THE GOLDEN STOOL OF THE ASANTE PEOPLE
- 4 Min Read
PHOTO CAPTION: The Golden Stool SOURCE:EA Library
The Golden Stool of the Asante people also known as the “Sika Dwa Kofi” (believed to be born on Friday) its the embodiment of the Asante nation’s spirit. It has been the symbol of power for the people of Asante since the 17th century.
PHOTO CAPTION: Komfo Anokye SOURCE: EA Library
According to Asante oral history, Okomfo Anokye, the revered spiritual leader and advisor to King Osei Tutu I, called down the Golden Stool from the heavens to unify the Ashanti states. Prior to the establishment of the Asante kingdom, Akan people were organised in small independent States, each headed by a paramount chief. Around 1701, several of these States united under the military and economic strength of the Asantes.
The Stool, made of gold, is a curved seat 46 cm high with a platform 61 cm wide and 30 cm deep. It has several bells attached to it. One of these bells is made of alloy brass and copper known as the “donkese”. It is said to contain a charm such that, when it is rung, people gather together.
The Golden Stool is kept in a sacred place, but is represented in the stool house by the “donkese” which receives sacrifices intended for the stool. It is said that, whatever the stool was taken to the battlefield, the “donkese” was strapped to it. The bells made in the form of statuettes of defeated Warriors or kings were not functionally used as bells. They served to commemorate the humiliation of the enemies of Asante and hence were “nkoa” or “servants of the Golden Stool”.
Komfo Anokye decreed that the Golden Stool should never be allowed to rest upon the bare ground, but must either be on a coarse blanket of camel hair, “nsaa”, or on “skin taken from the back of an elephant” which when killed had fallen face downwards (banwoma).
PHOTO CAPTION: Osei Tutu I SOURCE: EA Library
Later when Asantehene Osei Tutu I made himself the “Hwedom chair”, he made similar for the Golden stool, the “Hwedom-tea” which had a higher seat so that the stool could be seen when brought out at public assemblies. Thus, the resting place of the Golden stool became the Hwedom-tea, which itself stands upon nsaa blanket or banwoma hide.
Each new Asante king is lowered and raised over the Golden Stool without touching it. Indeed, no one could be considered a legitimate ruler without the Golden Stool, which usually occupied its own throne next to the Asante king. The Asantes regarded the Golden Stool as their most prized possession. Before going to war, their war chiefs consulted it. As time progressed and the Asante achieved more victories over their rivals, transforming their kingdom into an empire, the Golden Stool became even more revered.
By the 19th century, the Asantes began a series of clashes with the British Empire, which had established effective control over the coastal region of what is now Ghana. They fought three Anglo-Asante Wars between 1824 and 1874, with the British and their African allies gaining more control over Asante Territory. During the fourth Anglo-Asante War, the British, along with their Indian and African allies, defeated Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh, eventually capturing him and sending him into exile in the Seychelles Islands.
PHOTO CAPTION: Yaa Asantewaa SOURCE: EA Library
In 1900, Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, Governor of Gold Coast marched into Kumase and demanded that the Golden Stool be brought forth so that he could “sit on it” as the representative of the Queen of England, a sacrilegious act in Asante culture.
Yaa Asantewaa led a rebellion known as the “War of the Golden Stool”, which began on March 28, 1900. The intense fighting resulted in overwhelming casualties on both sides (Asantes and British together with Allied troops). The casualties surpassed the totals from all previous Anglo-Ashanti wars combined. The war, however, ended after six months. Yaa Asantewaa was captured by the British in 1901 and quickly exiled to the Seychelles, where she died in 1921. The British however failed to annex the Golden Stool.
The Golden Stool, securely hidden by the Asantes during the war was discovered by a group of African railroad builders in 1920, who stripped the stool of its gold ornaments. They were subsequently tried and sentenced to death by the Asantes, but the British intervened, leading to their exile from the Asante kingdom.
Realizing the significance of the Golden Stool to the Asantes, the British sworn never to interfere with it again. Restored to its ceremonial place, the Golden Stool continues to be used in rituals involving crowning of new Asante kings.
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