglo-Ashanti wars’ fifth and final war against the British became known as the Yaa Asantewaa War of Independence (or the War of the Golden Stool), which began on March 28, 1900.
That conflict began when British representative Sr. Frederick Mitchell Hodgson sat on the Golden Stool. Since the Stool was not a throne, when Hodgson’s act became known, Yaa Asantewaa led the rebellion which resulted in the death of 1,000 British and allied African soldiers and 2,000 Ashanti (these numbers are approximations, and hence are neither entirely absolute nor fully verifiable). The deaths experienced in this particular battle were higher than the deaths from all previous wars between the Ashanti and the British combined.
To inspire the leaders of her community, Yaa Asantewaa proclaimed that if the men of the kingdom would not defend the people, then the women would rise to the challenge. This both invigorated the men and challenged traditional gender roles. She led the rebellion and became an image of strength and resistance. Unfortunately, she was captured during the rebellion and exiled to Seychelles, where she died in 1921.
Yaa Asantewaa remains a powerful reminder due to her impactful actions in both empowering her people and in tactics against the British army. In August 2000, to commemorate her influence, a museum was opened in her honor in the Ejisu-Juaben District of Ghana. Similarly, there is an achievement award titled the “Nana Yaa Asantewaa Awards” (NYA) which honors women who uphold the values and leadership of Asantewaa.
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Biography
Yaa Asantewaa was born in 1840 in Besease, the daughter of Kwaku Ampoma and Ata Po. Her brother, Afrane Panin, became the chief of Edweso, a nearby community. After a childhood without incident, she cultivated crops on the land around Boankra. She entered a polygamous marriage with a man from Kumasi, with whom she had a daughter.
Yaa Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles in 1921. She was a successful farmer and mother. She was an intellectual, a politician, a human rights activist, a queen, and a war leader. Yaa Asantewaa became famous for commanding the Ashanti Kings in the War of the Golden Stool, against British colonial rule, to defend and protect the sovereign independence of the Golden Stool.
Prelude to rebellion
Yaa Asantewaa’s older brother, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase was in a powerful position in the empire and he selected Asantewaa as the Queen Mother. This was a prestigious position as she was responsible for protecting the golden stool, advising the King of Ashanti, and choosing candidates for the next king. During her brother’s reign, Yaa Asantewaa saw the Ashanti Confederacy go through a series of events that threatened its future, including a civil war from 1883 to 1888. When her brother died in 1894, Yaa Asantewaa used her right as Queen Mother to nominate her own grandson as Ejisuhene. When the British exiled him to the Seychelles in 1896, along with the King of the Asante Kingdom – Prempeh I, and other members of the then Asante government, Yaa Asantewaa became regent of the Ejisu–Juaben district.
After the exile of Prempeh I, the British governor-general of the Gold Coast, Frederick Hodgson, demanded for the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Asante Kingdom. This request led to a secret meeting of the remaining members of the Asante government at Kumasi, to discuss how to secure the return of their king. There was a disagreement among those present on how to go about this. Hence, Yaa Asantewaa who was present at this meeting, stood and addressed the members of the council with these words:
“How can a proud and brave people like the Asante sit back and look while white men took away their king and chiefs, and humiliated them with a demand for the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool only means money to the white men; they have searched and dug everywhere for it. I shall not pay one predwan to the governor. If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments (Montu mo danta mma me na monny3 me tam).
Stayed tuned for the Part 2 of this insightful African Story..
Source: www.history.com , www.weforum.org ,
