Golden Stool

The Golden Stool (Ashanti-Twi: Sika 'dwa) is the royal and divine throne of the Ashanti people. According to legend, Okomfo Anokye, High Priest and one of the two chief founders of the Asante Confederacy, caused the stool to descend from the sky and land on the lap of the first Asante king, Osei Tutu. Such seats were traditionally symbolic of a chieftain's leadership, but the Golden Stool is believed to house the spirit of the Asante nation—living, dead and yet to be born.

Historical conflict

Many wars have broken out over the ownership of the royal throne. In 1896, Asantehene Prempeh I was deported rather than risk losing both the war and the throne. In 1900, Sir Frederick Hodgson, the Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded to be allowed to sit on the Golden Stool, and ordered that a search for it be conducted. This provoked an armed rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool, which resulted in the annexation of Ashanti to the British Empire, but preserved the sanctity of the Golden Stool. In 1921, African road workers discovered the stool and stripped some of the gold ornaments. They were taken into protective custody by the British, before being tried according to local custom and sentenced to death. The British intervened and the group was instead banished. An assurance of non-interference with the stool was then given by the British and it was brought out of hiding.

Ashanti people

Ashanti, or Asante, or Asanti ( Pronunciation of "Ashanti"; pronunciation: /ˈæʃɑːnˈtiː/ A-shahn-TEE; or Ashanti Twi pronunciation: Asantefo /ˈæsɑːnˈtiːˈfoʊ/ A-sahn-TEE-foh; singular masculine: Asanteniberma, singular feminine: Asantenibaa), are a nation and ethnic group native to Ashanti and the Kingdom of Ashanti situated on the semi-island exclave Ashantiland, on the Gulf of Guinea, who speak the Ashanti language and indistinguishable Ashanti Twi. The Ashanti language is spoken by over 9 million ethnic Ashanti people as a first language and second language. The word Ashanti is an English language misnomer and Asanti is the correct Ashanti Twi. Asanti literally means "because of wars" (Asa - wars; Nti- because[of]). The wealthy gold-rich Ashanti people developed a large and influential empire; the Ashanti Empire along the Lake Volta and Gulf of Guinea. The Ashanti people rich in gold later developed the powerful Ashanti Confederacy or Ashanti Empire (now Ashanti autonomous region) and became the dominant presence in the region.

Golden

Golden means made of, or relating to gold.

Golden can refer to:

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Yaa Asantewaa

Yaa Asantewaa (c. 1840–17 October 1921) (pronounced /ˈjeɪ ɑː.ˈsɑːn.teɪ.wə/) was appointed queen mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire—now part of modern-day Ghana—by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, the Ejisuhene—or ruler of Ejisu. In 1900, she led the Ashanti rebellion known as the War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa war, against British colonialism.

Prelude to rebellion

War of the Golden Stool

The War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, the Third Ashanti Expedition, the Ashanti Uprising, or variations thereof, was the final war in a series of conflicts between the British Imperial government of the Gold Coast (later Ashanti Region) and the Empire of Ashanti, an autonomous state in West Africa that fractiously co-existed with the British and its vassal coastal tribes.

When the Ashanti began rebelling against British rule, the British attempted to put down the unrest. Furthermore, the British governor, Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, demanded that the Asante turn over to the British the Golden Stool, i.e. the throne and a symbol of Asante sovereignty.

The war ended with the Ashanti maintaining its de facto independence. Even though the Ashanti were annexed into the British Empire, they ruled themselves with little reference to the colonial power. However, when the British colony of the Gold Coast became the first independent, sub-Saharan African country in 1957, Ashanti was subsumed into the newly created Ghana. This war was the last conflict in Africa in which one of the sides was commanded by a woman.