Yaa Asantewaa: The Asante Warrior Queen vs. British Empire

[00:00:01]queens of the world ya assantua asante warrior queen yaa asantowa rose to become a queen mother in the asante kingdom in what is modern-day ghana but when the king was captured and exiled by the british she refused to hand over the sacred golden stool she gave a powerful speech inspiring women and men to rise up and fight the british colonizers and was appointed head of the asante army first let's set the stage with a brief history of the asante kingdom in west africa in what is modern-day ghana and the ivory coast in dense and humid forests live the akan people though their land was difficult to farm it is rich in natural resources especially gold in 1701 chief aussie tutu united several abusuas or clans to form a new kingdom he called his people the asante meaning because of war asante is also often spelled and pronounced ashanti but as most african sources use asante i will stick with that osi tutu took the title of a santihini meaning paramount chief he organized his kingdom well and promoted leaders based on merit local chiefs reported to regional kings and they reported it to the assantahini the council of elders checked the power of the isantahini and even had the power to remove him to hold his new people together oseitutu's high priest called down from the heavens a golden stool the sika dua kofi the golden stool born on a friday is much more than the thrones of european monarchs stools are incredibly important to the asante they are understood to represent the sun some or soul of their owners and are given at important milestones in people's lives when children learn to crawl they receive a stool as their first gift from their father young women sit on a stool as part of the rites of puberty when couples are married the groom presents his bride with a stool and when a person dies they are bathed on a stool before burial when an important leader dies their stool is painted black with soot and animal blood and enshrined chiefs and kings have intricately carved stools to signify their position but these stools are made of wood the golden stool is the most sacred object in ahsante culture and is said to harbor the souls of all the asante people living dead and yet to be born it is believed that the unity of the asante kingdom depends on the safety of the golden stool and it is depicted on the asante flag a santahini oseitutu waged war on his neighboring tribes to expand his kingdom prisoners of war were often enslaved and put to work clearing land for farming or mining gold in african culture enslaved people had rights they could marry acquire wealth and even own their own slaves they could request a new master if they were being severely mistreated over generations enslaved people often gained their freedom and became integrated into society by exploiting forced labor the asante became incredibly wealthy but the direction that they most wanted to expand was south to the coast the territory of the fonte people they had been trading with europeans since the portuguese first arrived in the 1400s they profited as middlemen between the asante and the europeans gold ivory and other goods were traded and enslaved people to be shipped to plantations in the americas were in increasingly high demand once they were sold to the europeans enslaved people had no rights whatsoever and no hope of gaining freedom in 1806 the asante went to war with afanti the british backed the fanti and the dutch backed the asante both european powers supplied guns to the tribes they supported the europeans profited greatly as conflict supplied even more prisoners of war to be sold into slavery and shipped off to the americas the asante were a powerful army and they defeated the fanti and the british general sir charles mccarthy was killed in battle and the isantihini kept his skull as a gold-rimmed drinking cup now in direct control of the coast and with unfettered access to trade with the europeans the asante grew even richer in 1817 english explorer thomas bowditch visited the asante capital of kumasi deep in the forest he was overwhelmed by the wealth of the kingdom and the dazzling amount of gold the assan tahini and his people wore bowdich wrote a book about all that he had seen he recorded this mighty king had a piece of gold as a charm more than four men must carry the king's messengers with gold breastplates made way for us we stopped to take the hand of every chief they wore asanti clothes kinticloth in all the varieties of color and pattern thrown over the shoulder exactly like the roman toga and massive gold necklaces intricately wrought some wore necklaces reaching to the navel a band of gold and beads encircled the knee small circles of gold were strung around the ankles and lumps of rock gold hung from their left wrists gold and silver pipes and canes dazzled the eye in every direction wolves and rams heads as large as life cast in gold were suspended from their gold-handled swords bowditch secured a treaty with the asandahini and for a few decades the asante and the british maintained a precarious relationship of trade during this period of relative peace in about 1840 was born a girl by the name of yah asantewa in west african tradition children are given a name based on the day of the week they were born so we know that yah was born on a thursday though the exact date and year are lost to history her parents atta po and ampoma of ampa bame were farmers in the town of bise very little is recorded of yaz early life we know that she became the wife of a man from the city of kumasi and that they had a daughter together women