AMANKWA TIA

Amankwa Tia (circa 1833-January 1874), commander-in-chief of the Asante armies, played a prominent role in the Sagrenti War of 1873-74 between Asante and the British and their allies. He was the third Asante commander to bear the name of Amankwa Tia, his predecessors having also distinguished themselves in leading Asante forces in battle.

He was born at Akrofuom in Adanse, to the south of Kumase, in about 1833. He was clearly of humble origins, for he was described as “a mere creature of the king, whose ancestry no one knows, or, at least, troubles about.” Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that he did not belong to one of the aristocratic Asante families, the Asantehene Kofi Karikari, [ruled 1867-74], appointed him Bantamahene (ruler of Bantama, near Kumase, who was also traditionally the commander of the Asante forces), and Kurontihene (war leader) of the Kumase division. He replaced Gyawu, the aged Bantamehene, who was identified with the policies of the Asantehene Kwaku Dua I, [ruled 1834-67].

Amankwa Tia, an important member of the Asantehene’s council, was also well known as a field commander of merit. He had been instructed in military science by the veteran general Asamoa Nkwanta.

In the early years of Kof Karikari’s reign, Amankwa Tia allied himself with those chiefs who believed that the Anglo-Asante confrontation could only end in war. The “war party” held the view that the British authorities on the Gold Coast could not be trusted, for they had broken the treaty of 1831 by refusing to return those who had fled from Asante justice to seek refuge in British-protected territory. They argued that since the British did not respect treaties, Asante should reoccupy the southern coastal states, whose independence from Asante had been guaranteed by the 1831 treaty.

Amankwa Tia and his followers were at first held in check by Kofi Karikari and other divisional chiefs, including Kwabena Dwumo, the Mamponhene (ruler of Mampon, 30 mi or 48 km, north-north-east of Kumase), who advocated a political solution. But the views of Amankwa Tia and his supporters prevailed when in the early months of 1972 news reached Kumase that the Dutch, who had been sympathetic to Asante, had sold their possessions on the Gold Coast to the British, who had already therefore assumed authority over Elmina and the coastal states to the west of it. Apart from the fact that the loss of Elmina, which the Asantehene claimed to be his rankled, Asante could not accept British control of the coastal area to the west of the Pra River, since most of its war materials came through this area.

It was against this background that the Asanteman Council, which met in October 1872, authorised the reoccupation of the former southern provinces of Asante. Amankwa Tia, who commanded the main Asante force, was instructed to advance along the direct route from Kumase to Cape Coast. He left Kumase on December 9, crossing the Pra River at Prasu on January 22, 1873.

After defeating the armies put into the field by the British and their allies in a number of engagements in March and April, he established a forward base at Abura Dunkwa, a village 20 mi (8 km) from Cape Coast. By mid-1873, the Asante forces were within 5 mi (8 km) of Cape Coast. Amankwa Tia had achieved a reoccupation of the British-protected territory that was extraordinarily swift and well-executed. In early September of 1873, the main Asante forces were said to be in an almost unassailable position near Cape Coast.

Nevertheless, by the end of that month dissensions had appeared in the Asante camp. Amankwa Tia was accused by the Asantehene and some of the chiefs of having exceeded his instructions. According to Kofi Karikari, he had been told to reopen the trading path which led from Kumase through Wassa to the west coast, which Enimil, the ruler of Wassa, had closed, but had not been given instructions to fight the Europeans.

By laying seige to Cape Coast, it was said, Amankwa Tia had brought about an Anglo-Asante war and yet the authorisation for the military reoccupation of the southern states had been given by the Asanteman Council, over which Kofi Karikari himself presided. Furthermore, the direction of the war had been entrusted to the experienced war lord Asamoa Nkwanta, who had delegated the actual execution of the war plan to Amankwa Tia.

When these conflicting views became known to the Asante warriors, many of the subordinate commanders refused to take orders from Amankwa Tia, who was eventually ordered to return to Kumase on November 6, 1873. Shortly after, when the British army led by Major-General Sir Garnet Wolseley (later Lord Wolseley) invaded Asante, Amankwa Tia died fighting the British at Amoafo, a few miles southeast of Kumase, in January 1874.

J.K. FYNN