It is reported that Yaa Asantewaa rose and addressed the members of the council with these now-famous words: “Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. Yaa Asantewaa was an influential Ashanti queen at the beginning of the twentieth century who remains a powerful symbol today. She was inducted queen mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire by her brother and following his death in 1894, she used such right and nominated her own grandson as Ejisuhene. Chantal Korsah is a London-born Ghanaian emerging writer and playwright, who has had several poems and short stories published in literary blogs and anthologies and is currently working on her first novel and on producing her first written play, a biographical play about Yaa Asantewaa, the famed Ashanti Queen Mother. When Prempeh refused, he and other chiefs including Kofi Tene, were forcibly arrested and deported to Sierra Leone. She was a politician, … If you, the chiefs of Ashanti, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments. She was arrested and sent to Seychelles for exile. On this day in 1900, Yaa Asantewaa made her famous speech to her Ashanti tribe in regards to the British. She was the oldest of two children, the second being her brother Afrane Panin, who eventually became the Edwesohene (Chief of Edweso). Her childhood passed without major incident, and she was said to have been a major farmer, and cultivated many crops in her farms in Boankra village. 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. The Ashanti Confederacy was one of the most sophisticated Kingdoms in Africa at the time in terms of its influence, wealth and organisation; it was established in 1701 by the first Asantehene (King), Osei Tutu, who led an army and defeated the regional power at that time, and united the individual Village-States into a united Confederacy. This Ashanti State establishment also has some mythology attached; Asantehene Osei Tutu’s right hand man and High Priest Okomfo Anokye, was said to have called forth the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Ashanti throne, from the sky, and it was reputed to have fallen into Osei Tutu’s lap, confirming his ascendency to the throne. On March 28th 1900, a grand durbar was organise for Governor Arnold Hodgson in Kumase within the premises of the Kumase Fort, which is now called Yaa Asantewaa Fort. Arise men! Another powerful psychological strategy Yaa Asantewaa employed was the use of the Ashanti talking drums to convey to the British several messages during warfare; one beat was reported to mean “prepare to die”, three beats meant “cut the head off”, and four beats meant “the head is off”. The last war, fought in the 1870s, had brought about great destabilisation in the Ashanti; the capital state Kumasi had been set on fire and ransacked, the British had set up a fort opposite the Manhyira (Ashanti Palace) and had implemented forced labour and a compulsory tax of around £160,000. LEAVERS’ DINNER; Just after the last paper of the final exam, there is an informal gathering of the final year students, parents and teachers at the Assembly hall. A woman who fights before cannons [Oral tradition says that to emphasize her determination to go to war, she seized a gun and fired a shot in front of the men, marking the beginning of the Ashante battle with the British.]. CULTURAL TROUP. Eventually though, the British proved victorious, by conquering Ashanti villages one-by-one, with the help of Hausa and Sikh armies that they recruited and imported into Ghana from their vast colonial empire, and the help of several treacherous Ashanti chiefs and everyday men who revealed her tactics and hideouts to them, for rewards. It is more honorable to perish in defense of the Golden Stool than to remain in perpetual slavery. Queen Mother, Yaa Asantewaa (1840–1921) “We will fight the white men. From them I knew that Mansa Musa of Mali was black, and Shabaka of Egypt was black, and Yaa Asantewaa of Ashanti was black—and "the black race" was a thing I supposed existed from time immemorial, a thing that was real and mattered. Yaa Asantewaa had witnessed several events including civil war from 1883 to 1888 during her brother’s rule that posed threat to the future of the Ashanti Confederacy. Nana Pokua Wiafe Mensah (2010) The Queen Mother of Ejisu: The Unsung Heroine of Feminism in Ghana, dissertation thesis, University of Toronto. CADET ON ANNIVERSARY DAY. Yaa Asantewa and other leaders were captured and sent into exile. She merged the single village-state armies into one central army, and when they were closing in on Edweso, her own village and the headquarters for the resistance, she fed information to the British that the current general had been changed, thus providing a decoy and leading the British in a different direction, while she was able to escape and set up a new headquarters in Offinso, the village of her friend