Nana Yaa Asantewaa

Image of nana Yaa asantewa, the 2nd. Present Queen mother of ejisu



Ejisu palace








Yaa Asantewaa (c.
1840–17 October 1921)
(pronounced YAY A-san-
TE-waa) was appointed
queen mother of Ejisu of
the Ashanti Empire—now
part of modern-day
Ghana —by her brother
Nana Akwasi Afrane
Okpese, the Ejisuhene
"ruler of Ejisu". In 1900
she led the Ashanti
rebellion known as the
War of the Golden Stool
against British
colonialism .
Prelude to rebellion
During her brother's
reign, Yaa Asantewaa saw
the Asante Confederacy
go through a series of
events that threatened its
future, including civil
war from 1883 to 1888.
When her brother died in
1894, Yaa Asantewaa
used her right as Queen
Mother to nominate her
own grandson as
Ejisuhene. When the
British exiled him in the
Seychelles in 1896, along
with the King of Asante
Prempeh I and other
members of the Asante
government, Yaa
Asantewaa became regent
of the Ejisu-Juaben
District. After the
deportation of Prempeh
I, the British governor-
general of the Gold
Coast, Frederick
Hodgson, demanded the
Golden Stool , the symbol
of the Asante nation. This
request led to a secret
meeting of the remaining
members of the Asante
government at Kumasi, to
discuss how to secure
the return of their king.
There was a disagreement
among those present on
how to go about this. Yaa
Asantewaa, who was
present at this meeting,
stood and addressed the
members of the council
with these now-famous
words:
“ Now I see
that some
of you fear
to go
forward to
fight for
our king. If
it [was] in
the brave
days of
”
With this, she took on
leadership of the Asante
Uprising of 1900, gaining
the support of some of
the other Asante nobility.
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The rebellion and its
aftermath
Beginning in March
1900, the rebellion laid
siege to the fort at
Kumasi where the British
had sought refuge. The
fort still stands today as
the Kumasi Fort and
Military Museum. After
several months, the Gold
Coast governor
eventually sent a force of
1,400 to quell the
rebellion. During the
course of this, Queen Yaa
Asantewaa and 15 of her
closest advisers were
captured, and they too
were sent into exile to
the Seychelles. [2] The
rebellion represented the
final war in the Anglo-
Asante series of wars that
lasted throughout the
19th century. On 1
January 1902, the British
were finally able to
accomplish what the
Asante army had denied
them for almost a
century, and the Asante
empire was made a
protectorate of the
British crown.
Yaa Asantewaa died in
exile in the Seychelles on
October 17, 1921. Three
years after her death, on
27 December 1924,
Prempeh I and the other
remaining members of
the exiled Asante court
were allowed to return to
Asante. Prempeh I made
sure that the remains of
Yaa Asantewaa and the
other exiled Asantes were
returned for a proper
royal burial. Yaa
Asantewaa's dream for
an Asante free of British
rule was realized on 6
March 1957, when the
Asante protectorate
gained independence as
part of Ghana, the first
African nation in
Subsaharan Africa to
achieve this feat.
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Social roles of Asante
women
The confrontation of a
woman, serving as
political and military
head of an empire, was
foreign to British
colonial troops in 19th
century Africa. Yaa
Asantewaa's call upon
the the women of the
Asante Empire is based
upon the political
obligations of the Akan
women and their
respective roles in
legislative and judicial
processes. The hierarchy
of male stools among the
Akan people were
complimented by female
counterparts. Within the
village, elders known as
(mpanyimfo) heads of
the matrilineages,
constituted with the
village council known as
the ôdekuro. These
women known as the
mpanyinfo referred to
aberewa or ôbaa
panyin, to look after
womens' affairs. For
every ôdekuro, an ôbaa
panyin acted as the
responsible party for the
affairs of the women of
the village and served as
a member of the village
council. The head of a
division, the ôhene and
the head of the
autonomous political
community, the
ômanhene , had their
female counterparts
known as the ôhemma :
a female ruler who sat
on their councils. The
ôhemma and ôhene
were all of the same
mogya, blood or
localized matrilineage.
The occupant of the
female stool in the
Kumasi state, the
Asantehemma , and
therefore, the united
Asante, since her male
counterpart was ex
officio of the Asanthene,
was a member of the
Ktôtôkô Council, the
Executive Committee or
Cabinet of the Asanteman
Nhyiamu , General
Assembly of Asante
rulers. Female stool
occupants participated in
not only the judicial and
legislative processes, but
also in the making and
unmaking of war, and the
distribution of land. [3]
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Place in history and
cultural legacy
Yaa Asantewaa remains a
much-loved figure in
Asante history and the
history of Ghana as a
whole for the courage
she showed in
confronting injustice
during the colonialism of
the British. She is
immortalized in song as
follows:
To highlight the
importance of
encouraging more female
leaders in Ghanaian
society, the Yaa
Asantewaa Girls'
Secondary School was
established at Kumasi in
1960 with funds from
the Ghana Educational
Trust.
In 2000, week-long
centenary celebrations
were held in Ghana to
acknowledge Yaa
Asantewaa's
accomplishments. As part
of these celebrations, a
museum was dedicated
to her at Kwaso in the
Ejisu-Juaben District on 3
August 2000.
Unfortunately, a fire
there on 23 July 2004,
destroyed several
historical items,
including her sandals and
battle dress
(batakarikese ) seen in
the photograph above. [5]
The current Queen-
mother of Ejisu is Yaa
Asantewaa II. A second
Yaa Asantewaa festival
was held 1–5 August
2006, in Ejisu. [6]
The Yaa Asantewaa
Centre in Maida Vale,
west London, is an
African-Caribbean arts
and community centre.
[7] It took its name in
1986. [8