THE FORMATION OF ASANTE - WASSAMAN INSIDER

THE FORMATION OF ASANTE

Filed by: Sir Rich

It is important to note, as Asantehene Prempeh I observed in his book “The History of Asante Kings and the whole Country Itself,” that, rulers like Twum and Antwi to Obiri Yeboa were clan Chiefs ruling their own towns.

The etymology of the name Asante itself (Asantefoɔ) comes from Denkyirahene Boa Amponsem who derided the reported coalition of fighters conspiring against him to fight for their independence, thus: “ɔsa nti na ɛyi nom aka wɔn ho abɔm yi.” (using the contempt-filled phrase to indicate that those fighters had joined together because of war), hence, Asante as the phrase finally became around 1699-1700.

1) Asante begins with the reign of Osei Tutu who transitioned from Chief of Kwaaman to Chiief of Kumase and then to become the first Asantehene.

Therefore, Osei Tutu Opemsuo (ruled from about 1680-1717), is generally acknowledged in both literary records and oral traditional accounts as the founder of Asante and the first Asantehene. He and his Chief Priest, the Prophet Okomfo Anokye brought forth the ASANTE TRINITY of the Golden Stool or “Sika Dwa” which Okomfo Anokye conjured from heaven at a gathering of all Asante Chiefs in 1701; the second is the office of ASANTEHENE, in the person of the occupant of the Golden Stool; and the third part of the TRINITY is the people, the corporate body politic called ASANTEMAN.

Okomfo Anokye decreed that only the Chief of Kumasi (the new name for the town established for as capital of new nation), could occupy the Golden Stool, thereby making Osei Tutu and his descendants the leaders or Kings of the newly created Asante Nation.

Kumase is also fondly called Oseikrom.And the name Osei used as an adjective means power or powerful.

The Chief Priest also decreed that the Golden Stool or Sika Dwa remains “the embodiment of the soul of the new Asante nation”. If the Golden Stool is ever captured, Asante would lose its power and disintegrate into chaos, Okomfo Anokye warned.All stools and articles of power pre-dating the Golden Stool were ritually destroyed. New Stools were created for all other chiefs to confirm their subordinate status in the newly established political structure. This was an excellent political move because from then on other power in Asanteman could be said to be older than the GOLDEN STOOL.

2) The second Asantehene was Opoku Ware Katakyie I (ruled 1720-1750). He established the GYAASEWA DIVISION as a check on the then very powerful KONTI Division, and specifically it’s leader the Bantamahene. At that time, KONTI had the big guns in Kumase. Into the Gyaasewa Division was created the ATUOHENE who was then provided with more powerful guns than the KONTI.The Atuohene was armed with double barrel guns (unique in that era). Asantefuo called the big guns ADANTA… twin guns.Overtime, ADANTA guns was corrupted to ANANTA, and hence, Anantahene.GYASE remains the largest of the Kumase Divisions. By the way Gyaasewa is now called GYASE.

3) The third was Kusi Oboadum. He assumed office at an old age, became ineffectual; and also turned blind. He was forced to abdicate, which is the Asante the euphemism for destooling (removing) an Asantehene.

4) Osei Kwadwo Okoawia (ruled 1764-1777). He was a great admirer of Opoku Ware and sought to replicate his military and administrative prowess. And he succeeded. Osei Kwadwo was given the accolade “Okoawia” or he who fights in broad daylight (not that he fought in the afternoon; I tried to bring this reality to a writer at Manhyia who had written in a history book that, Osei Kwadwo fought in the afternoon, hence the name Okoawia. Helll, any fool can fight in the afternoon. At night,they retired to their camps, with sentries left to guard for any eventuality. Much the same as wars in Europe until the 20th centuries, where soldiers broke for tea; and the military bands played! He was also the “Esre mu Sei.” The Lion of the Savannah. It was said he was trailed by thick smoke as he advanced through the Savanna. He needed no gimmicks or camouflage when he determined to meet the enemy,hence he was reckoned as Okoawia. Records of Muslim writers which are still extant, were not kind to him because of his conquest of the Muslim areas.

Osei Kwadwo started the practice of assigning civilian officials to the capitals of vassal states in favor of military men whom he considered undiplomatic, and who also created havoc by their stern orders. One European resident at the time B. Cruickshank, wrote that these “pro-consuls of the Ashanti race” ensured Asante presence in the courts of the defeated chiefs.Citizens of these localities actually swore the Asantehene’s Great Oath (Otumfuo Ntamkese) in order to have their criminal cases adjudicated upon in Oseikrom (Kumase). That was a clear indication of the recognition of the power and influence of the Asantehene. Osei Kwadwo is also remembered for moving the Asantehemaa Stool from Kokofu to Kumasi, ensuring that the Asantehemaa lived in Kumase instead of Kokofu.Nana Konadu Yiadom “Owoahene” was the first Asantehemaa to live in Kumase.

