Q: What feels British but isn’t?
A: The contents of the British Museum.
It’s a common trope on the internet to talk about how the British Museum is full of stolen artefacts. From the bronze sculptures belonging to the Kingdom of Benin to the Gwaegal Shield belonging to the Aboriginal Australians, and even the Parthenon marbles belonging to Ancient Greece, the British Museum is truly full of artefacts belonging to communities around the world.
There’s another joke that says, “The only reason the Pyramids of Egypt still stand is because the British had no way to fit them in a ship and take them to their country.” Well, having colonized around 94 countries, it comes as no shock that Britain is in possession of all these artefacts.
Their acquisition, though, can hardly be said to be peaceful. The British did not really go out with cash in hand and engage in trade. No. It was the opposite. The British acquired them through brute force, and some led to war, such as the one we’re going to discuss below.
The Asante community
In what is today Ghana (and by extension, Ivory Coast and Togo), there stood a kingdom known as the Asante Kingdom. The name ‘Asante’ was derived from the two words: osa which means ‘war’ and nti which means ‘because of’. The community, then, came up in order to fight the opposing Denkyira kingdom.
The kingdom was formed in the year 1701, when a group of different clan heads in the Akan state decided to meet. The conveners of the meeting were Chief Priest Okomfo Anokye and Asantehene Osei Tutu I. During the meeting, Chief Priest Okomfo Anokye commanded a golden stool which slowly fell from heaven and gently landed on the lap of Osei Tutu I.
Okomfo Anokye declared the stool to be symbolic of the new Asante Kingdom, and so, everyone in the Kingdom had to pledge allegiance both to the Asantehene and the stool. The Golden stool, known as the Sika Dwa, became a sacred stool, considered to be the seat of the soul.
The British
In May 1817, a British traveller known as Thomas Bowdich landed in Kumasi, and after staying for several months, was generally impressed, and so, on his return to England, he wrote a book documenting his times, known as Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee.
In the book, he praised the Asante Kingdom, making the British curious to explore the area, and so, in years to come, they sent in expeditions to the region, starting with Joseph Dupuis, the first British Consul to Kumasi.
In the 75 years that the British occupied the Asante Kingdom during the 20th Century, there occurred five Anglo-Asante Wars. The fourth and the fifth shall be the focus of our stories today.
The 4th Anglo-Asante War (1895-1896)
This was the shortest of the wars, lasting only one and a half months, from 26th December 1895 to 4th February 1896. At this time, the British were extending an offer to the Asante Kingdom, for them to become a British protectorate.
The Asante King at the time, Prempeh I, refused to surrender his sovereignty. The British, however, would have none of it. They were adamant about keeping French and German forces out of Ashanti territory, therefore, they’d do anything to consolidate power over the region to themselves.
A common quote goes, “When diplomacy fails, supremacy prevails,” and likewise, since the Asantehene had refused to give up their power peacefully, it was now time for the British to take it up using force. By sending in a military to the Kingdom.
The British forces arrived in January 1896, and seeing this, the Asantehene got scared and directed his people not to resist. The Asantehene was ordered to pay 50,000 ounces of gold, but this he did not have, of course, and so, he was arrested.
While under arrest, he was forced to sign a treaty of protection, and then, together with other leaders of the Asante, he was sent into exile in the Seychelles.
The following year, then, the Asante Kingdom became a British protectorate.
The 5th Anglo-Asante War – The War that was started by a stool
During the period after which Asantehene Prempeh I had been exiled, the Kingdom remained without a leader.
Recognizing the respect accorded to the Golden Stool now, one Frederick Hodgson, the British representative to the region, wanted to have it.
So, in March 1900, he went to the town of Kumasi with a group of soldiers and then made a speech that is still remembered to this date for how ignorant it was. He said:
“Your King Prempeh I is in exile and will not return to Ashanti. His power and authority will be taken over by the Representative of the Queen of Britain. The terms of the 1874 Peace Treaty of Fomena, which required you to pay for the cost of the 1874 war, have not been forgotten. You have to pay with interest the sum of £160,000 a year. Then there is the matter of the Golden Stool of Ashanti. The Queen is entitled to the stool; she must receive it.
Where is the Golden Stool? I am the representative of the Paramount Power. Why have you relegated me to this ordinary chair? Why did you not take the opportunity of my coming to Kumasi to bring the Golden Stool for me to sit upon? However, you may be quite sure that though the Government has not received the Golden Stool at his hands it will rule over you with the same impartiality and fairness as if you had produced it.”
Those who listened to the speech had nothing to say in response and only left slowly to head over to their homes. The chiefs began preparing them for war upon their return to their homes. Hodgson had asked for the wrong thing, because the stool was not only a seat, but it was their Holy Grail. The stool was not a mere physical object and symbol of power, but also a metaphysical and spiritual representation of the soul of the Asante people.
Frederick Hodgson had committed a political error, and so, this angered everyone, even the people back in Britain.
Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa, just like Muthoni Nyanjiru (of Kenya), came out guns blazing to defend what’s rightful theirs. She said:
“Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it were in the brave days, the days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware, chiefs would not sit down to see their king taken away without firing a shot. No foreigner [Obroni] could have dared to speak to a chief of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you chiefs this morning. Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be! I must say this, if you, the men of Ashanti, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight! We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.”
The men were suddenly encouraged, and so, they formed their own machinery with which they intended to fight the British. The British wanted to take the stool, but the Asante people had hidden it. The British sent search parties to the villages to search for the stool, but the Asante decided to attack them.
This battle for the Golden Stool, was what became the 5th Anglo-Asante War, or the War of the Golden Stool, or the Yaa Asantewaa War.
During the battle, some of the Asante leaders, including Yaa Asantewaa, who was leading the rebellion at the time, were caught in July 1900, and sent into exile to Seychelles. Hodgson and his wife had managed to run away during the course of the war, escaping the wrath of 12,000 Asante warriors.
The war ended in September 1900, with 1,070 British casualties and 2,000 Asante casualties. The Asante had lost. The Golden Stool, however, wasn’t captured by the British, and remained in hiding until the year 1920, when random road workers discovered it by accident. The workers decided to strip the stool off its ornaments to sell the gold, but not so fast, as they were arrested and tried according to local customs and sentenced to death.
The Asante would’ve killed the road workers, were it not for the British taking up them under protective custody. They were, instead, just banished from the Kingdom.
Later on, the British and the Asante community signed an assurance of non-interference, which meant that the British had no interest in the stool. This gave the Asante to heave a sigh of relief, and finally take it out of hiding, where it has been used by the successive Asantehenes.
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