Bonokyempem Duoduakwa is a symbol of the independence and pride of Bonoman

Finally the chips have begun to fall into place; Asantehene has begun to give reasons why Bonoman is subservient to the Golden Stool. I hope from now the insults and propaganda on radio and social media can give way to a serious intellectual debate on whether Bonos are indeed subservant to Sikadwa. Yes you heard it from him (Otumfor Osei Tutu II) that Tano-Subin, Nsawkaw, Berekum, Nkoranza, Mo, Banda, Japekrom, Drobo indeed all Bonoland belongs to Asanteman. And he’s got surrogates like Nana Obiri Boahen, Teacher Kantanka e and others who are jumping between radio stations providing historical justification for this assertion. This article is not only to debunk that assertion but a direct challenge to Nana Obiri Boahene and others like him to take up this challenge and provide written rebuttal to this article. That Ashantis built a magnificent empire is not a subject of debate anymore in fact at the height of the Ashanti Empire it stretched south to the coast which in present geographical map of Ghana will include Eastern, Central and Western Regions of Ghana with few exceptions. In the north it shared borders with the Mossi Kingdom and to the East it stretched deep into the present day La Cote d’Ivoire. Ghana would have been a different country today if all the territories that fell under the Asante Empire were incorporated into it. The arrival of the British however changed the course of the history and geography of our nation. How the British extended their rule from Axim to Paga is the subject of the article and it will debunk the myth that Sikadwa has any control of Bonoman.

In the interest of an objective historical account of British military expeditions on our land may I state for the record that the British did not always win their wars against Ashantis. In fact on January 22, 1824 the British lost a battle to Ashantis at the Battle of Nsamankow when the British Commander MacCarthy was killed and his head cut off to show the supremacy of Ashanti military power. But the military force that Sir Garnet Wolseley assembled against Asanteman in 1893-1894 was none like any other. Some account claim they assembled the finest of British overseas volunteer forces drawn from as far as Northern Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gambia. With an arsenal of modern superior weapons thrown at them, the Ashantis were no match against British army; the whole city of Kumasi was burn to the ground including the Kings palace. Ashanti sued for peace and at the Treaty of Fomena; February 13, 1874 Nana Kofi Karikari the King of Ashanti agreed to pay the sum of 50,000 ounces of gold as indemnity for the expenses he has occasioned to Her Majesty the Queen of England. (The Third Anglo-Asante War, 1873–1874: Published online by Cambridge University Press). This was a consequential defeat because Asantis did not only loose a war but they lost territories as well. The British took away all the Ashanti territories/possessions in the south to be incorporated into the Gold Coast colony. Ashantis seem to have resigned themselves to this faitaccompli because Ashantis are reticent to talk about their southern territories. Twenty three years after the Treaty of Formena in 1896 Governor William Maxwell arrived in Kumasi after Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I was unable or unwilling to pay the 50,000 ounces of gold and for other offenses including the Kings persistent attempts at lunching military attacks on some southern territories taken away from him. This King (Agyemang Prempeh I) knew the consequences of a military confrontation with the British, he offered to submit himself to British authority to spare his Kingdom. Nana Agyemang Prempeh I was forced to sign a treaty of protection, and with other