Yaa Asantewaa

During her brother's reign, Yaa Asantewaa saw the Ashanti Confederacy go through a series of events that threatened its future,[5] including a civil war from 1883 to 1888.

After the exile of Prempeh I, the British governor-general of the Gold Coast, Frederick Hodgson, demanded the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Asante nation.

[2] This request led to a secret meeting of the remaining members of the Asante government at Kumasi, to discuss how to secure the return of their king.

Yaa Asantewaa, who was present at this meeting, stood and addressed the members of the council with these words: How can a proud and brave people like the Asante sit back and look while white men took away their king and chiefs, and humiliated them with a demand for the Golden Stool.

If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments (Montu mo danta mma me na monnye me tam).

[8]To dramatize her determination to go to war, Yaa Asantewaa seized a gun and fired a shot in front of the men.

Not quite long ago the white man came and unilaterally occupied our God-given land and by force of arms has declared Ashanti Kingdom a British protectorate.

We should also not forget that during the reign of King Karikari, the aggressors waged a senseless war on us, destroyed the seat of the Ashanti monarch and burnt our palace after looting all the treasures bequeathed to us by our fore father.

We should rise and defend our heritage; it is better to perish than to look on sheepishly while the white man whose sole business in our country is to steal, kill and destroy, threatens to rob us of our Golden Stool.

I am prepared and ready to lead you to war against the white man.The traditional Ashanti military was revitalized by her passion to resist colonization.

King Prempeh I made sure that the remains of Nana Asantewaa and the other exiled Ashantis were returned for a proper royal burial.

The role she played in influencing the Ashanti men to battle the British appears to be a function of her matriarchal status.

[17] The Ashanti people are organized in a matrilineal system, where lineage is traced through women who descend from a common female ancestor.

Female stool occupants participated not only in the judicial and legislative processes, but also in the making and unmaking of war, and the distribution of land.

She is immortalized in song as follows: Yaa Asantewaa's legacy and memorials are a tourist attraction and revenue generator for Ghana.

The first lady of Ghana, Nana Konadu Rawling unveiled the Yaa Asantewaa museum alongside her daughters, continuing the matrilineage.

[citation needed] To emphasize the importance of fostering female leadership in Ghanaian society, the Yaa Asantewaa Girls' Secondary School was established in Kumasi in 1960, funded by the Ghana Education Trust.

A television documentary by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, entitled Yaa Asantewaa – The Exile of King Prempeh and the Heroism of An African Queen, premiered in Ghana in 2001.

[29] A stage show written by Margaret Busby, Yaa Asantewaa: Warrior Queen, directed by Geraldine Connor and featuring master drummer Kofi Ghanaba,[30][31] with a pan-African cast, toured the UK and Ghana in 2001–02.

[32][33] A radio drama by the same author was also serialized in five episodes (13–17 October 2003)[34] on BBC Radio Four's Woman's Hour, the cast including Glenna Forster-Jones and Jack Klaff, directed by Pam Fraser Solomon, with music by Nana Tsiboe, Kofi-Adu, Jojo Yates, Asebre Quaye and Atongo Zimba.

[35][36][37] The album from the British jazz troupe Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is a Reptile, names songs after both contemporary and historical influential black women.