OSEI, BONSU

Osei Bonsu (1779-1824) was the seventh Asantehene, and the greatest of the 19th-century Asante warrior kings.

He was born in 1779, and in 1800 succeeded Osei Kwame (ruled 1777-98) as the Asantehene, with the stool name of Osei Tutu Kwame. On his accession to the Golden Stool, he was faced with a rebellion in the Muslim northwest of his territory. The object of the rebels was to restore his predecessor, who was known to favour the Islamic religion, to the Golden Stool. He crushed the rebellion, and after the execution of Osei Kwame, in about 1803, the northwest of Asante settled down to enjoy a long period of peace.

Although Osei Bonsu began his reign in a manner distasteful to Muslims, it was during his reign that Muslims came to exercise an influence on the cultural and political affairs of Asante. Although he never relinquished his attachment to the older cults, he tolerated other religions, so that the Muslims came to regard him as a friend on whom they could always rely for protection. Joseph Dupuis, the British representative who visited Asante in 1820, wrote of him that “he does not neglect to supplicate the Moslems for their prayers, particularly when oppressed with anxiety . . . or when the national priests or necromancers are unable to solve any problem to the satisfaction of majesty.”

During Osei Bonsu’s reign, Islam, in its magico-religious aspects, began to make a growing impact upon all levels of Asante society. There was, for example, a growing market for amulets, which were especially valued for the protection they were supposed to offer the Asante soldier on the battlefield.

Osei Bonsu, however, is best remembered as the Asantehene who defeated and brought the coastal Fante under Asante domination. By 1800, Asante had conquered virtually all the states in what is now Ghana, except the Fante group of states in the south. The cause of the Asante invasion of Fante-land was the fact that the Fante had given refuge to Tsibu and Aputei, two chiefs of Assin, (the buffer state between Asante and the Fante states) who were fleeing from justice in Asante. In 1807, therefore, a large Asante force, led by Osei Bonsu himself, attacked and defeated the Fante in several fierce battles.

The Asante followed up their victory with two more invasions in 1811 and 1816, after which the majority of the Fante people recognised the suzerainty of the Asante. Osei Bonsu then appointed regional and district commissioners to reside in the Fante country. These Asante officials not only collected annual tributes from the people, as well as ground rents from the Europeans, but also served as the ‘eyes and ears of the Asante government. It was during the invasions of Fante-land that Osei Tutu Kwame, when he reached the, Atlantic Ocean, took the name of Osei Bonsu, since “Bonsu, meaning “whale,” is the biggest mammal in the sea.

The defeat of the Fante led the British authorities at Cape Coast Castle to send the Bowdich Mission (named for its leader, T. E. Bowdich) to Kumase in 1817 to treat with the Asantehene. This was followed by the appointment in 1819 of Joseph Dupuis as the British consul in the Asante capital.

British efforts to come to terms with Asante failed, however, because the British refused to recognise Asante sovereignty over a number of the Fante coastal towns in which the British forts were situated. Moreover, the British regarded Asante as a major source of slaves on the Gold Coast, and therefore considered Asante as the greatest obstacle in the way of their efforts to end slavery and promote legitimate trade instead, and to spread western civilisation on the Gold Coast.

When Sir Charles Macarthy became governor-in-chief of the British West African settlements in 1822, he decided to end the Asante ‘menace’ by organising the coastal chiefs into grand alliance, aimed at defeating the Asante. When the Asante invaded the states of Wassa and Denkyera in 1823, Macarthy led the British and allied forces against Asante. They were, however, defeated at the battle of Nsamankow (Insamankow) in 1824, and Sir Charles was killed.

Osei Bonsu, like Opoku Ware, had a personal interest in education. In 1818 he had expressed a desire that a number of princes – that is to say, his own sons, as well as the sons of his predecessors in office, should receive an English education. He was, however, opposed by the Kumase chiefs and by members of the Asante aristocracy, who argued that the spread of western education in Asante might have disastrous effects on traditional institutions.

Opposition to western education, however, was not also extended to that provided by the Muslims. Osei Bonsu’s associates allowed him to send some of his children to the Muslim school in Kumase that was founded and presided over by Imam, Muhammad al-Ghamba.

Osei Bonsu also concerned himself with the growth and development of Kumase, the Asante capital. He expressed an interest in English architecture and drew up a plan for the rebuilding of the city. One of his most cherished projects was the construction of the Aban, the stone-built ‘Palace of Culture’, situated in the center of the city, to which most visitors were conducted. While one part of the building housed the wine store, much of it was given over to displaying the Asantehene’s collections of arts and crafts.

He also encouraged the organisation of trade by the state. While state-sponsored trade originated in the 18th century, it was in Osei Bonsu’s reign that an organisation began to develop that was in time to become capable of challenging the dominant position which private traders had hitherto enjoyed. It was indicative of this trend that, after 1815, Osei Bonsu engaged in negotiating preferential terms for Asante state traders doing business with the European settlements on the Gold Coast.

He died in 1824, after ruling for almost a quarter of a century. By the end of his reign, Asante had become the predominant power on the Gold Coast, with a territory larger than that of modern Ghana.

J. K. FYNN