Who is Yaa Asantewaa?
Yea Asantewaa was a queen of the Ashanti Kingdom in present-day Ghana. She is renowned for her leadership and bravery during the War of the Golden Stool against British colonialism in 1900.
Yaa Asantewaa was born around 1840 in the Ashanti Kingdom. She was the sister of the Ashanti king, Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, and the mother of five children. As a member of the royal family, Yaa Asantewaa was well-educated and had a strong understanding of the Ashanti Kingdom’s history and traditions.
Why She is Being Celebrated
In 1896, the British Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Frederick Hodgson, demanded the Golden Stool, a symbol of the Ashanti Kingdom’s sovereignty. The Ashanti people saw the Golden Stool as sacred and refused to give it up. In response, Hodgson exiled the Ashanti king and several of his advisers to the Seychelles.
The Ashanti people were outraged and began to prepare for war. Yaa Asantewaa, who was serving as the queen mother of Ejisu, a town in the Ashanti Kingdom, played a pivotal role in organizing the resistance. In March 1900, she gathered the Ashanti leaders and delivered a powerful speech, urging them to fight against British colonialism:
“Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king…If it were in the brave days of old, 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 European could have dared speak to chiefs of Ashanti in the way the governor spoke to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of 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 the white men. We will fight until the last of us falls in the battlefield.”
Inspired by Yaa Asantewaa’s speech, the Ashanti people launched a war against the British. Although the Ashanti eventually surrendered, Yaa Asantewaa’s leadership and bravery became a symbol of resistance against colonialism in Africa. She died in exile in the Seychelles in 1921. Today, she is remembered as a hero and an icon of Ghanaian history and culture.