OTU, KWESI NANA

Nana Kwesi Otu (?-1852) was the first Omanhin, or ruler, of Abora, one of the 11 Borbor Fante states in what is now southern Ghana, situated to the northwest of Cape Coast. He reigned from 1820-52.

In the olden days, before his time, the leader of Abora, having been chosen by the chiefs and people, was given the Akonfowa (state sword) as the symbol of authority. The chosen leaders had to come from one of the old aristocratic families of the Borbor Fante, but in addition, they were selected for their wealth and their qualities of intelligence and bravery. Thus, until the advent of Kwesi Otu, the rulers of Abora did not come from any one family or town.

Kwesi Otu was selected to lead the Abora people shortly after the whole of Fanteland had been conquered by the Asante as a result of the Asante invasions of 1807, 1811, and 1816. But in 1822, in the early part of Kwesi Otu’s reign, Sir Charles Macarthy arrived as governor of the British settlements in West Africa. Macarthy believed that peace and progress could be maintained on the Gold Coast only when the Asante “menace’ had been removed, and so he organised the coastal peoples into a grand alliance to destroy Asante power.

Anglo-Asante hostility resulted in the battle of Nsamankow (Insamankow) in 1824, which ended in the defeat of the British and their allies, and the beheading of Macarthy. After this, however, the British commander Lt. Col. Purdom and the allied peoples defeated the Asante at the battle of Katamanso (Akantamasu, or Dodowa) in 1826. In 1831, another Briton, George Maclean, who had become president of the Council of Merchants on the coast, succeeded in signing a peace treaty with the Asante.

Nana Kwesi Otu, who had been one of the allied chiefs who supported the British against Asante, was a signatory to the treaty of 1831 with Asante. This treaty was the basis of peaceful relations between Asante and the peoples of what is now southern Ghana during the 13 years of Maclean’s administration.

The available evidence indicates that Nana Kwesi Otu, who believed in the soundness of Maclean’s policies, actively cooperated with the British authorities in Cape Coast Castle. This is clearly illustrated by the episode involving two rulers of Assin, the buffer states between the Asante to the north and the Fante on the coast. The two rulers, Kwadwo Tsibu Kuma of Assin Attandanso, and Gyebi of Assin Amemanin, had signed the treaty of 1831, one of the provisions of which stipulated that the Asantehene had renounced “all right, or title, to any tribute or homage from the kings of Dinkera (Denkyera), Assin and others formerly his subjects.”

The Assin chiefs, however, soon regretted their British connection, since the gradual extension of British jurisdiction on the Gold Coast tended to undermine chiefly authority. The two rulers, therefore, decided to return to their Asante allegiance, and in 1835, they secretly negotiated with the Asantehene to become his tributaries.

When the intrigues with the Asante court became known on the coast, the two Assin chiefs were brought before the council of chiefs allied to the British to explain their conduct. They were duly found guilty, and with “the sanction of President Maclean”, the Assin chiefs were placed “under the tutelage of Otoo”, who became responsible to the other allied chiefs for their good faith. This arrangement proved very satisfactory. “Under the supervision of this prudent chief,’ noted Brodie Cruickshank (a merchant who, like Maclean, was Scots), “they observed such an orderly disposition that in 1842 it was thought safe to emancipate them from his control.”

Kwesi Otu was well disposed towards the Wesleyan missionaries and was a friend of the Rev. Thomas Birch Freeman, who frequently visited him at Abakrampa, the capital of Abora. According to Freeman, Kwesi Otu, who had earlier opposed the introduction of Christianity in his state, later became a convert to Christianity and promoted its spread in Fanteland. He permitted a number of Christian churches to be built in the Abora state.

His long association with the British administration, coupled with the establishment of peace in the country, proved beneficial to him. His people regarded him as one who had brought peace, and the belief that he had the support of the British governor in Cape Coast endeared him to them so that gradually they came to see him as indispensable. In consequence, the Akonfowa remained permanently in his family. He became known as “Otu the Great, who is the first of kings”. Because of his achievements, his name became the stool name of the rulers of Abora.

J. K. FYNN