Ashanti Politics 1799-1819
Sai Apokoo did not live more than a few weeks after being elevated to the stool, and was succeeded by his brother Sai Tootoo Quamina (now also known as Osei…
Location: Kumasi, Ghana, Accra, Ghana
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Kingdom under Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu Kwame Asiba Bonsu
From Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee by Thomas Edward Bowdich, 1819.
Sai Apokoo did not live more than a few weeks after being elevated to the stool, and was succeeded by his brother Sai Tootoo Quamina (now also known as Osei Bonsu), the present King, who must then have been about seventeen years of age. On this occasion, the general assembly of the captains, jealous of the aristocracy, and desirous of making a favourable impression on the young King, insisted that the remaining members of it, should propitiate the reign, by publicly disclaiming their exemption from capital punishment.
The invasion of the Fantee kingdom in 1807 was the first important military act of the present reign, the circumstances and origin of which, being pretty accurately described by Mr. Meredith, in the extract in the Appendix, I need not repeat. Whilst the invasion was meditating, Baba, now the chief of the Moors, presented himself to solicit an asylum in Coomassie, having been driven from Gamba by the rapacity of the King, his near relative; and professing solely to desire the recovery of a large property withheld from him, to make the King of Ashantee the heir to it. The King promised he would oblige the King of Gamba to do him justice, on his return from the Fantee war, if Baba and his companions were fortunate in their prayers and charms for his success. The King of Gamba did not think proper to resist the demand afterwards made through the Ashantee government.
Coonadua, the King's mother, was left regent during his absence; this woman was a second Messalina, and many young captains who refused to intrigue with her, from fear or disgust, have been ultimately the victims of her artifice and vengeance.
Yaboquorra, the King of Dwabin, died in this interval, and was succeeded by his grandson, Boitinne Quania, now about twenty years of age.
Attah, caboceer or King of Akim, had followed the King to the first Fantee war, and behaved well. Apokoo being sent on an expedition against the Fantees of Winnebah and Berracoo, Attah received orders to join him with his contingency; instead of which, he sent a message to Apokoo, before he passed the Boosempra river, refusing to join him, and advising him not to attempt to pass through his country.
Apokoo reported this immediately to the King, who, as is usual, sent to Attah to enquire if he had said so. He confessed that he had, without hesitation, adding, thai the King treated him like a slave, in incessantly summoning him to attend his wars, and besides, that he never could forget that Sai Cudjo had cut off his grandfather's head, and that he would fight with Apokoo whenever he came.
Soon afterwards, Quamina Guma, (the father of Becqua, captain of Danish Accra,) and one of the King's sons, returning to Coomassie with a large quantity of gold collected to make custom for the King's mother, Attah intercepted, robbed, and murdered them and their party, with the exception of one, whom he desired to tell the King that this act would convince him he was in earnest, and determined to go to war with him.
Apokoo was immediately ordered to proceed against Attah, who had engaged Quaw Saffatchee as a party in the revolt, who was weary of the same laborious vassalage. When Apokoo entered the Akim country, Attah was for attacking him immediately, and at sun rise, but Quaw impressing his doubts of their succeeding against the superior warfare of the Ashantees, begged him to stop until three o'clock, when the Ashantees generally ate and slept, and when they might be better able to retreat if worsted, as the enemy never pursued in the dusk. The attack was a surprise, but the fight continued obstinate and undecided until night, when Apokoo found he had lost so many men, that he immediately dispatched a messenger to summon the Accras to his aid, as vassals to the King.
His messenger reached Accra the next day, and that people joined him on the following, on which the enemy retreated precipitately; Attah to windward, and Quaw to Adda. Apokoo followed the latter, who having escaped him after a tedious watchfulness, Apokoo, believing the Danish governor, Mr. Flindt, to have connived, made him his prisoner, and kept him with the army, which soon afterwards encamped in Aquapim, five months, during which time he was treated with kindness and respect, but his ransom amounted to nearly £400. Apokoo was soon after ordered back to Coomassie. He told me he brought the bell of Adda fort as a trophy.