Ashanti leaders was sent into exile in the Seychelles . The year 1896 is therefore a seminal moment in history because it marked the official year the curtains finally came down on the Ashanti Empire (Wilks 1975; Lloyd 1964 ) Herein lies the argument by Bono states make that they had their freedom and independent at the instance of the British and not the Asantehene as he claims. Independence was extended to Bono Chiefs who signed the same protectorate treaties Nana Agyemang Prempeh I signed. Techiman for instance signed the treaty of protection between Nana Kwaku Gyarko and the queen’s representative at Nkoranza on June 05, 1897. The Ashanti Empire ceased to exist after 1896 so he (Otumfor Osei Tutu II) does not have that imperial authority he been clothing himself with in recent times . These are not my words on the fall of the Ashanti Empire for an edict had officially gone out within the Empire in the wake of the dissolution of the Empire forbidding anyone from coming to Kumasi to show any semblance of a reconstitution of the Ashanti Empire. Anyone who flouted this order risked arrest and detention. A story is told in Wenchi that the Wenchi royal household decided to risk the consequences and go to Kumasi to commensurate with the Ashantis because the arrest and exile of King Agyemang Prempeh I was mourned in Asanteman as the death of a King. A young Prince by name Kwame Anane joined the family on the trip that day but when rumors started circulating among the crowd of an impending arrest of the mourners the young man out of panic from arrest took out poison made of Crocodile bile from his pocket and drank. He died instantly in Kumasi, his body was carried shoulder high to Wenchi for burial. The emphasis here is clear, that Ashanti Empire had come to an end in 1896 so let no one delude himself that there is an Ashanti Empire in 2024. Otumfor Osei Tutu I think is in denial but let me ask this rhetorical question; Ashanti lost a war against British in 1874 and lost her southern colonies to the Gold Coast Colony and in 1896 the British resolved the empire and gave protectorate status to Bono states why is this such a hard reality to accept. I think the problem with Manhyia is a King having a hard time coming to terms and adjusting to history the very history he makes reference to when he finds it convenient to justify his illusive imperial authority. I have an advice for him that in the history of mankind power has always shifted among nations and cultures and that will always be a part of the evolution of the human experience on this planet. Germany is the foremost economic and political superpower in Europe today but only a few centuries ago between 1867 - 1918 they were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I don’t think Austrians or Hangarians harbor any such nostalgic feelings as Ofumfor does. But let me proffer a guess on why he may be having a hard time accepting the non existence authority he thinks he has over Bonoman. Maybe just maybe his confusion is about Ashanti Confederacy. “Bonos were part of the Ashanti Confederacy, they served here all of them Agyeman Badu I and others. This is the commentary many of you have heard from Asantis and from the King himself so let’s have a conversation about the Ashanti Confederacy.Yes you might have heard it from Asantehene and many Ashantis that Bonoman was part of Ashanti Confederacy therefore they swore allegiance to the Golden Stool before Dr. Nkrumah split us out of his hatred and jealousy for Ashantis. Dear reader anytime you hear that statement from anyone ask them if they knew who formed the Ashanti Confederacy and if that organization was for the reconstitution of the Ashanti Empire. What then is the Ashanti Confederacy and why has this organization become the source of such propaganda and misinformation by others.

