Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T22:00:45.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Life and Afterlife of Yaa Asantewaa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

T. C. McCaskie
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article is about Queen Mother Yaa Asantewaa (c. 1830s–1921) ofEdweso (Ejisu) in Asante, locally famous in tradition for her supposed leadership role in the last Anglo–Asante conflict (1900–1), and now internationally celebrated as an epitome of African womanhood and resistance to European colonialism. The article is in three parts. The first part examines the historical record concerning Yaa Asantewaa and sets this within the conflicted context of Edweso–Kumase relations before, during and after her lifetime. It also considers her role in the 1900–1 war and the nationalist constructions placed on that role by later Asante and other Ghanaian commentators. The second part examines the politics of the celebrations held in Asante in 2000 to mark the centenary of the last Anglo–Asante war and to honour Yaa Asantewaa for her part in it. Discussion here is concerned with the struggle between the ruling Asante elite and the Rawlings government in Accra to take possession of Yaa Asantewaa's reputation and to define and reinterpret it for contemporary political purposes. This was also a significant and revealing episode in the run–up to the Ghanaian national elections of 2000, in which J. A. Kufuor's Asante–based NPP finally ousted Rawlings's NDC which, in various incarnations, had ruled Ghana for twenty years. The third part examines the recent and ever–growing afterlife of Yaa Asantewaa in the age of globalization and the Internet. Attention is paid in particular to the constructions placed on her by Americans of African descent and to cultural expressions of her present status as, perhaps, the most famous of all pre–colonial African women. Finally, Asante reactions to the internationalization of Yaa Asantewaa are considered. In general, and using the case of Yaa Asantewaa, this article sets out to show that in Asante – as elsewhere in Africa – history is a continuous and vivid presence, constantly fought over, reworked and reconfigured to make the past serve new needs and aspirations.