5) Osei Kwame (ruled 1777-1803) succeeded Osei Kwadwo.  He was the first of the four sons of Asantehemaa Konadu Yiadom to become successive Asantehene.  He became a big promoter of Islamic ideas and Muslims. Due to his support of Muslims and Islamic ideas, Osei Kwame is described as a peace-loving monarch, “the most merciful on earth”, by contemporary Islamic writers.  Muslims flocked to Kumase as traders and teachers.  It is generally believed that Osei Kwame was a Muslim convert “at heart”.His belief in the Islamic religion ran afoul of Asante religious practices and beliefs, and this brought him into conflict with the Asante power structure.  His refusal to pour libation, venerate the ancestors, raised the anger level of Asante against him. He sought to replace these rites with Islamic practices.  Consequently, a faction led by his mother, the Asantehemaa Konadu Yiadom rose up against him and forced him to abdicate. 

6) Opoku Fofie, 1803.His sudden death after a few weeks as Asantehene was blamed on Osei Kwame, the ex-Asantehene, and his Muslim diviners.

7) Osei Tutu Kwame also known as Osei Bonsu (ruled 1804-1823).  In 1806, Nana Osei Tutu Kwame marched his army to Cape Coast and occupied the town.The British governor Colonel Torrance surrendered to him on June 25, 1806.  The Asantehene stepped into the Sea and symbolically splashed the Sea with his sword.He was given the accolade “Oboro nsuo”, as he splashed his sword and feet into the Ocean, symbolizing his victory.  He was from that time known as Osei Bonsu– the King of the Land and of the Sea! Asante was at the zenith of her power.  There was order, peace, accountability and good governance.

Upon his return to Kumasi, Nana Osei Bonsu began the construction of the great Stone Palace “Abankesie” modeled upon the Cape Coast Castle, but much bigger.When it was completed, it contained over sixty rooms, numerous halls for meetings, and a huge courtyard, according to records left by English visitors to Oseikrom.  Bowdich and Dupuis, two English emissaries to the court of the Asantehene between 1817 and 1819, wrote that it compared with any Castle in Europe.  The architecture introduced by the Asantehene was copied by his subjects who put up similar, but smaller houses. 

8) Osei Yaw Akoto (ruled 1824- 1833), largely on account of his heroics in the Mankata War, (against the British and it’s African coalition led by Governor Charles McCarthy), during which Osei Akoto distinguished himself by exemplary bravery, resulting in Asante victory.  The governor McCarthy was killed in the war.  Emboldened by the victory, Osei Yaw Akoto decided to impress his power on the other southern states who had rebelled at the instigation of the Europeans. As a result, the English, Danish and their European allies formed a Gulf War type coalition against Asante.  The coalition included nearly the African ethnic groups in the Gold Coast, as well as Yoruba troops shipped in from Lagos.

With such huge numbers and better arms, the Europeans defeated Asante in the Dodowa War, the main battle of which was fought at Akatamanso near Dodowa in the current Greater Accra Region, in 1826.  The Treaty of Fomena 1831 ended hostilities.  Asante agreed to relinquish control over all the lands “south of the Rriver Pra”. This area became known as the “British Protected Territory of the Gold Coast”.

9) Kwaku Dua I (ruled 1834- 1867) succeeded Osei Yaw Akoto.  Kwaku Dua panin’s reign was marked by relative peace, and the rise of the mercantile and business class in Asante.  Trade and agriculture flourished.The power and influence of the Asantehene was increased remarkably during his reign. Kwaku Dua I was therefore remembered as Agyeman Dua who leaks gold, that is (Agyeman Dua ɔsosɔ sika)

10) Kofi Kaakari (ruled 1867-1874) became Asantehene vowing to “make war” his main “business”. His reign marked the return of the military class into prominence.  The upshot was the Sagrenti (Sir Garnet Wolsey) War of 1874 between Asante and England.The defeat of Asante led to the forced abdication of Kofi Kaakari.  The charges brought against him included financial mismanagement. Kofi Kaakari’s accolades included “Osape” (he who scatters….wealth), and “Akyempo,” (giver of huge sums of gold nuggets).  Both words recall Nana Kaakari’s profligacy in squandering the wealth of Asante. Another effect of the war on Asante was that Britain confiscated additional Asante territories, added these to the “British Protected Territories”, and then declared it the British Colony of the Gold Coast after 1874.

