When sixteen-year-old Agyemang Prempeh
I was enstooled as king of the Asante in 1888, his people had already experienced
a century of crisis. The old Asante confederation in what is today central
Ghana had clashed repeatedly with the British on the coast, and the legendary
wealth of the Asante had been diverted to the south. In addition, competition
within the royal family was increasingly fierce. His mother, Asantehemaa
Yaa Akyaa, queen mother since 1884, had through strategic political marriages
built the military power to secure the Golden Stool for her son.
Prempeh was driven by the belief
that the Asante should remain a sovereign power independent of British
control. With the assistance of Asantehemaa Yaa Akyaa and his own advisers,
he began an active campaign of national reunification. By 1895 Prempeh
had formed an alliance with Samori Ture, a dynamic Muslim warrior who had
conquered large neighboring regions, resisting British and French forces
and establishing new trade routes. But the success of Prempeh's reunification
efforts and his extraordinary diplomatic talents and charisma, noted by
his supporters and detractors alike, ironically set the stage for his eventual
exile.
The British authorities and well-established
missionary corps of the Gold Coast viewed the reunification of the Asante
with great concern. They offered to take the Asante under their protection,
but Prempeh refused each request. In one famous response he stated, "My
kingdom of Asante will never commit itself to any such policy of protection;
Asante must remain independent as of old, and at the same time be friends
with all white men."
On January 20, 1896, citing a debt
incurred twenty years earlier, British authorities entered Kumase and arrested
Prempeh and Asantehemaa Yaa Akayaa as well as Prempeh's father. Fifty-two
chiefs, women, children, and attendants were also taken captive. Though
his chiefs were prepared to fight yet another war to protect the Asantehene
and the Golden Stool, Prempeh, offering no resistance, stated: "My
chiefs, I would ask you to remember in the past days of civil war in Kumase
how it was very difficult to restore peace. . . . I would rather surrender
to secure the lives and tranquillity of my people and countrymen."
Prempeh and the other captives were
detained at Elmina Fort until they were moved to Freetown, Sierra Leone,
in 1897. Even at such a distance, Prempeh exerted great influence, a fact
that perplexed the British authorities. In 1900 he and the others were
taken to Mahe, the largest of the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean off the
east coast of Africa. Though detained in a villa and camp, Prempeh made
an effort to educate himself in English and to see that the children received
education, professional training, and employment. He nominally converted
to Christianity, and he worked to promote the health, welfare, and happiness
of all in the camp, making sure that peace and order reigned.
By the early 1920s, a number of
civil organizations began pressuring The British for Prempeh's release;
his mother, father, brother, and all but a few of the chiefs from the original
group of captives had died. Perceiving less threat in Prempeh's return
to Ghana than in resisting international pressure, British authorities
released Prempeh and fifty-four others. They left the Seychelles on September
12, 1924. When they entered Kumase on the morning of November 12, thousands
of Asante were on hand to greet their king. Though he was officially a
private citizen, Prempeh received every respect due royalty until his death
in 1931.
He was succeeded by Osei Agyemang
Prempeh II, who will eighteen years later, introduce an idea for the Ashanti
Kingdom's first boys' Institution--Prempeh College.
