Yaa Asantewaa

Queen Mother and War Leader · circa 1840–1921

Who is Yaa Asantewaa?

Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of Ejisu within the Ashanti (Asante) Empire, in what is now southern Ghana. Appointed to her position by her brother, the ruler of Ejisu, she became a central figure of Asante political life at a time when British colonial authorities sought to extend control over the Asante Kingdom. In 1900, when the British Governor Frederick Hodgson demanded the sacred Golden Stool — the symbol of Asante sovereignty and spiritual unity — Yaa Asantewaa rallied the Asante chiefs to resist after the men hesitated to take up arms. Her speech before the war council, urging the warriors forward and declaring that the women would fight if the men would not, helped ignite the War of the Golden Stool, also called the Yaa Asantewaa War. She commanded a force that besieged the British fort at Kumasi for several months before the rebellion was suppressed. Captured and exiled to the Seychelles, she died there in 1921 without seeing Asante regain full sovereignty, but her stand became a lasting symbol of resistance to colonial rule and of women's leadership in African history.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Yaa Asantewaa" (War of the Golden Stool historical summary) · GhanaWeb, "Yaa Asantewaa" biography · Kentake Page, "Yaa Asantewaa: Queen Mother of the Ashanti Empire"

Quotes by Yaa Asantewaa

“If you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will. We, the women, will fight until the last of us falls on the battlefield.”

Yaa Asantewaa's declaration rallying the Asante to resist British colonial rule when the male chiefs hesitated, becoming a lasting symbol of courage and women's leadership.

Yaa Asantewaa

Source: Yaa Asantewaa, war council speech, Kumasi, 1900 (recorded in Asante oral history and Ghanaian historical accounts of the War of the Golden Stool)