The Ghanaian warrior queen who went to battle to defend the Ashanti Kingdom’s Golden Stool.
Yaa Asantewaa was born in Besease in 1840, the daughter of Kwaku Ampoma and Ata Po. Afrane, her sibling, was the chief of Ejisu. She grew up farming the area around Boankra. She married a polygamous guy from Kumasi, with whom she had a daughter.
Yaa Asantewaa was Queen Mother of Ejisu in the Ashanti Empire, which is now part of Ghana. Her brother, the Ejisuhene (ruler) of Ejisu, Nana Akwasi Afrane Opese, nominated her. She was a farmer, mother, intellectual, politician, activist, monarch, and general all rolled into one.
Yaa became regent of the Ejisu-Juaben after the British exiled King Prempeh I and other members of the Asante administration.
In 1900, she notably commanded the Ashanti Kings against Britain to defend the Asante nation’s symbol, the Golden Stool, and to safeguard the Ashanti’s independence.
Unfortunately, Queen Yaa Asantewaa and fifteen of her closest advisors were captured during the War of the Golden Stool and exiled to the Seychelles. On October 17, 1921, she perished in exile in the Seychelles.
