The Fall of the Asante Empire

by Robert B. Edgerton

  Bowdich was much impressed by Osei Bonsu’s good nature and by his shrewd, inquiring mind. Huydecoper wrote that though he could “argue like a lawyer” and had a quick temper, he usually was in good humor and fond of joking.19 Bowdich was also quite taken by the Asante upper classes, or, as he referred to them, the “higher orders.” They were not only wealthy—some owned vast estates and thousands of slaves and lent huge sums to the government from time to time—they were courteous, well-mannered, dignified, and proud of their honor to such an extent that a social disgrace, including something as unintended as public flatulence, could drive a man to commit suicide. While Bowdich was in Kumase, the king publicly reproved one of his many sons for minor misconduct. The ten-year-old boy’s pride was so wounded that he promptly killed himself by putting a blunderbuss in his mouth and firing it with his foot.20

  Bowdich was struck by the physical stature of men among the “higher orders.” Many were over six feet tall and powerfully built. He was also taken by the beauty of the women of this class, whom he described as having the “finest figures,” elaborately shaved heads (with a single tuft of hair surrounded by several concentric circles on the left side), and beautiful clothes. A British visitor four years later also commented on their beauty and gentility.21 Other observers attributed the size, strength, and physical beauty of the upper classes (known as sikapo, “people of wealth”) to the ability of wealthy Asante men to choose only the most beautiful women as wives.22 Although he did not say so directly, Bowdich seemed disappointed that these elegant women were so aloof to the English visitors. When Bowdich described the social freedoms enjoyed by Englishwomen of his class, the Asante women were delighted, but the husbands of these higher-order women were so horrified that they ordered their wives away. He also wrote approvingly of the grace of upper-class Asante men and women as they danced, not wildly as “primitive” Africans were expected to do, but in a stately, even staid, fashion that resembled a waltz. More than two decades later another British visitor made almost identical observations about the beauty, elegance, and grace of the king’s wives, whom he was allowed to watch parade past, a sight no Asante man except the king could witness.23

  The king’s wives were even more remote than women of the higher orders. In fact, no one other than the king and his harem eunuchs was permitted to see the six or so wives who lived in the vast royal palace at any given time. His two or three hundred other wives lived in seclusion away from the palace. Bowdich did report that there were many prostitutes in Kumase, that many lower-ranking Asante women made open sexual advances toward the British visitors, and that several nobles offered them women as well. He did not, as one might expect of an Englishman of that era, indicate whether any of these offers were accepted. Huydecoper was much more open in his journal. Although his Christian wife and children were waiting in Elmina, when an Asante general offered him a “very young girl for my wife,” he accepted with the “greatest pleasure.”24

  Men and women of the higher orders bathed every morning with soap and warm water, wore scrupulously clean clothes, and ornamented themselves profusely. They cleaned their teeth several times every day with a brushing stick (chewed on the end until it was furred) and shaved their armpits to reduce body odor, which they found repellent. They also regarded belching and flatulence as disgusting.25 The lower orders (known as ahiato), on the other hand, were said to be small in stature, filthy, ungrateful, insolent, and licentious, an opinion strongly expressed by Osei Bonsu. Bowdich had little contact with these poorer members of Asante society, and he did not fully understand that, while some poor people were free, most were slaves, of which there were at least five different categories.26

  In the 1840s Asante king Kwaku Dua described slaves to a British visitor as “stupid and little better than beasts.”27 He was no doubt referring to newly captured people from northern tribes who circumcised their men, cicatrized marks on the faces and bodies of both men and women, spoke non-Akan languages, and came from less complex social systems. Over time some became incorporated into Asante society as freemen and even achieved wealth and high social rank. Slaves were usually reasonably well treated, but escape from a cruel master was permitted if the slave swore a powerful oath that bound him to another man. Slaves could also achieve sanctuary from a tyrannical master by claiming sanctuary at a temple.28 Even so, most slaves could be sent away as human sacrifices by their masters at any time, and many were compelled to perform onerous labor clearing fields or mining gold, while others were forced into military service. When slaves died, all but a few were thought unworthy of burial. Instead they were thrown into a nearby river where their bodies were eaten by large fish.29 In addition to slaves there were “pawns,” free men and women sold into servitude as collateral for a loan. When the loan was paid off, they were freed. The impact of class and slave distinctions in Asante was mitigated somewhat by an law that forbade anyone to discuss another’s social origins, and this proscription was taken so seriously that Akan-speaking slaves easily became valued members of Asante families.