Appia Danqua had been sent, at the same time with Apokoo, with 6000 men against the Fantee states which were disposed to the revolters. He defeated them at Apam, and took Baffoo the Annamaboe caboceer prisoner, but whilst his army was before Tantum, intelligence of the approach of Attah, who had retreated from Apokoo, but whose name was as redoubtable as his disposition was rapacious, subdued his firmness, and under the plea of prudence, hurried him back to the interior.
The path was afterwards shut for two years, through the vigilance, and from the terror of Cudjo Cooma, who had been elected to the stool of Akim, six months after the death of Attah, whose immediate successor (Quawko Ashantee) tyrannized so cruelly during that period, that he was commanded by the people to kill himself, and could only obtain the indulgence of a week's respite, which he spent in singing and dancing, in fact in' making his own custom.
Quaw Saffatchee had also leagued with the Fantees who attacked the Accra town, but were repulsed. The King suddenly determined to open the path to receive the arrears of pay due from the Forts, and sent Amanqua Abiniowa with an army of 20,000 men, charging him to offer no violence nor commit hostility, unless provoked by attack, but to receive the submission of the Akims and Aquapims, and merely to exact a fine to seal it. Appia Danqua was sent at the same time with a smaller army to the back of Winnebah and Tantum, to intercept the revolters if they fled to windward. Abiniowa proceeded to Aguiasso, one day's march from Aquapim, unmolested, when one of his foraging parties was attacked by Cudjo Cooma and seven men killed.
A general engagement took place the next morning, and after six hours fighting the Ashantees were victorious, and sent a jaw-bone and a slave to each of the Accra towns. Amanqua then marched to Accra to receive the King's pay, and remained nearly twelve months in its neighbourhood. He then returned to Aquapim, where, after some time, he received a message from the King, with a large quantity of gold, advising him that he must not see his face again unless he brought the heads of Cudjo and Quaw. Amanqua did not immediately communicate this message to his captains, but ordered them to deposit their equipage and property in Accra, and then, making a large custom for three days, to propitiate the enterprise, he took fetish with all his captains that they would never return to Coomassie without the heads.
Appia Danqua had died in Assin in the interim, and was succeeded by his brother Appia Nanu, under whom Bakkee was the second in command. The King hearing nothing of his progress, and his indolence being reported to him, sent orders to Amanqua to join him, which he did at Essecooma, reproaching him for his cowardice. Soon after this, the skirmish at the salt pond near Cape Coast took place, the detachment was principally of Assins, and commanded by Quasheemanqua. Yokokroko soon afterwards joined the combined army, (which had marched to Abra,) with a few hundred men destined to attack Commenda.
Not long after the palaver was settled at Cape Coast, and the army again divided, Cudjo Cooma was killed by a party of Appia Nanu's at Insoom or Incoom near Essecooma; upon which, Appia, instead of marching to join Amanqua as had been concerted, returned to Coomassie, where he was coldly received, but not accused until the 12th of July last (see Diary). Adoo Danqua, the brother of Quaw Saffatchee, came to the Accras and concerted the delivering of him up, as he had tired him out with his wanderings. The Ashantees agreed to prevail on the King to give him the stool if he did.
A few Accras and a few Ashantees accompanied him, and when he came near where his brother was hid, one day's journey from Accra, he placed an ambush, and sitting down, expostulated with him, and recommended him to kill himself; but Quaw would not, alleging that he should eventually wear out the King's patience in pursuing him; on this Adoo rose, and a shot was immediately fired at Quaw, who was brought down and rose again four times, exclaiming that his brother was his murderer, who reflected the reproach on his own obstinacy. The body was brought to Accra, and his head sent to Coomassie, and it is now a trophy at Bantama or the back town. Amanqua then returned to Coomassie, and arrived about six months before the Mission.
The Aowins, to anticipate the ambitious views of the Ashantee government, lately sent an embassy with offers of service and tribute, but the amount of the latter has not yet been decided.
The King had sent to demand the royal stool of Buntooko or Gaman which was thickly plated and embossed with gold; it was given up by Adinkara, the King, from fear; his sister, a woman of masculine spirit and talent, and the soul of the government, being absent. On her return, she reproached her brother severely, and ordered a solid gold stool to be made to replace it.
