The Fall of the Asante Empire

by Robert B. Edgerton

  Well before Bowdich’s visit slaves were also essential for Asante food production. Originally, Asante farmers practiced shifting cultivation to exploit the fertile but shallow, easily exhausted forest soil. Fields were cleared by chopping and burning the undergrowth, leaving a layer of ash as fertilizer. Yams and plantains were probably the main crop until the sixteenth century, when along with iron hoes many new crops were introduced by Europeans. Cassava, peanuts, maize, oranges, avocados, tomatoes, and pineapples thrived, and productivity grew.72 As villages and towns multiplied, the need for more food led to the development of large plantations to supply the urban dwellers. The labor needed to clear the forest and cultivate the fields of these plantations was increasingly provided by slaves.

  Confined to Kumase, the earlier European visitors were able to learn little about country life. In addition to Kumase and Dwaben there were several towns of five thousand to seven thousand people. Salaga, a market town to the north, was twice as large as Kumase, but the great majority of the people in metropolitan Asante lived in villages of a few hundred to a thousand people. The key to Asante village life was the relationship between a mother and her children. In addition to natural ties of affection, the role of the mother was central because the Asante reckoned both descent and inheritance through the female line. A mother’s brother was the legal guardian of her children; her husband had few legal responsibilities for them, except the obligations to see that they were well cared for and well behaved and to find and pay for a suitable wife for his son.73 A husband had some legal rights over his wife, including the right to cut off her nose for adultery, her lips for betraying a secret, or her ears for listening to his private conversation. Women mutilated in these ways were not an uncommon sight, especially in Kumase.74 However, women had relative equality with men in many ways, including the right to initiate divorce. Every Asante belonged to a group of people related through women, and it was this group—the ntoro, or “lineage” in English—that gave them legitimacy in the world of living Asante and ties to their ancestors, to whom animal and human sacrifices had to be made on special occasions. These various lineages belonged to one of eight clans, one of which was the royal Okoyo clan. Lineage ties were so strong that wherever a man might live, the village where his lineage was centered was his home, and it was there that he would want to be buried to be close to his ancestors.75

  Veneration of ancestors and respect for authority were combined in the office of chief. Each lineage had its head, who occupied a stool and served as a councillor to the village chief. Each village had a formally acknowledged leader, or chief, chosen by a council of elders representing the various lineages and clans in the village. The chief had the power to resolve minor disputes and to collect taxes, but like the king he was bound by a sworn oath to consult the elders on all matters of importance and to follow their advice. Although the Asante system has been likened to English feudalism, the Asante chiefs ruled not because of a contractual relationship with their people, or vassals, but because various kin groups chose them to lead—elected them in fact—and because religious authority cemented their power. Only the chief had the authority to serve as an intermediary between the people and the ancestors. Each chief had a stool, as the king did, that represented the soul of his people while linking them to ancestors whose blessings on the living were essential to their well-being. Approximately every three weeks the chief was responsible for directing a religious ceremony—the Adae—during which the ancestors were praised, their great deeds recounted, and their favors beseeched. Assured that all was well with their world, everyone joined in drinking palm wine and joyously dancing to the rhythm of dozens of drums.76

  Unlike the excitement and danger of life in Kumase, life in these rural villages was usually routine and tranquil. There were some specialized village settlements of artisans, religious specialists, gold-smiths, and slaves, but most villages consisted of families, free and slave, that lived by cultivation. A village usually had only one street, but like those in Kumase, it too was wide, often over fifty yards, and it was swept clean every day. The rectangular houses with high-pitched thatched roofs were small and simple, as were their furnishings, but they were uniformly clean. Because dirt, trash, and refuse were thought to be dangerous, women and children had the daily chore of gathering up all trash and depositing it in a midden outside the village. Because menstruation was dangerous, too, women were secluded in huts during their menses, and a woman who touched her husband at this time could be killed. Latrines were situated far away from the houses of the village, which were built on both sides of the single long wide road that also served as the village meeting place. The village was surrounded by its fields and domestic animals—mostly chickens, ducks, geese, sheep, and dogs. Shaded by huge trees, people promenaded along this street and sat in the shade, chatting or playing a complicated board game called ware that resembled pachisi.

  The king and wealthy people wore elegant sandals decorated with gold, but common people went barefooted, except during the rainy season when they wore wooden clogs to keep their feet out of the mud. Prominent people often wore silk, but ordinary Asante wore cotton, and slaves dressed in barkcloth. Garments signaled the wearer’s rank, and their color expressed various meanings. Lighter colors could express innocence or rejoicing. White was worn by chiefs after making a sacrifice or by ordinary people after winning a court case. Dark colors were worn for funerals or mourning. Usually worn like a toga thrown over the shoulder but also worn tied around the waist, most clothes bore intricate designs that carried various meanings.77 Some women wore kente-cloth dresses made by stitching together numerous handwoven strips of cotton or silk. Silk threads were laboriously pulled out of imported silk cloth before being rewoven into an Asante design. Many kente-cloth designs are so beautiful that they are displayed in museums throughout the world. There were also sumptuary laws that restricted certain kente designs to various great men and women as exclusive symbols of their prestige. Many cotton or silk patterns were designed expressly for the king and could only be worn with his permission.

