War of the Golden Stool (1900): Yaa Asantewaa's Asante Uprising

The War of the Golden Stool was an uprising by the Asante (Ashanti) people against British colonial rule in 1900, in what is now Ghana. It broke out after the British governor demanded that the Asante surrender the Golden Stool, the sacred symbol of their nation, and it was led by Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of Ejisu. The British won the war, but the stool was never handed over and Yaa Asantewaa became one of Africa’s best-known heroes of anti-colonial resistance.

Background: Asante and the British

The Asante kingdom, centred on Kumasi, was one of the most powerful states in West Africa from the late 17th century, controlling trade in gold, kola nuts and, until the 19th century, enslaved people. Through the 19th century it fought a series of wars against Britain, which controlled the coastal Gold Coast colony.

During the Scramble for Africa, Britain moved to bring Asante under its control. In 1896 a British expedition entered Kumasi without a battle and arrested the Asantehene (king), Prempeh I, along with members of his family and senior chiefs. They were exiled, first to Elmina and Sierra Leone and from 1900 to the Seychelles. A British Resident was installed in Kumasi and a fort built there.

At the heart of Asante identity was the Golden Stool, or Sika Dwa Kofi. According to tradition, it was summoned from the sky by the priest Okomfo Anokye for the founding king Osei Tutu around 1700 and contained the spirit of the Asante nation. It was never sat upon, not even by the king.

The governor’s demand

On 28 March 1900 the Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Frederic Hodgson, addressed a meeting of Asante chiefs in Kumasi. He demanded payment of an indemnity for past wars and asked where the Golden Stool was, saying that as the representative of the paramount power he should sit on it.

To the Asante this was a grave insult. British officers were also searching for the stool, which had been hidden. Within days the chiefs met secretly to discuss resistance. Tradition records that Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of Ejisu, shamed hesitant male leaders by declaring that if the men would not fight, the women would. The exact words vary between accounts and were recorded later, but her central role in rallying the resistance is well established.

The siege of Kumasi

Fighting began in late March and early April 1900, and by late April Asante forces had surrounded the small British fort at Kumasi. Inside were Hodgson, his wife Mary, other Europeans, African soldiers of the colonial forces and many local people who had taken refuge, numbering several hundred in all. Food and water ran short, and disease spread.

The Asante built stockades across the roads and fought off the first relief columns. On 23 June Hodgson broke out with most of the garrison and fled south, leaving a small force with limited rations to hold the fort. A larger relief expedition of around 1,000 men, mostly African soldiers from across British West Africa under Colonel James Willcocks, fought its way through and relieved Kumasi on 15 July 1900.

Defeat and exile

Over the following months British columns attacked Asante towns and stockades. The last major engagement took place near Aboasu at the end of September 1900, after which organised resistance collapsed. Yaa Asantewaa was captured in early 1901.

She and around 15 other leaders were exiled to the Seychelles, where she died on 17 October 1921. On 1 January 1902 Britain formally annexed Asante as a colony. Prempeh I was allowed to return to Kumasi in 1924, and in 1935 the Asante Confederacy was restored under his successor.

The fate of the Golden Stool

The British never found the stool. In 1921 men building a road came across its hiding place and removed some of its gold ornaments; an Asante court sentenced them, and the British authorities, now better informed about its meaning, accepted that the stool was sacred and would not be touched. The Golden Stool remains in Kumasi today, and is used in the enthronement of each Asantehene.

By the numbers

Legacy

In Ghana, Yaa Asantewaa is honoured as a national heroine and a symbol of women’s leadership. A museum in Ejisu, a girls’ secondary school in Kumasi and an annual festival bear her name, and the centenary of the war in 2000 was marked with public commemorations. Later nationalists drew on her story during the struggle that led to Ghana’s independence in 1957.

Historians also see the war as a turning point in British policy. After 1900 colonial officials increasingly ruled through traditional chiefs and avoided direct attacks on sacred institutions, a practice later formalised as indirect rule.

Timeline

• 1896, January: British forces enter Kumasi; Prempeh I is arrested and exiled.
• 1900, 28 March: Governor Hodgson demands the Golden Stool at a meeting in Kumasi.
• 1900, late April: Asante forces besiege the British fort at Kumasi.
• 1900, 23 June: Hodgson breaks out with most of the garrison.
• 1900, 15 July: Willcocks’ relief column reaches Kumasi.
• 1900, late September: the last major Asante resistance is defeated.
• 1902, 1 January: Asante is formally annexed as a British colony.
• 1921, 17 October: Yaa Asantewaa dies in exile in the Seychelles.

Why it matters

The War of the Golden Stool was the last major war between Britain and the Asante. Although it ended in conquest, the Asante kept their most sacred symbol, and the uprising forced the colonial power to respect Asante institutions. Yaa Asantewaa’s leadership remains a powerful symbol of resistance across Africa and its diaspora.