  The Asante could not mine their gold, cultivate their fields, or man their army without the slaves (and some poor free men), who made up the lower orders, but the presence of large numbers of foreign-born slaves in Asante posed a difficult problem for the government. In 1841 King Kwaku Dua told a British visitor that military detachments often had to be sent throughout the empire to bring these people under control.30 The British decision in 1807 to terminate the maritime slave trade had made it difficult for the Asante to dispose of surplus slaves, and the Asante government was well aware of the threat these unruly people posed to public order.31 Bowdich and his companions learned about this threat at first hand when they were assaulted by a crowd of people in Kumase and had to use their swords to escape serious injury. The sharp division between upper and lower classes that was so noticeable in the early nineteenth century diminished somewhat over time as fewer new slaves were brought into metropolitan Asante and previously enslaved people became more fully incorporated into Asante society.

  The English visitors were favorably impressed by Kumase. Built on open land, it was relatively large—over four miles in circumference—was divided into seventy-seven wards, and had twenty-seven main streets, one of which was one hundred yards wide. The banyan tree-shaded streets were swept every day, and the city was remarkably clean. Trash too was collected and burned every day. While many houses were small, single-story huts (often used for military prisoners), many others, especially those near the king’s two-story stone palace, were large, neat, two-story buildings that were scrupulously clean, nicely decorated with polished-clay red bas-relief designs, and well-maintained. Bowdich was surprised to discover that most of these major structures had indoor toilets that were flushed by pouring gallons of boiling water down them. Several hundred buildings near the king’s palace were open to the street in front. Elevated above the street by several feet, they were accessible by polished clay steps that led into a large room with a similarly polished floor and glistening whitewashed walls that extended to a bamboo roof, neatly thatched with palm leaves. These rooms were the offices of the many government officials who conducted the business of the state. Behind these public rooms another thirty to forty rooms served as living quarters for the bureaucrats’ many relatives.

  The work of Kumase’s potters, goldsmiths, weavers, painters, and craftsman also pleased Bowdich. He admired their tasteful treatment of gold, iron, leather, shells, feathers, and cloth. These craftsmen lived in the suburbs of Kumase, but their work was to be seen everywhere, especially in the markets, several of which were open every day from eight A.M. to sunset, crowded with people from hundreds of miles distant, speaking dozens of dialects and languages. Items typically available for sale included beef, mutton, wild hog, antelope, monkey’s flesh, chickens, ducks, yams, plantains, maize, sugarcane, rice, various vegetables and fruit, huge smoked land snails, salted fish from the coast, and eggs. There were also supplies of tobacco, smok
ing pipes (many of which were three feet long), beads, looking glasses, sandals, beads, silk and cotton cloth, pillows, thread, calabashes, and gunpowder.32 Beer, palm wine, rum, and gin were readily available, too.33 Many a small English or American city of that time was less well provisioned.

