Yaa Asantewaa

Early life

Yaa Asantewaa was born in the Asante kingdom, in what is now Ghana. Her birth year is not known; BlackPast places it somewhere between the 1840s and the 1860s. Before taking office she was known as a farmer. In the 1880s she became queen mother of Ejisu, a town near Kumasi, reportedly appointed by her brother, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpase, who ruled the town.

In Akan custom, the queen mother is a senior office in her own right. Among other duties, she helps choose who will fill the stool when it falls vacant.

Background to the war

British forces invaded Kumasi in 1874 and again in 1896. According to the British Museum, in 1896 the Asantehene Prempeh I refused to give up his sovereignty. He was deposed and exiled, and royal regalia were taken from the palace. Prempeh was eventually sent to the Seychelles with several Asante chiefs. Yaa Asantewaa's grandson, Kofi Tene, was among those exiled in 1896.

In 1900 the British governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson, demanded the Golden Stool, which Asante tradition holds came down from the sky and which embodies the soul of the nation. The British Museum notes that he caused a scandal by demanding to sit on it. (Some popular accounts say he actually sat on it; the museum's wording, a demand, is the safer reading.)

The 1900 war

When Asante leaders met in Kumasi to decide how to respond, some favoured appealing to the governor. A teaching resource published by the Open University, written by P. K. Acheampong, records that Yaa Asantewaa rebuked the hesitant chiefs and said that if the men would not fight, the women would. Her challenge is remembered as the moment the leaders swore to fight.

Fighting began in late March 1900. Asante forces under her leadership kept the British garrison shut inside the Kumasi fort for months, until British reinforcements arrived. The uprising was defeated, and she and other leaders were captured and exiled.

Exile and death

Yaa Asantewaa was sent to the Seychelles, where Prempeh and other Asante exiles already lived. On 1 January 1902 the Asante lands were annexed to the Gold Coast Colony. She died at Le Rocher in the Seychelles on 17 October 1921. According to Seychelles Nation, Prempeh made sure her remains went home for proper burial. The surviving exiles were allowed to return in 1924.

Legacy

The war is often called the Yaa Asantewaa War. In Ghana she is remembered as a symbol of resistance to colonial rule and of women's leadership. A museum in her honour opened in the Ejisu-Juaben District in August 2000. The Nana Yaa Asantewaa Awards honour women leaders, and a 2016 exhibition in the Seychelles marked her time in exile. Historians, including Lynda Day, describe her as the female ruler of Ejisu who inspired and led the movement of 1900.