  Each day of the week had special significance for the Asante, who like other Akan-speaking people named their children after the day of the week on which they were born (“Wednesday’s child,” etc.). Warfare should be avoided on Sunday, although certain Sundays called for joyous celebration, and no one throughout the kingdom was permitted to work the fields on Thursday, thought to be a day of great danger because a powerful earthquake once struck on that day.78 With the day of the week always in mind, village life revolved around the agricultural cycle, as villagers weeded, planted, harvested, and carried their crops to market. Men cut down trees and prepared the land for cultivation, but women did most of the daily work. Men also traded, fished, and hunted, while women collected the huge snails that played a major part in Asante cuisine. Children worked in the fields, cared for domestic animals, and watched over their younger siblings. They also found time to play, to listen to storytellers, and to overhear adults gossiping, a favorite pastime in most Asante communities. Most families ate only two meals, a large breakfast in late morning, followed by rest, then dinner late in the afternoon. The intense political intrigue of the capital was largely absent, but people were always concerned about taxes, military call-ups, the coming and going of traders, and of course the weather. They were also concerned with the health of their animals and supernatural threats to their well-being. For all but the most intrepid, the forest world outside the village was dangerous, even evil. Safety lay in the village world and its fields where, for the most part, Asante people had the same joys and sorrows as rural villagers in most parts of the world. Economic chores varied depending on the season and on ceremonial occasions, but ordinarily, everyone was in bed by 9 P.M. and up the next morning before dawn broke at 6 A.M.

  For all the complexity of Asante life, nothing was more fundamental for the people than their reverence for the land. This message was sent to the spirit of the earth on the morn
ing of each Adae ceremony:

  Spirit of the Earth, sorrow is yours, Spirit of the Earth, woe is yours, Earth with its dust.

  Earth, if I am about to die, It is upon you that I depend; Earth, while I am yet alive, It is upon you that I put my trust: Earth, who receives my body.

  We are addressing you and you will understand.

  We are addressing you and you will understand.79

  As a rule, village life was placid and predictable without the pageantry, thrill, or menace of Kumase, but now and then life could be disrupted by heavy rains, epidemics, or crop failure and sometimes by mobilization for war, and each village chief had to decide which men were to answer the call of mobilization. The British were wrong in thinking that the Asante lived only for war. For much of the nineteenth century they were able to live in peace. But despite Asante desires to maintain peace with the British, they found themselves at war with British forces on several occasions during the century. The first clash was in 1807. The last and climactic battles were fought in 1900.

  3

  “A Bravery Not to Be Exceeded”

  THE ASANTE ARMY, WHOSE SIZE AND MARTIAL ZEAL SO IMPRESSED the early English visitors when they first entered Kumase, had every reason to be triumphant. Fourteen years earlier, in 1803, an Asante army of perhaps fifty thousand men had driven their northern enemies into open ground, where they were defeated with huge losses by a decisive charge ordered by the Asante general Amankwatia III. Asante muskets proved much superior to the spears and arrows of the northerners, and thousands were killed. Another district then rebelled, and its army, too, was crushed. By now thoroughly intimidated, neighboring districts hurriedly sent delegations bearing gifts and pledges of peaceful relations to the new Asante king, Osei Bonsu, who had been elected to the stool in 1800.

  To the north the Asante were now at the pinnacle of their power, but some of the coastal districts were still rebellious, and others had never been conquered. In order to reach the various fortified trading posts that the white men had built along the coast, Asante traders had to travel through the territory of various groups of coastal people who, though nominally tributary, were far enough away from Kumase to flaunt their independence. Unlike armies that quartered troops in their conquered territory, the Asante army marched away after a victory, confident that indirect rule could be maintained without the need to station troops in every conquered state.

  One of the largest coastal societies was the Fante, an Akan-speaking people, who were perhaps 400,000 in number. They were implacably hostile to the Asante. Unless an Asante army was nearby to threaten them, they blocked Asante access to the British trading center at Cape Coast, due south of Kumase. The Fante as middlemen were greedy and insolent not only to the Asante but equally so to the British, whom they cheated at every opportunity. Soon after King Osei Bonsu came to power, the Fante government declared it unlawful for the white men to trade guns, gunpowder, lead, or iron to the Asante. To meet their growing need for firearms and to dispose of their surplus slaves, the Asante were compelled to trade with the Danes farther to the east at Accra or with the Dutch to the west at Elmina. Dutch traders, who respected Asante power and wanted to curry their favor, did their best to circumvent the Fante and to accommodate the Asante trading needs; but the British, who by the start of the nineteenth century had become the dominant trading power on the Gold Coast, opposed Asante trade, fearing that it would only benefit their Dutch competitors. Also, the British officers of the African Company had chosen to make an alliance with the Fante, who surrounded them at Cape Coast. Their London superiors urged them to be more receptive to Asante interests, but the British merchants in the Gold Coast ignored their advice and continued to support the Fante, whose actions towards Asante traders not surprisingly became even more insolent and obstructive.1