  The complexity of court life justifiably intrigued the European visitor. In addition to the “Moors” who served the King, other Arab visitors came from as far away as Baghdad. There may have been as many as one thousand Muslim men, their wives, and children in Kumase, and some men had considerable religious influence But despite determined efforts they were never able to achieve a major voice in Asante politics.34 There were also government officials of all ranks, and an ongoing parade of chiefs, military officers, nobles, and members of the royal clan from outlying districts. The titles of these people confused European visitors, who tried, mostly inappropriately, to apply familiar terms to them. They were known by many titles in Asante, but genetically they were referred to as amradofo, “those responsible for maintaining the law.”35

  Even an outsider like Bowdich could easily appreciate the unceasing and dangerous intrigues that swirled around the palace. Kumase was the center of Asante power; everyone there talked about politics as they vied for favor and position, but one’s words had to be carefully measured. An Asante proverb said that “words are like vomit, they cannot be taken back.”36 Men of talent could rise quickly in Kumase, but they could fall even faster. Someone who had overplayed his hand was liable to arrest and possible execution. Despite the danger some people took great risks in the political rough and tumble, and men and women alike risked their lives in forbidden sexual liaisons. Only a few people were largely above the law. Several noble families were exempt from capital punishment, and the king’s sisters were free to pursue open sexual liaisons with any ranking man of their fancy.

  Daily life in the royal palace was fascinating. State business was a serious and continuous feature of court life, often lasting well into the night under torchlight, but there were lighter moments, too. The king retained a troop of small boys, who performed as “royal pickpockets” by purloining sundry valuables from people at the market. If the victim was able to catch one of these nimble thieves, he could beat him as severely as he wished, short of inflicting a mortal blow; but this rarely happened, and most boys escaped to the palace to enjoy their spoils. The king was also surrounded by gifted mimics, able to repeat, for example, a long English sentence with perfect accent, even though they did not know a word of the language. Often their mimicry was at the considerable expense of some unlucky visitor to the court. And as at European courts, there was the inevitable buffoon, whose antics were said to be hilarious. A good deal less amusing were some one hundred sullen albinos, whose function in the court was obscure. Finally, the king lavished his personal affection on dozens of pet cats that imperiously had the run of the palace, including the king’s lap, which several typically sat upon.

  In early September Bowdich witnessed the annual yam festival (odwira), which dramatized the power of the state and reinforced bonds of loyalty and patriotism. When the yams were ready for harvest, all the district chiefs and military leaders of the empire, including all the many tributary districts, were required to attend the festival with their retainers. Bowdich found the “number, splendor and variety” of the arrivals “as astonishing as entertaining,” but he was distressed to discover that as each of these important men arrived, one of his slaves was sacrificed at each quarter of Kumase. As the arrivals paraded by King Osei Bonsu, two parties of executioners, each one hundred strong, slowly danced past, displaying the skulls of all the kings and chiefs who had been conquered by Asante armies or executed for subsequent treachery or rebellion. They drummed on the skulls with their knives, conveying an unmistakable message of menace to the arriving notables, some of whom would in fact be executed for past offenses before the festival ended. Even though their crimes, usually some form of treason, might have been committed in the previous year, these men were not executed until this dramatic annual festival took place. Usually taken by surprise, the accused was seized, tried publicly, and if found guilty, executed as an object lesson to all. Those notables who had been loyal would be presented with honors and valuable gifts by the king.

  Group after group of great men passed by, each preceded by its band of men playing drums and horns, followed by retainers, who repeatedly fired their muskets into the air. Darkness fell, but the procession continued, now illuminated by hundreds of huge torches. As they approached the king, they passed by Moors, royal servants, and messengers of all sorts, court criers, military commanders with their gold swords, ostrich fans, and huge gold ornaments, girls bearing silver bowls filled with palm wine, children of the nobility, and various other dignitaries. Finally, as each great man reached the king, he raised his sword and swore an oath of allegiance. The festivities, accompanied by a growing display of sexual license, continued until 4 A.M.

