Yaa Asantewaa
Queen Mother who led the War of the Golden Stool
c. 1840 – 1921
When the men of the Ashanti Empire hesitated to fight British colonizers, the Queen Mother of Ejisu picked up a rifle herself and led them into war.
Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of Ejisu, a state within the powerful Ashanti Empire in what is now Ghana. By 1900, the British had already exiled the Ashanti king, Prempeh I, and their governor demanded the Golden Stool — the sacred symbol of Ashanti kingship and spiritual unity — be brought out for him to sit on.
To the Ashanti, the Golden Stool was not a throne but a living symbol believed to house the soul of the nation. When Ashanti leaders met in secret to decide how to respond, many argued for surrender. Yaa Asantewaa stood and said that if the men of Ashanti would not fight, the women would take up arms themselves.
She was made commander of an army of thousands and led the 1900 uprising now known as the War of the Golden Stool, laying siege to the British fort at Kumasi for months. The British eventually brought reinforcements and won the war, exiling Yaa Asantewaa to the Seychelles, where she died in 1921 — but the Golden Stool was never surrendered.
Why it matters
Yaa Asantewaa is remembered across Ghana and the African diaspora as a symbol of defiance against colonial rule, and her name is still invoked whenever people speak of courage in the face of impossible odds.