11) Mensa Bonsu (ruled 1874-1883), vowed to resurrect the fortunes of Asante.  He set up a new Civil Service that employed Europeans under Owusu Ansa the English educated son  of Nana Osei Bonsu.  Asantehene Mensa Bonsu also set up a new constabulary called “The Hausas” to check and control smuggling along Asante frontiers.  The Civil Service and other reforms required increased taxation for their maintenance. The higher taxes naturally alienated the people.  The King also turned out to be unusually cruel and avaricious, and was not beyond  bringing false charges against his subjects, in order to confiscate their property.  He was forced to abdicate in 1883; as was his mother and his mother Asantehene Afia Kobi. Opposition was led by her own daughter and successor Asantehemaa Nana Yaa Akyaa.

12) Kwaku Dua II was enstooled in 1884, but died after only 40 days from small pox.Kofi Kaakari and his followers were accused of killing him. After making an effort to regain his former position,Nana Kaakari died mysteriously…… His mother Nana Yaa Akyaa was the Asantehemaa

13) Asantehmaa Nana Yaa Akyaa sought to put his young son Agyeman Prempeh (Kwaku Dua Asamu) who was only fifteen at the time, on the Sika Dwa.  She was opposed by other divisional chiefs who supported another royal Yaw Atwereboanna.  A civil war ensued.  The young men or “Nkwankwaa” under their chief or “Nkwankwaahene” took control of Kumase.

It is important to note here, that, in 1946, Asantehene Prempeh II abolished, forever, the office of “Nkwankwaahene” after agitation for his destoolment led by the Nkwakwaahene failed.

After nearly four years of Civil War, in 1888, Asantehemaa Yaa Akyaa was finally able to win support for Agyeman Prempeh,(ruled 1888-1931), and the civil war ended. Emboldened Kwaku Dua III, the then de facto Asantehene responded to British entreaties that Asante become a subject of the British Queen Victoria, thus:

“The suggestion that Asante in its present state should come and enjoy the protection of Her Majesty the Queen and Empress of India is a matter of very serious consideration. I am happy to say we have arrived at this conclusion, that my Kingdom of Asante will never commit itself to any such policy. Asante must remain as of old, at the same time to remain friendly with all White men. I do not write this in a boastful spirit, but in the clear sense of its meaning. The cause of Asante is progressing and there is no reason for any Asante man to feel alarm at the prospects or to believe for a single instant that our cause has been driven back by the events of past hostilities. (Prempeh I of Asante, in what is now known as Ghana, in reply to British offer of protection, 1891.”

In 1894, Prempeh was formally placed on the Golden Stool under the Stool name Kwaku Dua III, though he is more popularly recalled as Prempeh I; and, again, he sent a message of peaceful coexistence to the British Governor of the Gold Coast:

“I pray and beseech my elders, as well as my Gods and the spirits of my ancestors, to assist me, to give me true wisdom and love, to rule and govern my nation, and I beseech you, my good friend, to pray and ask blessings from your God to give me long life and prosperous and peaceful reign, an d that my friendship with Her Majesty’s Government may be more firm and more closer than hitherto had been done, that bye-gones will be bygones, that Ashanti nation will awake herself as out of sleep, that the hostilities will go away from her, that I shall endeavour to promote peace and tranquility and good order in my Kingdom and to restore its trade, and the happiness and safety of my people generally, and thus raise my kingdom of Ashanti to a prosperous, substantial, and steady position as a great farming and trading community such as it has never occupied hitherto, and that the trade between your Protectorate and my kingdom of Ashanti may increase daily to the benefit of all interested in it. ”.

Within a short time, Nana Kwaku Dua III, popularly known as Prempeh I re-united the nation, set up a new Civil Service under John and Albert Owusu Ansah, grandsons of Nana Osei Bonsu.  Nana Prempeh  entered into contract with several European firms to set up schools, factories, and to build railway lines and waterways in Asante.  Put simply, Prempeh I sought to bring Asante into modernity at the turn of the nineteenth century.  The King’s successes in unifying Asante, coupled with his plans to modernize Asante along European lines raised concerns among the British.  This was the era of the European imperial Scramble for Africa, began in full steam after 1884.  An independent African state at the time, ruled by an African, was thought to be anathema.  Thus alarmed, the English offered the King and his senior chiefs a monthly stipend in exchange for Asante becoming a British colony.Barely twenty-one years old, Nana Prempeh firmly refused. As he told the British envoys, “my Kingdom Asante has been free, and will continue to be free”!  Other independent African Kings such as Behanzin of Dahomey, and the Moro Naba of the Mossi Kingdom of Wagadugu (Burkina Faso) were offered such bribes and refused them.  They were all “exiled”, as a result.