and fellow Warrior Queen Mother Nana Afrenewaa. Nana Yaa Asantewaa, an Ashanti queen mother, rallied her people into resistance, in what came to be known as the War of the Golden Stool. Yaa Asantewa’s War was the last major war led by an African woman. The War of the Golden Stool and its Aftermath After delivering her stirring speech, Nana Yaa Asantewaa put an exclamation mark on it by grabbing a gun and shooting into the air. Renowned for being a woman who hated injustice and loathed the telling of lies she said; "Now, I see that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. London's Centre for Carnival Arts and more... Yea Centre hosts arts workshops and regular community arts activities throughout the year. Against this backdrop, Yaa Asantewaa’s brother died, and her grandson, Kofi Tene, her daughter’s son inherited the throne, and became a strong ally of the Asantehene eventually crowned in 1888, Prempeh I. INSPECTION OF PARADE. Source: “Asante Queen Mothers in Government and Politics in the Nineteenth Century,” by Agnes Akousa Aidoo, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, December 1977, Vol. Zanetor Rawlings, Yaa Asantewaa Rawlings and Amina Rawlings were all present at the family meeting with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee house tonight in black. Yaa Asantewaa 1-13. In 1896, the British demanded the Golden Stool and complete surrender of the Ashanti Confederacy to them. Not quite long ago the white man came and unilaterally occupied our God-given land and by force of arms has declared Ashanti Kingdom a British protectorate. She had an elder brother who would later become Ejisuhene (that is Ejisu Chief), a divisional chiefdom under the king of the Asante empire. In 2006, a festival was held to honor the current Queen-mother, Yaa Asantewaa II, and so the legacy of the great warrior continues to inspire each succeeding generation of … We should rise and defend our heritage; it is better to perish than to look on sheepishly while the white man whose sole business in our country is to steal, kill and destroy, threatens to rob us of our Golden Stool. 9, No. It especially comes alive during the summer in carnival season. Taking our brave men for a ride, the governor arbitrarily arrested and deported our King together with some prominent Chiefs of Ashanti without you men raising a finger. Yaa Asantewaa would have ascended to the throne sometime in the 1880s, inheriting the throne from her mother or grandmother, as throne inheritance is matrilineal and not patrilineal in Ashanti culture. To encourage them further, she also ordered the wives to march every day around their villages and perform victory rituals in a show of support and solidarity. There, he delivered a provocative speech, in which he demanded that the Ashanti produce the Golden Stool, the tribe’s most sacred object, so he could sit upon it. The British however, fought back by destroying many stockades and conquering several villages, forcing Yaa Asantewaa to change her tactics. Yaa Asantewaa also made it a point to send out generals and troops to monitor strategic points in and around Kumasi. Official School Website for Yaa Asantewaa Girls' Senior High School. The Confederacy had then been plunged into a civil war after the last Asantehene had been de-stooled, (deposed from office) and several successors had emerged, and fought until one was crowned. But Queen Yaa Asantewaa rallied the Asante warriors with a rousing speech, full of choice words about how the Asante women would punish the men, if they ‘behaved like women’. Also: Asirifi-Danquah, The Struggle: Between Two Great Queens, 1900-1901, Yaa Asantewaa and Victoria of Great Britain, (Ghana) 2007, p. 62. In the beginning, she turned her Village State, Edweso, into the headquarters of the resistance, as the British had established themselves in Kumasi. Yaa Asantewaa also subverted the common view of the Ashanti women not being allowed on the battlefield, and in the early days of the War, was often viewed on the battlefields holding a gun, though she did not fire herself. The effect was electric, firing up the audience and whipping the embers of Ashanti resentment into a … [email protected] ... 