By the turn of 19^thcentury, British had brought the whole of what we know today as Ghana under its control. The north was under a Northern protectorate and the south was the Gold Coast colony. There was this vast territory that used to be the Ashanti Empire in the middle Maintaining an effective British administrative control over their new territory was a daunting challenge for the British. The problems with inadequate expatriate staff in the British colonies was not peculiar to the Gold Coast colony alone but the whole British West African colonies; Nigeria, Sierra Leone Gambia and Ghana. .It is said the British expatriate staff were dying in such an alarming rate in the colonies from mosquitoes and malaria that the British West African coast was referred to as the Whiteman’s grave

In 1906 the British high commissioner of the protectorate of Northern Nigeria Sir Lord Fredrick Lugard began experimenting with a system of indirect rule for the purpose of bringing local governance to the people through their traditional rulers. What this simple means is the British will govern the people (natives) through their strong leaders mostly for the collection of taxes. An ideal role has been found for the King who was now in exile. Otumfor Agyeman Prempeh I was allowed back to the Gold Coast in 1925 for one reason alone; The Indirect Rule. Why else did you think the British will bring back an adversary who they thought was a threat to their authority? Exiling leaders who were perceived as threat was not just a policy by the British alone but the French did so as well. In Senegal in 1895 around the same time Prempah I was exiled to Seychelles Island, a powerful religious leader and founder of the Mouride brotherhood Ahmadou Bamba who was considered a threat to French interest was exiled to Gabon. He will never be allowed back to the holy city he founded until his death in 1927.(( Husain, Ed (2018). The House of Islam. New York)). Nana Agyemang Prempeh I returned to a different Gold Coast than the one he left. Limits were placed on him and he did not have the imperial authority he had before 1896. Nana Agyemang Prempeh I was not allowed to use the title Asantehene or King but had to contend himself as Kumasihene and see himself as paramount Chief just like everyone else. Nana Osei Agyemang Prempeh I never used that Asantehene or King until his death in 1931. It is therefore legitimate question for anyone to ask; who is the Asantehene for if his predecessor Otumfor Agyemang Prempeh I could not use that title why is the present occupant using such accolades. I find this debate needless because now the British are gone, a new afro centric historical narrative needs to be told by Africans to placate and heal a nation that has gone through slavery and colonization. But retelling a new Ghana story need not be told in a way as trying to rebuild an Ashanti empire on the back of the Bono people. So on 31 January 1935 in concert with the tenets of the Indirect Rule experiment, the British created the Ashanti Confederacy with Otumfor Agyemang Prempe II as leader and Kumasi as its capital. The British did not miss the basic tenets of the organization to an ambiguity when they named it the Ashanti Confederacy. Anyone with a little knowledge of European history will know that in the lexicon of European history, a reference to Confederacies means independent states coming together for a common purpose. References can be made in the examples of the Confederacy of the Rhine (1806-1813) and others. In fact this same concept was what was used in the formation of the League of Nations and United Nations. Independent paramountcies choose to join or leave the Confederacy at their free will. In fact Denkyira and Atebutu were included in the initial composition of the Confederacy but they declined and opted out and the Asantehene had no authority to force them to stay. Bono Chiefs joined and left the Confederacy at their time and convenience. This is how Bono and Ahafo became Western Ashanti within the Ashanti Confederacy. They (Bono) Chiefs first came to Kumasi first to be inducted into the Confederacy and they returned same for Confederacy meetings. It is sad that such basic constitutional exercise as swearing an oath for induction into an administrative institution as Ashanti Confederacy can be misconstrued as the swearing an oath to Sikadwa. It did not matter whether Bono Chiefs swore by Bible, Koran or Mponponsuo the meaning was the same that Bono Chiefs came to Kumasi to be inducted into a new government administration experiment called Indirect Rule – Ashanti Confederacy. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s crime in the eyes of Asante was his division of Ashanti into Ashanti and Bono/Ahafo regions. In my lifetime, I have seen Greater Accra curved out of Eastern. I am told communities of Ga-Dangdmes are split on either side of Eastern region and Greater Accra regions but I have not for once heard Ga Mantse make such angry tirade against any government for dividing his citizens neither has Ga Mantse claimed the right to install Ga Chiefs in Eastern Region. My Ewe friends have told me that some war weary Ashantis crossed over to Eweland to seek refuge and protection. They were offered land and a sanctuary to stay. President Akuffo’s Addo government has split Volta into Oti Region and Volta Regions but again you don’t hear this level of anger from Volta Chiefs. In the northern region, communities of Dagomba, Mamprusi and Gonja have lived for many years as one region without any problems and now the region has been divided into three separate regions and they still live in peace. Except anyone can explain this to me I don’t know what is this thing about Manhyia and their complexities about its place in Ghana.

