YAA ASANTEWAA, the protector of the Golden Stool

Yaa Asantewaa is best known for her heroic role in the War of the Golden Stool. Throughout her life, she defended what she believed to be the sanctity of her land, her culture and her language.

REGENT OF EJISU

On the death of Nana Kwasi Afrane Okpese, in 1894, Yaa Asantewaa used her prerogatives as Queen Mother to name her grandson Ejisuhene. Barely two years later, the British exiled some fifty chiefs, among them the king of the Ashanti Empire, Prempeh I, and the new Ejisuhene. Yaa Asantewaa then became regent of Ejisu.

THE WAR OF THE GOLDEN STOOL

To break the resistance of the Ashanti Empire, the British Governor-General Frederick Hodgson demanded that he be handed the “Golden Stool”, the symbol of the nation. This demand drove the remaining members of the government to meet in secret to consider the king’s return.

Yaa Asantewaa therefore took the lead of the Ashanti Empire’s uprising of 1900. The rebellion quickly laid siege to the fort of Kumasi, where the British had taken refuge. After several months of siege, the British Governor-General sent 1,400 men to crush the revolt. In the battle, Yaa Asantewaa and fifteen of her advisers were captured and exiled to the Seychelles. On 1 January 1902, the Ashanti Empire became a protectorate of the British Crown. Yaa Asantewaa died in exile in the Seychelles on 17 October 1921.