Résumé

Cet article est consacré à la reine mère Yaa Asantewaa (vers 1830–1921) d'Edweso (Ejisu) en pays Ashanti, localement célèbre dans la tradition pour son rôle supposé de leader lors du dernier conflit anglo–ashanti (1900–01), et aujourd'hui célébrée internationalement comme le symbole de la femme africaine et de la résistance au colonialisme européen. L'article s'articule en trois parties. La première partie examine les archives historiques concernant Yaa Asantewaa et les place dans le contexte contrasté des relations entre Edweso et Kumasi avant, pendant et après son existence. Elle étudie également son rôle dans la guerre de 1900–01 et les interprétations nationalistes qui seront données à ce rôle plus tard par les commentateurs ashanti et ghanéens. La seconde partie examine la politique des célébrations organisées en pays Ashanti en 2000 pour commémorer le centenaire de la dernière guerre anglo–ashanti et honorer Yaa Asantewaa pour le rôle qu'elle y a joué. Le débat porte ici sur la lutte entre l'élite ashanti dirigeante et le gouvernement Rawlings d'Accra pour s'approprier la réputation de Yaa Asantewaa, et la définir et la réinterpréter à des fins politiques contemporaines. C'était également une période importante et révélatrice précédant les élections nationales ghanéennes de 2000, dans lesquelles le parti NPP ashanti de J. A. Kufuor a fini par renverser le parti NDC de Rawlings, qui était au pouvoir depuis vingt ans au Ghana sous des incarnations diverses. La troisième partie examine l'après–vie récente et croissante de Yaa Asantewaa à l'ère de la mondialisation et d'Internet. Elle s'intéresse en particulier aux interprétations qui lui sont données par les Américains de descendance africaine et aux expressions culturelles de son statut actuel, à savoir, peut–être, la plus célèbre des femmes africaines précoloniales. Elle se penche ensuite sur les réactions ashanti à l'internationalisation de Yaa Asantewaa. De manière générale, et à travers le cas de Yaa Asantewaa, cet article vise à montrer qu'en pays Ashanti, comme partout en Afrique, l'histoire est une présence continue et vivante, constamment disputée, retravaillée et reconfigurée afin que le passé serve de nouveaux besoins et aspirations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , May 2007 , pp. 151 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abayie Boaten, B. (1999) Kotokohene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II. Accra: Kwagyanso Publications.Google Scholar
Adu Boahen, A. (2000) ‘Yaa Asantewaa in the Yaa Asantewaa war of 1900: military leader or symbolic head?’ Ghana Studies 3:111‐35.Google Scholar
Adu Boahen, A. (2003) Yaa Asantewaa and the Asante‐British War of 1900‐1, edited with an editor's note by E. Akyeampong. Accra and Oxford: Sub‐Saharan Publishers and James Currey.Google Scholar
Adu BoahenA., E. A., E.Akyeampong, N.Lawler, T.McCaskie, C. and Wilks, I. (eds) (2003) ’The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole Country Itself’ and Other Writings by Otumfuo, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy.Google Scholar
Agyeman‐ Duah, I. (1999) The Asante Monarchy in Exile: the exile of King Prempeh I, and the Yaa Asantewaa war of 1900. Accra: Centre for Intellectual Renewal.Google Scholar
Agyeman‐ Duah, I. and Mahoune, J.C. P. (2000) The Asante Monarchy in Exile: sojourn of King Prempeh I and Nana Yaa Asantewaa in Seychelles. Kumasi: Centre for Intellectual Renewal and Ausapp Printing House.Google Scholar
Aidoo, A. A. (1975) ‘Political Crisis and Social Change in the Asante Kingdom, 1867‐1901’. PhD dissertation University of CaliforniaLos Angeles.Google Scholar
Arhin Brempong, N. (Arhin, K.) (2000) ‘The role of Nana Yaa Asantewaa in the 1900 Asante war of resistance’, Ghana Studies 3: 97‐110.Google Scholar
Asirifi‐Danquah, (2002) Yaa Asantewaa: an African queen who led an army to fight the British. Kumasi: Asirifi‐Danquah Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Awoonor, K. N. (1990) Ghana: a political history. Accra: Sedco Publishing Ltd. and Woeli Publishing Services.Google Scholar
Day, L. R. (2000) ‘Long live the queen! The Yaa Asantewaa centenary and the politics of history’, Ghana Studies 3: 153‐66. Also available online at www.jendajournal.comin Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies 2 (2001).Google Scholar
Donkoh, W. J. (2001) ‘Yaa Asantewaa: a role model for womanhood in the new millennium’, only available online at www.jendajournal.com in Jenda:A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies 1.Google Scholar
Hamilton, R. E. (1978) ‘Asante, 1895‐1900: Prelude to War’. PhD dissertation Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Hasty, J. (2003) ‘Rites of passage, routes of redemption: emancipation tourism and the wealth of culture’, Africa Today 49 (3): 47‐78.Google Scholar
Hasty, J. (2004) ‘“Forget the past or go back to the slave trade!”: trans‐Africanism and popular history in postcolonial Ghana’, Ghana Studies 6: 131‐57.Google Scholar
Hilliard, A. G. (1992) ‘The meaning of KMT (ancient Egyptian) history for contemporary African American experience’, Phylon, 49: 1‐210‐22.Google Scholar
Hilliard, A. G. (1994) ‘Bringing Maat, destroying Isfet: the African and African diasporan presence in the study of ancient KMT’, in van Sertima, I. (ed.), Egypt: Child of Africa, 127–47. New Brunswick: Journal of African Civilizations Press.Google Scholar
Howe, S. (1998) Afrocentrism: mythical past and imagined homes. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Lewin, T. J. (1974) ‘The Structure of Political Conflict in Asante, 1875‐1900’. 2 vols. PhD dissertation Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Lewin, T. J. 1978. Asante before the British: the Prempean years, 1875‐1900. Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. (1980) Office, land and subjects in the history of the Manwere fekuo of Kumase: an essay in the political economy of the Asante state’, Journal of African History, 21 (2): 189‐208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. (1984) ’Ahyiamu‐ ‘'a place of meeting'': an essay on process and event in the history of the Asante state’, Journal of African History, 25 (2): 169‐88.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. (1995) State and Society in Pre‐colonial Asante. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. (2000a) ‘The Golden Stool at the end of the nineteenth century: setting the record straight’, Ghana Studies 3: 61‐96.Google Scholar
McCaskie, T. C. (2000b) Asante Identities: history and modernity in an African village 1850‐1950. Edinburgh and Bloomington IN: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute and Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Obeng, P. (2000) ‘Yaa Asantewaa's war of independence: honoring and ratifying an historic pledge’, Ghana Studies 3: 137‐52.Google Scholar
Tordoff, W. (1965) Ashanti under the Prempehs 1888‐1935. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, I. [1975](1989) Asante in the Nineteenth Century: the structure and evolution of a political order. Reprinted with a new Preamble. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilks, I.[1975] (1998) ‘“Unity and progress”: Asante politics revisited’, Ghana Studies 1: 151‐79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilks, I. [1975](2000) ‘Asante at the end of the nineteenth century: setting the record straight’, Ghana Studies 3: 13‐59.Google Scholar
Wright, R. (1954) Black Power. London: Dennis Dobson.Google Scholar