Now I want to devote the rest of this chapter to Nana Obiri Boahene a man who has devoted his entire legal professing in defense of Otumfor claims on Bonoman. Nana Obiri Boahen I’ve heard you say on many platforms that Bonoman belongs to Asanteman. That Bono towns like Berekum, Nkoranza, Japekrom, Domasi Number2, and others are Ashanti towns so they swear allegiance to Asantehene . Well the last time I checked Assins from central region are Ashantis and there still are communities in Northern Ghana that are referred to as Ashanti territories but I have not seen the level of arrogant display of power and entitlement shown by Asantehene in Berekum the other day. Was it because Berekum is in Bono? Well for the purpose of this article, I will give that to you, the towns you referred to are Ashantis therefore they swear allegiance to Sikadwa. Will you then change your shameless defense of Asanteman if I told you the Tano-Subin villages you have spend your legal profession defending are sadly not Ashantis but Bono Techiman villages/natives. Since you have chosen to sell your conscience for favors and pennies from Asanteman, let me tell you a little history about my Bono Techiman people. This is how the following Tano-Subin (Techiman) villages came into being. Offuman-After one of many Techiman – Ashanti wars Techiman state left the land and sought refuge with Bonohene in Gyaman now in La Cote I’voire. When word got out after some time that Ashanti has been distracted with another war with a southern state, Techiman people felt safe to come back to their homes. On their trek back to their communities, a section of Forikrom families choose to set up a village and make it a new home that is today Offuman. Since Offuman are the same families as Oforikrom the royals of both villages can and do inherit each other’s stools. Or if I told you that the man Nana Takyi Fri who founded Techiman also set up three other villages; Tanoboase, Boankron and Tuobodum. How about if I told you Tanoso (Techiman) was a village built by Techimanhene Kwakye Ameyaw I( 1712-1740) for one of his wives Nana Afua Owusuaa. Every Ashanti living in any of these villages is a migrant for your information. I left out Buoyem another one of the Tano-Subin villages for last because Buoyem has such a unique historical relevance for Techiman / Bono people. There will not be a city, municipality and now a capital town called Techiman if not for events that took place in this village called Buoyem. Techiman would have been like any of the other villages in Tano-Subin had it not been the history of Bouyem itself. Folks in 1723-1724 Asantehene Opoku Ware I attacked and destroyed Bono Manso kingdom in a surprise attack. In panic the Bono people fled to safety in faraway lands some fled as far south as to Osu in Accra. If you go to Osu today and ask the Gas to show you the Gas of Techiman extraction they will show you who they are. Nana Kwakye Ameyaw I the (King) and his household were taken to safety a nearby settlement of Amoma now in the Nkoranza North district. His subjects later came across these massive cave systems in the nearby forest where they thought will be an ideal place to house the King and his royal treasures. His family was moved into the secluded caves called Bouyem (in the belly of the rock/cave). After his safety was reasonable guaranteed, the King asked one of his nephews Nana Takyia Ameyaw to join the Takyi Fri family in Techiman to try and attract back all Bono Manso citizens who were scattered across the land. This is how Techiman was systematically rebuilt back into the city it is today. So for a long time and even now on occasion, Techiman Chiefs were nominated from Bouyem palace because Techimanhene is the nephew of Bouyemhene. This is the land and people that you Nana Obiri Boahene has spent your whole life defending as Asantehene’s property. But why these massive caves have not been developed into a museum and a tourist center to tell the history of the Bono people is a travesty and a tragic dereliction of duty on Techiman Traditional Council. No wonder they are telling us our history from Kumasi spiced with lies and distortions. How can anyone blame Manhyia however when our own leaders are not telling the Bono story to the citizens. I was taken through those caves when I was only four years. These villages are among a total of nine villages that Otumfor Osei Mensah Asibi Bonsu seized from Techiman in 1818 on suspicion that the gods in them were the source of the power and resilience of Techiman state. This is a story for another day. How Nana Osei Mensah Bonsu seized the villages and pass on supervision over them to some Kumasi sub Chiefs to covert the powers of the gods in them for the protection of Asanteman. Do you how Tano Akomfo (deities) are a common feature around Asantehene whenever there is important state functions at Asanteman. Sadly it is the descendants of these Kumasi sub Chiefs brought in to live among the natives who are now being elevated e to status of Omanhene by Otumfor Osei Tutu II and Opoku Ware II before him that are causing such internecine communal violence among the people in Tano-Subin

