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Know More About Seychelles And Ghana Relations...Ashanti Kingdom For That Matter

....On The Eve Of Ashanti Queen Mother's Funeral
By William Nana Yaw Beeko, Online Editor, With Files From Seychalles Festival Of Saint Yaa Asantewaa
Special Report Know More About Seychelles And Ghana Relations...Ashanti Kingdom For That Matter
JAN 17, 2017 LISTEN

Last year, The Royal Shrine House of Queen Mother Saa Poognaa, Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa's successor, from Seychelles but now in Ghana embarked on 'Planting the Roots of the Festival of Saint Yaa Asantewaa and the Exiled Kings' – kindly sponsored by Ethiopian Airlines: The New Spirit of Africa.

This event marked the 95th Anniversary of the Home Call of the Great Warrior Saint, Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa, from Seychelles back to her Holy Ancestors in Ghana where she sits today besides the other Royal and Holy Ancestors of the Nations of Ghana - who also achieved similar great feats of heroism for their Nation.

Sometimes referred to as the Royal Exiles in Paradise, the Festival of Saint Yaa Asantewaa & the Exiled Kings, was founded by The Royal House of Queen Mother Saa Pogh Naa, who was Ancestrally Appointed at Birth to become the Custodian and Royal Keeper of the Great Mother Father Protector Gods that were carried by the Great Warrior Saint Yaa Asantewaa during the war of the Golden Stool.

The creation of this Royal Festival is part of the huge sacred mission that has been given to her, by her predecessor and her Royal Ancestors - to tell the whole story of how it was that this Super Grandmother was able to stand up against all of the odds, and raise the support of Chiefs and Kings in the Ashanti Nation and Northern Territories to defend the Soul of Her Nation against the incursions of the British.

Queen Mother Saa Pogh Naa inaugurated this Festival not just to remmember the 21 long years of suffering that were spent by her predecessor in Exile in the Seychelles, but also to tell the story of how the Great Warrior Queen - went on to become a Warrior Saint - a Title she has been given by her own Royal Ancestors according to the sacred customs and traditions of the Dagarti and Dagomba Peoples of Ghana.

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Queen Mother Saa Poognaa, Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa's successor Being Welcomed By Ethiopian Airlines Upon Her Arrival In Ghana Last Year October

The Festival revisits and remember and honour the story of the Ashanti Queen Mother of King Prempeh. King Prempeh and the other Chiefs and Kings that were also sent to the Seychelles into Exile by the British in the late 1800s and 1900s.

Today her name is written in the Great Hall of Fame of her Holy Ancestors. We are very happy to hold this memorial exhibition here in the Natural History Museum in collaboration with the National Archives of Seychelles because it is the place where King Prempeh and the other Royal Exiles learnt to read and write English in the Carnegie Hall of this building.

King Prempeh was the Asantehene of the first Royal Delegation from Ghana that arrived in the Seychelles in 1900, having been sent into exile aboard the HMS Darkwa by the British Colonial Office after the 3rd AngloAshanti War, also known as the First Ashanti Expedition. Of the Ashanti Expedition, we have on the records from British Archive: Honorary Colonel H. Walker, East Yorkshire Regiment, late 14th Foot, who ‘had charge of the mischief making monarch King Prempeh’ in the closing stages of the Ashanti expedition of 1895-96 Henry Walker was born in Edinburgh on 6 May 1860, and commissioned into the 14th Foot as a 2nd Lieutenant on 22 January 1879.

After service in Afghanistan, including the engagement at Mazina and the Kama expedition, he was next in action in the Ashanti expedition of 1895-96 for which he was mentioned in despatches. Not only did he take possession of the Ashanti Royal Palace on 20 January 1896, but, as a later issue of The Tatler recounts, ‘Major Henry Walker commanded the Rearguard on the return to the coast and had charge of the mischief making monarch, King Prempeh. By way of recognising the work of the 14th in the Ashanti Campaign, the Governor of the Gold Coast presented to the 2nd Battalion some of the trophies taken from Prempeh’s Palace at Kumasi, including the State Chair of the Ashanti; Prempeh’s bed; State Umbrellas and Two War Drums with a human skull attached’.

It was after the exile of the young King Prempeh to the Islands of the Seychelles, then controlled by Mauritius and also a British Colony, that Queen-King Nana Yaa Asantewaa became the Queen and King of Ejisu because her Grandson Nana Afrane II had also been sent into Exile along with King Prempeh. Nana Afrane II was considered to be the reincarnation of Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s brother who was the former King of Ejisu, Nana Afrane I. Queen Nana Yaa Asantewaa was therefore very enraged about him being sent away into exile.

This annual Exhibition is also in tribute to the Mother of Prempeh, Queen Mother Nana Yaa Akyaa and Ofinsohemaa Nana Amma Afranewaa who was the sister of Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa and who also occupied both the offices of King and Queen of Ofinso.

Both of these great Queen Mothers were angry that the British had exiled their respective grandsons, Edwesohene Nana Afrane II and Ofinsohene Kwadwo Appia. Queen Mother Nana Amma Afranewaa was much older than her 60-year-old sister, but nevertheless Ofinso oral tradition has it that it was Nana Amma Afranewaa who fired the first shot of the War of the Golden Stool in 1900 at Bare.