In 1896, Asantehene Prempeh I, the Asantehemaa, some of his leading chiefs, and family members, were exiled to Cape Coast; then Elmina; and later in 1896 to Freetown, Sierra Leone, from where they were eventually sent to the Seychelles Island in 1900.  While in exile, Nana Prempeh wrote a history book on Asante “The History of Asante Kings and the Whole Country Itself,” because of his concern that Asante history could be lost if they all died in exile.  He was allowed to returned to Kumase on November 12, 1924. The British recognized Nana Prempeh I, only as Kumasehene in 1926.  But to all Asante, he was still the Asantehene.  Nana Prempeh I acquired new land in Kumase to have a new Palace built..  He named the area Manhyia, where the Asantehene’s Palace still stands.  Nana Prempeh passed on peacefully in 1931.

Asantehene Prempeh I met the enemy; he faced the enemy; he stared down the enemy; he bore the brunt of the enemy’s contemptible behavior, indignities and wanton destruction, with aplomb and bravery; And he emerged stronger and Asante prouder. And his enemy had a new sense of respect for the institution he so bravely sought to protect.

14) Osei Kwame Kyeretwie also known as Edward Prempeh Owusu succeeded him in 1931 under the Stool name Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II, and ruled till 1970. In 1935 the British government restored the Asante Confederacy, though much reduced in size.  Nana Prempeh II was put on the Golden Stool as Asantehene, ending 39 years of Asante “Babylonian Captivity.”

The British Monarchy recognized Nana Prempeh’s tenacity by knighting him, and presented him with a Rolls Royes car which is still in use. But he was quietly advised to leave out “Osei Tutu,”, over their concerns of the ancient Osei Tutu recrudescence. He was a founding member of the Asante Kotoko Society in 1916, an organization that contunued the agitation for the return of Nana Prempeh I from exile, and also helped to organize the Asante Kotoko Football Club; Nana Prempeh’s credentials in espousing the welfare of Asante was impeccable.  Nana Sir Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II brought needed change to Asante.  Nana gave land freely for the construction of secondary schools, technical schools, vocational schools, and hospitals, in Kumasi.  His crowning achievement was his establishment of the Kumasi College Technology, (later expanded after independence in to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

Nana Prempeh II transcended Asante interests.  Where possible, he subjugated Asante interests to the greater national goal of a fledgling Ghana.He worked to have Asante colonial administration unified with that of the rest of the colony. In this way, Nana helped in the creation of our one nation, indivisible and united. In 1946, Prempeh II abolished the Asante Legislative Council and merged the independent Asante colonial administration with the rest of the Gold Coast Colony. When one reads of book titles like W.E. Ward’s ‘History of the Gold AND Asante’, it speaks to an era when Asante was independent of the Gold Colony, in terms of administration, and was recognized as such.

Indeed, in the October 20, 1954, issue of the newspaper “Ghana Nationalist”, a correspondent reported that at a high level Convention People’s Party (CPP) meeting that included Mr. K.A. Gbedemah, the Minister of Finance, it was “decided to send a delegation to Otumfuo, the Asantehene Nana Prempeh II requesting him to accept the suggestion to be made a Monarch of the Gold Coast….”  That such a view was articulated by the CPP in 1954 is a remarkable admission of Nana Prempeh’s prestige, and recognition of his position as a statesman.

Perhaps, Nana Prempeh II’s greatest contribution to Asante and Ghana was the stand he took during the heady days of the National Liberation Movement 1954-1957, and the call for a federal nation, to replace the unitary administration. The belief was that a federated Ghana would ensure equity, good governance, probity, and augur well for development. 

Nana Prempeh II, had to repudiate his own chief linguist, the redoubtable Okyeame Baffour Osei Akoto, one of the main leaders of the NLM campaign for a federal nation, on national radio, in order to ensure peace, stability and a unitary Ghana.

15) Opoku Ware II.He ruled from July 1970 till his death in February 1999. In 1984, or so, he showcased the American Museum of natural History’s series ASANTE GOLD with Grand Durbar in New York City, and Washington, D.C.

Sixteenth, OTUMFUO OSEI TUTU OPEMSUO II….1999 current.

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