hold strong positions in ahsante culture while the asantahini and the local chiefs are men wealth land power and the golden stool are passed matrilineally unlike in europe where inheritance is usually passed down patrilineal lines from father to son father to son among the asante property remains within an abusua or clan people must marry outside of their own abusua to prevent inbreeding and they often enter into polygamous marriages though this custom is fading a child's bond with their mother is considered stronger than with their father so children belong to their mothers abuswa often mothers and children live with the mother's family while the father lives with his families welcome the addition of a baby girl as they are seen as adding new generations to a family while boys will merely add to their future wife's family the bond between a child and his maternal uncles is paramount and most land and possessions are passed from uncle to nephew because of this system of matrilineal inheritance and because women are just as vital to men in the production of food and other goods they held far more power in their communities than their european counterparts asante women had significant rights within their marriages and legal rights to their children they were active in times of war working as chanters healers and taking up arms when the men had fallen matrilineal inheritance and abusua loyalty remain strong in ghana today though shifts towards monogamy and nuclear family living arrangements have been growing for decades in 1863 when ya was in her 20s war broke out again with the british the second anglo asante war ended in a stalemate on both sides suffered mass casualties from disease particularly malaria which had long plagued european colonizers in humid mosquito-rich west africa in 1872 the british purchased the gold coast from the dutch and officially established the british gold coast colony they set their sights on taking control of the asante people and their gold mines general garnet woolsley was sent with 2 500 british troops to defeat the asante in the third anglo-asante war by this time quinine had been discovered as a treatment for malaria and the british had another deadly weapon in their arsenal the machine gun even with these two major advantages the british only eked out a slim victory general woolsey invaded kumasi killed thousands of people and burned down the assantahini's palace and the asante capital yah asantewa's brother afran okpasi became the king of the province of edwaso as sister of the chief yah enjoyed great power and status in the community she became even more powerful when aquasi appointed her queen mother to rule by his side she was well respected as a leader for her intelligence wisdom charisma and sense of justice asante queen mothers or asantohimas are the second highest ranking person after the king or chief they are the spiritual heads of their communities and the keepers of genealogical knowledge they have veto power and may appoint their own ministers queen mothers preside over courts which hear cases brought by women they can act as regents if the chief is away or incapacitated and they themselves can act as war leaders after the asante's defeat in the third anglo-assante war the authority of the assantahini and his hierarchy was severely damaged and the kingdom was unstable civil war broke out in 1883 and after five years of battle assantahini primpei the first came out victorious and reestablished order but chief akwasi was killed in battle as queen mother yah had the right to nominate her brother's replacement she put forward her own grandson kofi tenei and he was elected the new king of edwiso he was a powerful ruler and stood behind a santa gene primpe the first as he continued to resist the british the colonists had put forth a forceful offer to make asante a british protectorate and they wanted to establish a british residence in kumasi primpit refused to give up his sovereignty but he did want the british to help him keep out the germans and french who were also encroaching on his land and illegally mining gold he sent a delegation to london offering concessions on gold cocoa and rubber but the british had decided that it was time to conquer the asante once and for all while the delegation was still in london the british attacked kumasi they demanded the assantahini pay them fifty thousand ounces of gold primpe refused and he was deposed and arrested his wealth was seized and shipped to london where queen victoria and museum goers marveled at its value and craftsmanship primpay his family and his followers including ya's grandson king kofi were shipped to a penal colony in the seychelles islands off the coast of east africa british major robert baden-powell published his justification for the theft of the asante kingdom by claiming that once the british had absolute control the area would finally have peace queen mother yaa asantowa didn't want peace if it came under british control with her grandson deported she became queen regent of edwiseau with the paramount king gone british governor general sir frederick hodgson demanded that the golden stool the symbol and most precious object of the asante people be it presented to him so that he could sit upon it he had no comprehension of the cultural significance of this object and saw it merely as a spoil of war to which he was now entitled but the asante hid their precious relic away and refused to hand it over hodgson ordered his men to search all of kumasi and even dig up the ground but they could not find the golden stool he demanded what must i do to the man whoever he is who has failed