Asantehene narrates events that led to the famous Sagrenti War

Asanteman commemorated the 150th anniversary of the Sagrenti War, which took place in 1874, as part of celebrating the Silver Jubilee of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as Asantehene last week.

On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, a symposium was held at the Great Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to mark the famous war between Asantes and the British.

Also on Thursday, February 8, 2024, a commemorative durbar, dubbed "Kuntunkuni," was held to commemorate the ravages of the war in Kumasi, which had the Asantehene, the paramount chiefs and queen mothers of Asanteman, as well as leading political figures in the country, all in attendance.

Speaking at the durbar, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, narrated the events that led to the Sagrenti War.

According to him, the British started the war without instigation from the Asantes and their leaders.

He said that the British invited the then-Asantehene for a meeting during the Gold Coast era. However, even though he sent a delegation to meet them, they decided to attack with the excuse that their meeting was rejected.

"Today is a day of sadness and happiness. The sad part is that we are remembering when the whites attacked and destroyed our land without any provocation, we didn't go to their country, we didn't do anything to them, and we didn't flout any of their laws.

"At that time, they (the British) had already taken over some parts of Ghana. So they said that because they wanted to live in harmony, they had to engage Ashanti because our kingdom had stretched all over the country. So, they sent a message that they wanted to meet Nana (the then Otumfuo). Nana asked them what the issue was and told them he wanted no war," he said in Twi.

The Otumfuo added, "… My uncle, Kwaku Duah, took over, and he also didn't want to fight. So he decided to send a delegation led by the Bantamahene to go and meet them (the British) to find out what the issue was… All we heard after that was that 'you people don't want to meet us, so we would come and fight."

He said that the British wanted the war because they were envious of how the Ashanti Kingdom had spread across Ghana and the world.

He added that the British attacked the kingdom, saying, "… they came and overran us, burned our treasury and stool, everything in it."

The Asantehene also said that items the British stole from the Ashantis are worth over 2 billion pounds.

"On Tuesday, when the British professor, Tom Mccaskie, who wrote the book, was speaking, he said they stole 400,000 ounces of gold. He said that the stolen items are worth 2 billion pounds today."

He added that he has been fighting to get the stolen artefacts back, which has yielded some results, and he would leave no stone unturned to ensure that Asanteman gets all of her treasures back.

Otumfuo indicated that the happy part of the celebration was that some of the treasures were being returned to the durbar for the entire world to see that, indeed, artefacts of the Asanteman were stolen.

Watch the Asantehene’s remarks on Sagrenti War in the video below (from 5:00 to 13:00)

BAI/OGB

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