YAA ASANTEWA
1863-1923
Her fight against British
colonialists is a story woven throughout the history of Ghana. A History for a
black people, one evening the chiefs held a secret meeting at Kumasi. Yaa
Asantewaa the Queen Mother of Ejisu, was at the meeting. The chiefs were
discussing how they should make war on the white men and force them to bring
back the Asantehene. Yaa Asantewa saw that some of the chiefs were afraid. Some
said that there should be no war. They should rather go to beg the Governor to
bring back the Asantehene King(Nana) Prempeh.
Then suddenly
Yaa Asantewaa stood up and spoke. This was what 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 of, 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 white
man could have dared to speak to 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
the white men. We will fight till the last of us falls in the
battlefields."
This speech stirred up the men who
took another to fight the white men until they released the Asantehene. For
months the Ashanti’s led by Yaa Asantewaa fought very bravely and kept the
white men in the fort. Yet British reinforcements totaling 1,400 soldiers
arrived at Kumasi. Yaa Asantewaa and other leaders were captured and sent into
exile. Yaa Asantewa's war was the last of the major war in Africa led by a
woman.
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