That being also demanded, as the right of the superior, with a large gold ornament in the shape of an elephant, dug out from some ruins, the sister, receiving the ambassadors, replied, that the King should not have either, and added, impressing it with more force than delicacy, that her brother and she must change sexes, for she was most proper for a King, and would fight to the last rather than be so constantly despoiled.
The King of Ashantee sent word that she was fit to be a king's sister, and a strong woman, and he would give her twelve months to prepare for war. Several embassies have been sent however to negotiate; two during our stay, the latter, it was said, with an offer of 400 Bendas, (£3200.) but the aristocracy were obstinate, and urged to the King, that his other tributaries would laugh at him, if he did not get the King of Gaman's head. The smallpox was raging in Buntooko.
It is clear, that the King of Ashantee contemplates the reduction of the King of Dwabin from an independent ally to a tributary. We witnessed one circumstance to the point. A messenger being sent to require gold of Dwabin, the King of which is a very weak young man, a captain of the royal family replied, that there was no war on foot to require gold, and as it could only be for the individual benefit of Ashantee, the government must be reminded that Dwabin had formerly exacted gold, and was not now to be subjected to imposition, because the right had been yielded from respect to the sister kingdom.
This being reported to the King, he suppressed his anger, and sent a gold headed sword, with other marks of dignity and favour to this man, who, to his surprise, refused them, alleging, that the honours he already possessed at home became him better. The King still temporised. Some months after, at the full assembly convened for the proclamation of the treaty with the British Government, the mother of the King of Dwabin, who acts as regent, and over whom Sai is known to have much influence, suddenly, and no doubt at his instance, accused this captain of plotting to deprive her son of the stool.
The accusation was supported by others, who prayed the King to judge the palaver. The King of Dwabin sat with the greatest indifference. The accused made an animated appeal to the assembly, and Sai affected to support him vehemently, and ordered the linguists to give him chalk, or acquit him. The man thanking him very earnestly, Adoosee was desired to tell him, that his ill-will to the King of Ashantee had been reported in a very aggravated manner; but as it was no longer believed, he was only required to take fetish, that he liked the King, and would do him all the good he could; this done, the man received several marks of favour and bounty.
Sai Tootoo is considered to take better care of the treasury than any of his predecessors: he cautiously extends his prerogative, and takes every opportunity of increasing the number of secondary captains, by dignifying the young men brought up about his person, and still retaining them in his immediate service.
Sai Acotoo, the King's brother, and the heir to the stool, appeared to me very inferior in ability; but the Ashantees say otherwise.
The King's private character is amiable; the children of his brothers share the fondness and indulgence which endear him to his own, and his few moments of recreation are the liveliest of theirs. The circumstances connected with the various instances which we witnessed of his generosity to others, justify me in ascribing it to the benevolence of his disposition.
His admiration of ingenious rather than splendid novelty, has frequently imposed the appearance of a covetousness, scarcely culpable from his reverence for invention, and the amazement its extent excited. To present him with the trifles which attracted his notice when he visited us, offended him, he told us we must only answer his questions, and let him examine them; to make dashes on the occasion of a private visit, was to vitiate the motive of the condescension, which could not be repeated unless we paid more respect to his dignity and friendship.
The King is certainly capricious, and his liberality of mind is stained by prejudices against individuals which he confesses to be unaccountable; and to several of the principal actors in his brother's deposition, (which, desirous to extend his prerogative, he would tacitly censure,) he has been unjustly severe.
His humanity is frequently superior to his superstition and policy, he offended Quatchi Quofie, one of the four, by limiting the human sacrifices at his mother's funeral, and resisted all the importunities, founded on precedent, for the allowance of a greater number. He dismissed us twice with apologies for not proceeding to business, confessing, the first time, that he had been unusually irritated just after he sent for us, and had not recovered his calmness; the latter, that some agreeable news had induced him to drink more than fitted him to hear great palavers like ours. In his judicial administration, a lie always aggravated the punishment, and truth generally extenuated, and sometimes atoned of itself for the offence: he invariably anticipated the temerity of perjury, where convicting evidence was to be opposed to the accused.
The King's manners are a happy mixture of dignity and affability, they engage rather than encourage, and his general deportment is conciliating though repressive. He speaks well, and more logically than most of his council, who are diffuse, but his superior talent is marked in the shrewd questions by which he fathoms a design or a narrative.
