There Was No Room For Compromise In This Disrespectful Euro-African Conflict

African grand chiefs
Brooke Brown
February 25, 2020

The Ashanti empire was mighty and proudly diplomatic, minding their own business in the Gold Coast territory, when Britain’s Sir Charles MacCarthy started insisting they had crossed into territory he was “defending” on behalf of another tribe, the Fante. 

Someone needed to put these colonizers in their place, and luckily the Ashanti were up for the job.

10,000 Ashanti warriors fought and won against 2,800 British soldiers in the epic Battle of Nsamankow of 1824. 

You’d think that would end the nonsense. But years later, the Brits came back for more!

Tensions boiled over in three similar Ashanti vs. Anglo flare-ups.

It wasn’t until one final standoff that the ultimate showdown created lasting consequences for the Ashanti and other African nations.

In 1900, British leader Sir Fredrick Mitchell Hodgson decided the Ashanti’s symbol of national unity - the sacred Golden Stool - was a fine “throne” to SIT on. 

That’s when a fed-up Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of the Asantehene herself, pulled up ready to rebel.

Despite their temporary defeat in the War of Golden Stool, the Ashanti people’s resilience and determined spirit show how principled we must be against any enemy who thinks it’s okay to disrespect our people, our customs, and our authority.

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