to give the queen who is the paramount power in this country the stool to which she is entitled where is the golden stool why am i not sitting on the golden stool at this moment i am the representative of the paramount power in this country why have you relegated me to this chair why did you not take the opportunity of my coming to kumasi to bring the golden stool and give it to me to sit upon the remaining asante kings and chiefs met in secret to decide how to respond many were resigned to giving the british what they wanted and handing over the golden stool but queen mother yaa asantowa now in her 60s stood up and addressed her fellow leaders 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 pedagon to the governor if you the chiefs of asante are going to behave like cowards and not fight you should exchange your loin claws for my undergarments to further make her point she grabbed a rifle and fired a shot into the roof shamed for their cowardice the asante leaders named yah warchief she led a force of 5 000 against the british in the fifth and final anglo-asante war which is also called the yah asantewa war or the war of the golden stool many women supported ya's cause they refused to sleep with their husbands if they would not fight with the queen mother her army chased frederick hodgson and his men into their fort at kumasi ya laid siege to the fort for several months her soldiers patrolled the vast forest between kumasi and the british colony on the coast to prevent reinforcements from reaching hodgson but eventually a large british force broke through rescued hodgson and captured yah and her generals the queen mother was exported to the seychelles and the ashanti empire was officially made a protectorate of the british crown ja assantewa died in her 80s in exile in the seychelles on october 17 1921 three years later a santa hini primpe the first and the remaining members of the exiled asante court were allowed to return home primpe had ya asantowa's remains returned to kumasi for a proper royal funeral though the asante were defeated the british never found the golden stool if they had it surely would have been carted back to london and would be on display in the british museum still along with so many other stolen treasures from around the world but instead the golden stool remains with the asante people as a symbol of their strength unity and independence only select members of the royal family know where the golden stool is hidden it is rarely seen and brought out only for important occasions such as the installment of a new assan tahini during the ceremony the stool is carried in on a pillow it may never touch the ground and is placed on an elephant skin or on its own stool the new assantahini is lifted over the stool by his attendance and his bottom is allowed to gently touch the stool three times after so many decades of warfare failing to keep them free a generation of asante political leaders organized to fight for independence they did so in the court system and through non-violent protests strikes and non-cooperation yah's dream of an asante free of british rule was realized on march 6 1957 when the asante protectorate gained independence as part of the new nation of ghana in forming the country the people looked to their own rich heritage the new name of the nation ghana was taken from an ancient african kingdom the flag represents the gold of the mines the green of the forest and the red blood shed in resistance the black star represents emancipation when giving his independence day speech first president kwame nkrumah chose to wear a traditional ashante garment of kinte cloth rather than a british suit he gave a stirring speech thanking the young the farmers and the women who have nobly fought and won the battle he called on the people to reshape ghana's destiny from colony to free nation and he called upon the rest of africa to do the same in the following decades many did just that but ghana was the first sub-saharan african nation to throw off european control and become independent ghana remains one of the freest and most stable governments on the continent with strong healthcare economic growth and human development the asante monarchy and the oyoko dynasty are still going strong the current assan tahini is otunfu nana osi tutu ii who ascended as the 16th asante king in 1999. he was one of seven descendants who were eligible for the stool and is the youngest son of assantahima nana afiya kobi siwa on pim ii she was the 13th queen mother of the asante and died in 1996 at the age of 109. she holds the record as the longest living member of any royal family in the world after her death her daughter yidom iii was selected to be the new queen mother and rule alongside her brother queen mother nana ya assantua nana is a title of respect in ghana remains a highly revered and beloved figure for her role in resisting the british colonizers and protecting the golden stool the yah asantewa's girls secondary school was established in kumasi in 1960 to encourage the rise of more female leaders in 2000 on the 100th anniversary of her stand against the british a week-long festival was held in yah asante's honor and a museum was opened to preserve her legacy and each year a festival is held in august where chiefs and common people gather together to honor this brave asante warrior queen a special thank you goes to my patron kevin johnson if you enjoyed this video please like subscribe comment your thoughts and check out my other royal history videos if you really want to help please consider supporting me on patreon a link is in the description thank you for watching