He excels in courtesy, is wisely inquisitive, and candid in his comparisons: war, legislature, and mechanism, were his favourite topics in our private conversations. The great, but natural fault of the King is his ambition; I do not think it has ever proved superior to the pledge of his honour, but it certainly has, and that frequently, to his sense of justice, which is repressed rather than impaired by it. This sketch of his character being narrowed to my own knowledge, will be assisted by the following history of Agay, the second linguist.
Agay, when a boy, carried salt from Aquoomo to Coomassie for sale; he was afterwards taken into the service of Aquootoo, caboceer of that place, against whom the government had instituted a palaver, but wrongfully. Agay accompanied the caboceer when he was sent for to Coomassie for judgment. After the King's messengers had spoken, misrepresenting the case in preference to confessing the King to be in the wrong, and the caboceer was confused, this boy suddenly rose, and said, to use the words of the narrators, "King, you have people to wash you, to feed you, to serve you, but you have no people to speak the truth to you, and tell you when God does not like your palaver."
The assembly cried out unanimously, that the boy might be hurried away and his head taken off; but the King said, "No! let him finish;" and Agay is said to have spoken three hours, and to have disclosed and argued the palaver to the King's conviction, and his master's acquittal. He was retained to attend the King, but treated with no particular distinction.
A serious palaver occurring between two principal men, it was debated before the council, who were at a loss to decide, but inclined to the man whom the King doubted; judgment was suspended. In the interim the King sent Agay, privately, to the house of each, to hear their palavers in turn, tete-a-tete; he did so, and when the King asked him who he thought was right, he confirmed his impression. "Now," said the King, "I know you have a good head." Agay was then made a Linguist, and presented with a house, wives, slaves, and gold.
Sometime afterwards, the King confessing a prejudice against a wealthy captain, his linguists, always inclined to support him, said, "If you wish to take his stool from him, we will make the palaver;" but Agay sprung up, exclaiming, "No, King! that is not good; that man never did you any wrong, you know all the gold of your subjects is your's at their death, but if you get all now, strangers will go away and say, only the King has gold, and that will not be good, but let them say the King has gold, all his captains have gold, and all his people have gold, then your country will look handsome, and the bush people fear you"
For this the King made him second linguist, and much increased his property. When Amanqua had the command of the army against Cudjo Cooma, the King asked him which linguist he would take, he replied, Adoosee or Otee; the King said, no! I will give you this boy, he has the best head for hard palavers. Amanqua urged that he was too young, the King told him he was a fool to say so. He then made Amanqua take fetish with him to report the merits of Agay faithfully, who distinguished himself so much, that he is always employed in difficult foreign palavers.
The manners of the higher orders of captains, always dignified, are courteous and hospitable in private, though haughty and abrupt in public. I believe them to be jealous rather than tenacious of their honour, and their sophistry is as ingenious as their maxims are prepossessing. They consider that war alone affords an exertion or display of ability, and they esteem the ambition of their King as his greatest virtue.
They have no idea of the aggrandisement of a state by civil policy alone. They are candid in acknowledging their defeats, and just to the prowess of their enemies, but they possess little humanity, and are very avaricious and oppressive. They listen to superstition with the most childish credulity, but they only cultivate it for the preservation of life and the indulgence of passion; beyond this, the Moors could never advance their enquiries; they are neither curious nor anxious about a future state, pretending to it from rank and achievement rather than domestic virtue; and believing, if the latter were outraged, the solemnities and sacrifices of their funeral customs would purchase their repose. Indeed, licensed as they are by the zealous conflicts of rival superstitions, (Moorish and Pagan,) their lives are moderate and benevolent to what might be expected, and merit more than our excuses.
The lower order of people are ungrateful, insolent, and licentious. The King repeatedly said, he believed them to be the worst people existing, except the Fantees, and not comparable with many of their inland neighbours. Perhaps we should agree with Voltaire, "Je crois qu'il faut plutot juger d'une puissante nation par ceux qui sont a la tete, que par la populace."
Bowdich, Thomas Edward. Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee. J. Murray, 1819.
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