Tano-Subin problems would have been relegated as a footnote to the many security challenges of the nation if not the destruction of lives and properties it brings on innocent people. I grew up in Wenchi in the household of Nana Kwame Attakora. In the same compound we lived were two children of the Ashantihene installed Chief of Offuman, Nana Kwaku Duah sent there to live with the old man. One weekend in 1983 Akoto and her sister invited us to come with them to Offuman for the annual Yam festival. Thank God none of us went with them on that trip. Eye witness account is murky but I am told as the festivities went along something happened between the Techiman natives and Nana Kwaku Duah family and supporters. Sensing danger, the Chief and his supporters retreated back to his palace but the crowd followed them and when they got to the palace, they formed a perimeter around the compound spread it inflammable material and it ablaze. I am told family members who attempted to escape were clubbed and forced back to be incinerated into a gruesome horrible death that still haunts me to this day. Two months ago, the Asantehene installed a Chief at Tanoso (Techiman) which is one of the Tano-Subin villages. The Techiman natives got angry and went out to set fire on the house of the new Chiefs. Thankfully there were no casualties because the family anticipated some violence and had evacuated the town a day before the swearing in. The town of Tuobodom is always on a state of threat of violence of war between the Bono Techiman natives and their Ashanti imposed Chief. Only last month Otumfor Nana Osei Tutu II defied any due process of the law in a case that was before a high court and installed a new Chief in Sampa. In the gun running battle that followed, eight people received gun-shot wounds one fatal. This man (Otumfor Osei Tutu II) wants to build a 21^st century empire on the back for Bonoman. This is an appeal to Bono Chiefs especially Techimanhene and others to stand up and defend the dignity and pride of Bonoman. One man’s obsession to create a larger than life image of himself is gradually pushing us to perilous cultural divide between Bonos and Ashantis. With politicians looking on as passive bystanders, this country is slowly sleepwalking itself into a major confrontation between Bonos and Ashantis. But the propaganda machinery at Manhyia has been activated to the limit in painting Nana Agyeman Badu as the villain. Nana Agyemang Badu II is to blame for all the problems between Bono and Asante but if you speak to any of the Bono Chiefs the anger and disgust is on everyone’s lips. Nana Agyeman Badu is only echoing the concerns of Bono chiefs with the larger platform he has.

Something must be done to pull us from the brink, but nature has also got an ingénues way of resetting things back into equilibrium. Let me leave you with the history of my favorite country in Europe to draw lesions from. Germany went to war against the world in 1914 and lost. At the treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 where the powers met to spell out conditions of surrender, Germany was forced to give up West Prussia and other territories with ethnic German inhabitants to newly-independent Poland She was to respect the independence of Austria and to recognize the independence of Czechoslovakia among others. The Allied powers stripped Germany of its colonial possessions in China and Africa. These conditions Germany felt were humiliating and insulting. Twenty seven years after in 1933 a new Chancellor took power in Germany and began to show an utter disregard of the Treaty of Versailles. Basking in the German National song which extols the virtues of: Deutschland über alles( Germany above everyone). He started off by looking for every opportunity to fight his way to get back the lost German provinces of West Prussia, Poznan (Poznań), and Upper Silesia. On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland under the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted inside Poland. Little did he know that the world unite against his bully in a war that has been described as the deadliest war in the history of mankind claiming as many as 11 million lives. If history is a reflection of the past and a compass to the future, misrepresenting history in order that you will be seen as above everyone is the reason why we have such mistrust, cynicism and dysfunction in our culture today.

I will stop here to allow Mr. Obiri Boahene time to reflect and file his rebuttal to this article. Mr. Obiri Boahene, a historian who says a ladder dropped from the sky and some Ashantis descended from it. This man is such an embarrassment that sometimes I feel ashamed when he is referred to as Bono. And he calls himself and a scholar. Bono scholars are a real deal, come to Wenchi and meet with the Attorney General of Ghana and Justice Yaw Appau and let’s see if you can call yourself a lawyer.

As always if you have an alternative historical narrative to the contrary, get on your computer and please publish an article so that we can together educate Ghanaians especially the youth about the true Akan history.

Kofi Kyeremeh
Germantown Maryland, USA