1900-1901, Yaa Asantewaa and Victoria of Great Britain, (Ghana) 2007, p. 62. This War also marked the first time that the Ashantis used stockades, with them building one outside each village, and using them as traps against the British. She stood by her word. After four years of constant negotiations and refusals by the British to release the Asantehene and the chiefs, the last straw came when the British Governor at the time, Frederick Hodgson, demanded the Golden Stool as a symbol of sovereignty of the British of the Ashantis. The British sent 1400 soldiers with guns to Kumasi, capturing Yaa Asantewaa and other leaders and sent them into exile. To date, she is honored in Africa as one of the greatest African women. During the meeting, Yaa Asantewaa expressed her utter disgust at the cowardly conduct of her male counterparts who were afraid to go to war to defend the kingdom. She married a man from Kumasi, and was the first wife in a traditional polygamous marriage, and had one daughter with him. SPEECH AND PRIZE GIVING DAYS; These are held every two years, and deserving students, teachers and workers are awarded prizes. Obaabasia oko premo ano To most Western scholars, she is known as Africa’s Joan of Arc. They had much early success with this tactic. The Yaa Asantewa War (now known in Ghana) was one of the last great women to wage war on the African continent. The Golden Stool only means money to the white man; they have searched and dug everywhere for it. Classroom Block. To overcome this, she enlisted the help of their wives by ordering them to withhold sex from their men until they joined. libations, drinks poured out as an offering) and took a solemn oath to rid the Ashanti of British rule. During this time, the Ashanti Confederacy had seen major upheaval, with no less than four wars having been fought between the British and the Ashanti. HANDING OVER. krokrohenkro yaa waye be egyae, Yaa Asantewaa If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments (Monto mo danta mma me na moye me tam). In Her Famous Classic War Speech, The Great Warrior Queen Yaa Asantewaa I, who was also the Queen Mother of the Ejisu dominion within the Ashanti kingdom, rallied resistance against the colonialists: "Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. Attah Mills Block. The Confederacy’s great defender, Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa, was born in 1840, in the village of Besease, near Edweso, the village that she eventually grew up to rule, into the Asona matrilineal royal clan of Edweso. But what were the circumstances that led to her extraordinary decision to become the most dangerous woman in that region of Africa, and commandeer the entire Ashanti army against the greatest colonial power at the time, the British? March 28, 1900 — To members of the Asanti government council, Kumasi, Ashanti Empire (now Ghana). As there was much fear of the British initially, many of the Ashanti men refused to join their State armies. Yaa Asantewa’s war was the last of the major war in Africa led by a woman. (Yaa Asantewaa’s brother Kwasi Afrane, or King of Edweso, had died in 1894 hence why he was not among those arrested.) In an emotionally charged speech, she resolved that if the men were afraid to defend their kingdom, she would rally the women to fight for their land. Boahen, A.Adu (2003) Yaa Asantewaa and the Asante-British War of 1900-01, James Currey Publishers. Regular Activities . Waye be egyae In his speech the Governor demanded that the Golden Stool should be brought for him to sit on it. Yaa Asantewa died in exile on the 17th of October 1921. You have accomplished great things Yaa Asantewaa was born in Ejisu, a central state of the Asante Kingdom in Ghana. Yaa Asantewaa, who was present at this meeting, stood and addressed the members of the council with these now-famous words: How can a proud and brave people like the Asante sit back and look while whitemen took away their king and chiefs, and humiliated them with a demand for the Golden Stool. Disgusted by the men’s behavior, Yaa Asantewaa stood up and addressed the members of the council with these now-famous words: “ Now, I see … In 1900 she led the Ashanti war known as the War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa war, against British colonialism. ASANTEWAA WARRIORS. Yaa Asantewaa's famous war speech to members of the council of the Asante government offering her undergarments if they won't fight. In response to his demand, Queen-King Nana Yaa Asantewaa gave an uncompromising and unforgettable speech that stung the hearts of all the Ashanti men who were present. Her legacy though, as a patriotic defender and a strategic leader of the Ashanti Confederacy army in the fifth Anglo-Ashanti War, lives on and cements her place in history as a dangerous woman. While this is impressive for any individual, it was especially noteworthy for Asantewaa — you’d be hard-pushed to find a woman occupying such powerful roles at this time. I am prepared and ready to lead you to war against the white man.Â. In a famous speech, Touré said: ... Yaa Asantewaa (1840-1921) Yaa Asantewaa is often dubbed as the African Joan of Arc. AMANADEHYEE. That night, Yaa Asantewaa goaded the chiefs to war by refusing to pay Edweso’s share of the tax, and when several chiefs protested that the British were too powerful to take on, she gave a rallying speech: How can a proud and brave people like the Ashanti sit back and look while white men take away their king and chiefs, and humiliate them with demand for the Golden Stool?

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