In testament to the great power and calibre of the Queen Mothers of Ghana, these courageous Queen-Kings made the determined pact to fight to expel the British, protect the Golden Stool and their ancient Ancestral traditions and preserve the independence of the Asante nations.

The two Warrior Queens raised the support of the Ashanti Army backed by the patronage of the Northern Gods at their side - they defended their Nation against the provocative demand of the British Empire that were being made by the British Governor; that the Ashanti Nation should hand over their Golden Stool to the then Governor, Sir Frederick Hodgson.

The Golden Stool was the Symbol that represented the Unity and the Soul of the Ashanti Nation and there was absolutely no way that Nana Yaa Asantewaa was going to let the other Ashanti Chiefs hand it over to the British, despite the fact that the Governor sent out many of his men to look for the stool and also burnt down many prominent Ashanti houses and villages in the process of his search.

The following excerpt has been taken from the Archives: The Date was Wed, 1900-03-28 It was on this date in 1900, that Britain dared to asked the Ashanti of Ghana for the Golden Stool. Their demand was seen as an attempt to get colonial control by possessing the Ark of the Covenant of the Ashanti people. With the close of the slave trade the Ashanti found themselves at a disadvantage with no other form of export.

Slave trading had also caused neglect to basic demands such as agriculture and cloth manufacturing. Severely weakened, soon they found themselves the targets of their former European allies. Ironically with reconstruction occurring in America, the British were trying to take possession of the Gold Coast, now known as Ghana. The proud warrior people known as the Ashanti, inhabited this region.

The British began their move by exiling the Ashanti’s King Prempeh in 1896. When this did not succeed in breaking the peoples’ spirit they demanded the supreme symbol of the Ashanti people: The Golden Stool. On March 28, 1900, the British Governor called a meeting of all the kings in and around the Ashanti City of Kumasi ordering them to surrender the Golden Stool. Deeply insulted, the Ashanti silently left the meeting and went home to prepare for war. Nana (Queen-Mother) Yaa Asantewaa became the inspiring force behind the Ashanti. In his infamous speech, also called the Provocation of the Ashantis, Sir Frederick Hodgson is recorded to have said: "What must I do to the man, whoever he is, who has failed to give to the Queen, who is the paramount power in the country, the stool to which she is entitled? Where is the Golden Stool? Why am I not sitting on the Golden Stool at this moment?

I am the representative of the paramount power in this country; why have you relegated me to this chair? Why did you not take the opportunity of my coming to Kumasi to bring the Golden Stool and give it to me to sit upon?” In response to his demand, Queen-King Nana Yaa Asantewaa gave an uncompromising and unforgettable speech that stung the hearts of all the Ashanti men who were present.

Renowned for being a woman who hated injustice and loathed the telling of lies she said; "Now, I see that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king. If it was in the brave days of Osei Tutu, Okomfo Anokye, and Opoku Ware I, Chiefs would not sit down to see their king to be taken away without firing a shot. No European could have dared speak to chiefs of Asante in the way the governor spoke to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of Asante is no more? I cannot believe it.

It cannot be! I must say this: if you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We will fight! We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields.". The speech so moved the chiefs that at once they swore the Great Oath of Ashanti to fight the British until the Asantehene King Prempeh was set free from his exile. Yaa Asantewaa began by having her troops cut telegraph wires and blocking routes to and from Kumasi where the British had a fort. For several months the Queen Mother led the Ashanti in combat, keeping the British pinned down.

After sending 1,400 soldiers to put down the rebellion, the British captured some of the Ashanti Chiefs who led the rebellion but they could not capture Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa because as we say in our traditions – she was being protected by the Gods. Frustrated by this the British put out a ransom for her capture – but that did not work. In the end, they resorted to having to kidnap Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa's daughter before she herself eventually surrendered for the sake of her only child. And so it was that in the end all were exiled to the Seychelles with King Prempeh, arriving on June 22nd 1901.

Her bravery and name is still remembered by those who refer to one of the last great battles for Ashanti independence and the last war fought in Africa led by a woman.

The following Chiefs and Kings fought in the War and were exiled to the Seychelles along with Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa:

Kofi Kofia, Sub-chief of Gaasi Quami Elfilfah, Chief of Atchima Kwoku Nenchie, Linguist of Kumas Kudjoe Enfi, War Captain of Offinsu Asamoa Kwami, Chief Executioner Osei Kudjoe Krom, Sub-Chief of Bantama Akwesi Adele, Sub-chief of Chidom Kwoku Intsia, Chief of Akropong Akwasi Foli, Chief of Dompoasi Kobina Ekwanta Bissah, Chief of Odumesi Antoa Mensah, Chief of Antoa Kwoku Kumasi, Linguist of Kumasi Kwoku Adom, Linguist of Kokofu Ghanza, Chief of Bantama Yaw Appio, Linguist of Adansi/ Chief of Akrocheri

At the end of the War, Queen Mother Nana Amma Afranewaa was arrested along with Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa but due to her grand old age, she was not exiled to the Seychelles.

For more insights visit: http://seychellesfestivalofsaintyaa.com/festival/index.html

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