  Soon after, a seemingly minor event brought the Asante into conflict with the British for the first time. It began in 1806, one year after Lord Nelson won the battle of Trafalgar, among three Assin chiefdoms to the south of metropolitan Asante. They had been conquered by the Asante and were tributary to Kumase. A relative of an Assin chief named Aputai rifled the grave of a prominent man in another district, stealing many valuables including gold. The offended chief could not receive satisfaction on his own, so he judiciously appealed to the Asante king to adjudicate the dispute according to Asante law. After due deliberation King Osei Bonsu ordered Aputai to pay restitution, since his relative had despoiled the grave. Not only did Chief Aputai refuse to do so, he ordered his armed men to attack the aggrieved chief. Alarmed by such an outrageous breach of the law, King Osei Bonsu dispatched two envoys, who bore the golden regalia that assured the diplomats’ personal inviolability wherever they traveled, to demand that Aputai cease hostilities and pay restitution. In an unthinkable affront Aputai killed the emissaries and suspended their mutilated bodies from trees on the Asante frontier. By Asante law this was an act of war, and King Osei Bonsu promptly marched against Aputai with a large army, routing his forces after killing large numbers of them. Together with another rebellious Assin chief, Aputai now fled farther to the south, where he sought sanctuary with the Fante.

  Although the Asante king’s army was quite capable of crushing the numerous but militarily inept Fante, Osei Bonsu again exercised extraordinary restraint, sending more royal diplomats to the offending Fante chief to demand the surrender of the fugitive chiefs and a pledge of good wishes toward Kumase. He even sent a handsome gift of gold, a glorious state silk umbrella, and fifteen slaves. Before the Fante chief could decide what to do, Aputai and his fellow fugitive fled even farther south into Fante territory. Osei Bonsu again sent royal messengers with gifts, and as before, they were killed and decapitated. Their heads, the mouths stuffed with feces, were placed on the path the Asante troops would have to take to invade Fante land. It was an insult of unimaginable magnitude.

  By now thoroughly outraged, King Osei Bonsu ordered his army forward. As the Fante melted away, the fugitives fled to Cape Coast, where they next asked the British governor, one Colonel Torrane, for asylum. Magnanimously, Colonel Torrane (whose rank was an honorary title, not a military one) promised to protect the men, even against what he called “force of arms” but when he learned that a large Asante army was on the march, he became decidedly less sure of himself and sent a flag of truce to the Asante king. Although the British fort at Cape Castle was old, having been built in 1652 by Swedes, it was strongly constructed, with twelve cannon mounted behind high stone walls. Torrane, however, had only a score of white men to defend it and no confidence that the notoriously feckless Fante could defend themselves, much less help him. Despite their military weakness, Torrane’s Fante allies arrogantly refused to allow Torrane’s flag of truce to go forward, and the Asante attacked, scattering the Fante soldiers, who, according to a British observer, “fled like sheep.”2 Two thousand Fante refugees, many of them terrified women and children from nearby villages, were allowed into the fort, but thousands of others were overtaken by the Asantes and slaughtered on the beach. Many others huddled against the walls, hoping that the Asante soldiers would not dare to approach the fort’s deadly cannon and musket fire. They did dare, and although British fire killed them by the hundreds, the Asante slaughtered these refugees, too.

  Furious that the white men were firing on his troops, the Asante commander ordered that the fort be taken. Twice the Asante charged to the fort’s main gate but were unable to batter it open. Despite horrific casualties (the British fired so often that the white men’s shoulders were painfully bruised), the Asante charged again, this time led by a man who carried a huge flaming torch. Near the gate he was shot dead. He fell on the torch, extinguishing it, and the attack failed.

  When the Asante withdrew at sunset, they had fought against the British guns for six bloody hours. Several of the British defenders had fired their muskets three hundred times, and at such close range, it was almost impossible to miss. For fully one mile the beach was littered with thousands
of Fante and Asante bodies, and the sand above the high-tide line was stained red. The Asante had attacked in such dense formations that every charge of grapeshot from British cannons had killed twenty or thirty men. King Osei Bonsu said that he lost three thousand men.3 Later, a shaken Colonel Torrane wrote that the Asante had “fought with a bravery not to be exceeded.”4

  Following a brief truce, during which the Asante generously allowed the British to reinforce the fort by sea, Torrane sent soldiers to the Asante king under a flag of truce. Osei Bonsu received them courteously and sent them back to the fort along with messengers of his own. The king insisted that nothing could be settled until Torrane met him face-to-face. The Asante king further demanded that Torrane come to him, and Torrane meekly agreed. In order to impress the Asante king, Governor Torrane took it upon himself to seize the two Assin fugitive chiefs whom he had promised his protection and deliver them to Osei Bonsu. Somehow the remarkable Aputai managed to escape, but the other chief, named Chibu, was delivered to the Asante.