Yaa Asantewa, born around 1840 and died on October 17, 1921, had received the title of queen mother of ejisu by her brother Nana Akwasi Afrane Okpese, the Ejisuhene, that is to say the head of Ejisu, of the confederation Asante, now known as Ghana. Yaa Asantewa made history for leading this famous rebellion against the British, an anti-colonial war known as the War of the Golden Stool.
During her brother's reign, Yaa Asantewa witnessed a series of events threatening the future of the Asante confederation, including the civil war from 1883 to 1888. When her brother died in 1894, she would use his rights as a queen mother to nominate her grandson “Ejisuhene” (leader). And when the latter was finally forced to go into exile in the Seychelles in 1896, accompanied by the king of Asante Prempeh I, Yaa Asantewaa became regent of the Ejisu-Juaben district. It was then that the British general Frederick Hodgson demanded that he be given the “Golden Stool”, symbol of the Asante nation.
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Queens of Africa and heroines of the black diaspora
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