  The next morning the King ordered a large quantity of rum to be poured into brass pans, in various parts of the town; the crowd pressing around, and drinking like hogs; freemen and slaves, women and children, shrieking, kicking, and trampling each other under foot, pushed head foremost into the pans, and spilling much more than they drank. In less than an hour, excepting the principal men, not a sober person was to be seen, parties of four reeling and rolling under the weight of another, whom they affected to be carrying home; strings of women covered in red paint, hand in hand, falling down like rows of cards; the commonest mechanics and slaves declaiming on state palavers (formal discussions); the most discordant music, the most obscene songs, children of both sexes prostrate in insensibility. All wore their handsomest cloths, which they trailed after them to a great length, in a drunken emulation of extravagance and dirtiness.37

  Perhaps one hundred criminals were executed during the festival that Bowdich witnessed, and a large number of slaves were sacrificed so that their blood, poured into the holes left when the yams were dug up, would create continued fertility. However, the climax to the festival was not human sacrifice, but the spectacle of melting down the royal gold ornaments while the populace and the visiting tributary chiefs looked on, presumably suitably impressed. Soon the gold would be reworked into wonderfully new and novel creations.

  The tributary states in the Asante Empire were controlled by their own chiefs or kings, backed by the threat and the actuality of Asante punitive expeditions. But in metropolitan Asante, especially in Kumase, order was maintained by various police forces. The highly visible executioners were constant reminders that Asante law must be obeyed, and anyone tempted to break a law knew that a police spy, or simply an indignant Asante, would be likely to turn them in for punishment. As a result, Asante justice could be remarkably efficient. When a British visitor lost a valuable gold seal in 1820, he informed the king, who matter-of-factly assured him that it would promptly be found and returned. A gong was sounded, and the resulting search turned up the gold within an hour.38 There were also uniformed police in Kumase who maintained order and made certain that no one entered or left the city without the permission of the government. These men, distinguished by their long hair, carried whips, knives, and muskets. There were also highway police stationed at various points up and down the highway, system of metropolitan Asante. Sometimes as many as six hundred police would man checkpoints on the Asante frontier, where they interrogated all travelers about their business, inspected their goods for contraband, enforced trade embargoes, and collected toll fees. Smugglers or escaped criminals were arrested. No one passed these police posts without careful scrutiny; indeed, there was an Asante saying about their notorious efficiency: “If you leave a crime behind you on a journey, you will meet it ahead of you.”39 At a time when England was plagued by riots, metropolitan Asante was remarkably orderly.

  Nothing impressed European visitors more than public executions. Huydecoper was made aware of many executions during his stay. He wrote that he had “ce
rtain knowledge” of the deaths of eighty Fante. He also reported that a rebellious chief was tortured for some time before he was put to death. After pepper had been rubbed into innumerable cuts on his body, the man’s ears, nose, and arms were cut off before he was finally decapitated. Huydecoper wrote that when he witnessed the execution of a young man in the company of Osei Bonsu, “The King asked me if I was not afraid. I said I was not, but that the sight distressed me. ‘Oh,’ said the King, This is nothing. It happens here quite frequently.’|”40 European visitors, especially missionaries, tended to exaggerate the frequency of human executions, but there can be little doubt that the king spoke the truth. Two decades later, one of many executioners in Kumase, a young man who appeared to be not yet eighteen, told a European visitor that he had personally executed eighty people.41

  Like Huydecoper and other Europeans who would visit Kumase in the ensuing years, Bowdich was appalled by the human executions. They were impossible to ignore. On various occasions when large crowds were assembled in Kumase and could be suitably impressed, criminals were executed. After being convicted by a court, these men (like the man Bowdich saw when he first arrived in Kumase) were usually marched to their execution with large knives driven through their cheeks so that they could not utter magically dangerous curses against their accusers or the king. Bowdich was surprised that their expressions were so apathetic. On one occasion Bowdich saw thirteen victims surrounded by their executioners, who were dressed in shaggy black vests and hats that made them resemble bears. Men and women, chanting in a dirgelike fashion, encircled the condemned. Rum and palm wine was poured copiously while horns played and muskets were fired into the air. Finally, an executioner cut off a condemned man’s hand with his sword, then threw the man on the ground before he patiently hacked his head off in a sawing motion with a small knife that was intentionally not very sharp.