Otumfuo Nana Prempeh I, whose original throne name was Kwaku Dua III Asamu (1870 - May 12, 1931) was an Asantehene ruler of the Oyoko Abohyen Dynasty of the Akan state of Ashanti. He ruled from March 26, 1888 until his death in 1939{Dubious|date=February 2010}}[d. 1931], and fought a war against the British in 1893 [no : in Dec. 1895 - Feb. 1896 and no fighting took place]. However, the Ashante were defeated in this war and Prempeh I was deposed as the asantehene of the Ashante people and a British resident was installed by the British colonial authorities in Kumasi. However, the British colonial authorities over extended themselves on the Gold Coast, when, in 1900, Governor Hodgson demanded that the Ashante people turn over the "golden stool"-- the very symbol of governance to the Ashante people. Another Ashante uprising against the British colonial authorities occurred as the result of this demand. This uprising became known as the War of the Golden Stool

War of the Golden Stool

The War of the Golden Stool, also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War, the Third Ashanti Expedition, the Ashanti Uprising, or variations thereof, was the final war in a series of conflicts between the British Imperial government of the Gold Coast and the Empire of Ashanti, a powerful, semi-autonomous...

 or Yaa Asantewaa war which took place from 1900 until 1901. He was captured and pardoned by Robert Baden-Powell[He was arrested outside of British jurisdiction in a rogue action by W.E. Maxwell and not charged with any crime, hence pardon is the wrong term.]. The British exiled him to the Seychelles

Seychelles

Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....

 in 1896, along with Yaa Asantewaa

Yaa Asantewaa

Yaa Asantewaa was appointed queen mother of Ejisu of the Ashanti Empire—now part of modern-day Ghana—by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, the Ejisuhene "ruler of Ejisu"...

 [Yaa Asantewaa was not exiled in 1896 but five years later after leading the War of the Golden Stool]and other members of the Asante government.

Early life

In 1874, the British had declared the Gold Coast

Gold Coast (British colony)

The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...

, located south of Asante, a British colony. In 1888 the Ashante enthroned 16-year-old Agyemang Prempeh I as king of the Asante, and he assumed the stool name Kwaku Dua III. Prempeh's kingship was beset by difficulties from the very onset of his reign. He tried to defend against British intentions of bringing Asante under its protectorate. When Prempeh I was asked by the British to accept a protectorate over his state, he rejected it and stated in his reply that the Governor had misjudged the situation. Ashantehemaa Yaa Akyaa, Prempeh I's mother and queen mother since 1884, had through strategic political marriages built the military power to secure the Golden Stool for her son. Prempeh I began an active campaign of reunification of the Asante. The British offered to take the Ashanti Empire under their protection, but Prempeh I refused each request. In one of his replies Prempeh 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."

Capture and exile

By 1895 Prempeh had formed an alliance with Samori Ture[19th Century Colonial Office Conjecture, See Wilks, 1975 & 2000], a Muslim warrior who had conquered large neighboring regions, resisting British and French forces. It was during this campaign that men of the Royal Engineer Telegraph Battalion(later Royal Signals) hacked a path for an overhead line from the Cape coast to Prahsu, covering 72 miles through the jungle. Men of the Telegraph Company staggered out of the jungle[False, see any account written after 1967 - e.g. Tordoff, Wilks, McCaskie, Adjaye, et al.], confronted King Prempeh and accepted the surrender of his army[They faced no resistance, the army did not surrender and was therefore able to fight the War of the Golden Stool or Yaa Asantewaa war in 1900-01]. King Prempeh's throne is now displayed in the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford[It was not recovered, and consequently provoked the above mentioned war four years later, again see any text on this subject].
On January 20, 1896, British authorities, referring to a debt incurred twenty years earlier invaded Kumasi and arrested Prempeh I, his mother Asantehemaa Yaa Akayaa, his father, the heir apparent (Prempeh's younger brother) and several Asante chiefs. Women, children, and attendants were also taken captive by the British. Prempeh offered no resistance, and he and other captives were taken to the coast and detained at Elmina Castle

Elmina Castle

Elmina Castle was erected by Portugal in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana . It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara...

 until in 1897 they were moved to Freetown, Sierra Leone. In 1900 he and the other captives were exiled to the Seychelles and kept at what became known as "Asante Camp" on Mahe, the largest of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

. The camp was formerly a huge plantation, covered with coconut trees, mango, breadfruit and orange trees as well as a two-story villa. Prempeh I was assigned the villa, and 16 new wooden houses with sandy floors and roofed with corrugated iron-sheets were built and allocated to the various Asante chiefs. Prempeh made an effort to educate himself in English and to make certain that the children received education, and nominally converted to Christianity.

Return

By the early 1920s, the British authorities, perceiving less threat in Prempeh's return to Ghana, released Prempeh and fifty-four other exiles on September 12, 1924. Prempeh I returned to Kumasi as a private citizen.

Scouting

One of the legends is attributed to Prempeh is the left-handed Scout handshake

Scout handshake

The left-handed Scout handshake is a formal way of greeting other Scouts of both genders used by members of Scout and Guide organizations around the world when greeting other Scouts. The handshake is made with the hand nearest the heart and is offered as a token of friendship...

; various versions of this story all center around African warriors using the left hand to hold their shields and to lower it showed they trusted each other. The left hanshake was used by the Krobos, a special unit of the Ashanti.

Prempeh became a founder member and president of Scouting in Ghana

Scouting in Ghana

The Scout and Guide movement in Ghana is served by:* The Ghana Girl Guides Association, member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts* The Ghana Scout Association, member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement...

in 1919.

External links

• King Prempeh's throne
• Ashanti Campaign, 1895
• Major R. S. S. Baden-Powell, 13th Hussars, Commanding The Native Levy. The Downfall of Prempeh: A Diary of Life With the Native Levy in Ashanti 1895-96. London, 1896
• http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/history/ashanti.php
• http://www.ashanti.com.au/pb/wp_c168f63a.html
• http://www.endarkenment.com/eap/eavolumes/eavol01pg/pages/iprempeh.htm
• http://www.manhyiaarchives.org/