Asantehene Nana Prempeh I (Ashanti King) on board a ship bound for exile in Seychelles 1900

Prempeh I (born 18th December 1870 – died 12th May 1931) was the thirteenth king ruler of the Ashanti Empire and the Oyoko Abohyen Dynasty.

King Prempeh I ruled from March 26, 1888 until his death in 1931, and fought an Ashanti war against Britain in 1895-6.

He was captured by the British in 1896 and exiled in St. George Castle, Elmina, Gold Coast (Ghana) for five (5) months,

in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 1897 to 1900, and in Mahe, Seychelles Islands from 1900 to 1924.

King Asantehene Prempeh I's original throne name was Prince Kwaku Dua III Asamu of the Ashanti Empire. Prempeh I's mother, Queen Asantehemaa Yaa Akyaa, was queen mother of Ashanti from 1880 to 1917. Through strategic political marriages she built the military power to secure the Golden Stool for her son Prince Prempeh.

Upon Prempeh's death on 12 May 1931, he was succeeded by his heir apparent Prempeh II as Asantehene. He was buried in Kumasi.