EP 1 Yaa Asantewaa: Leading Anti-Colonial Resistance I Women And Resistance

In this episode of Women and Resistance, we explore the life and legacy of Yaa Asantewaa, the Queen Mother of the Ashanti Kingdom, who led her people in resistance to British colonialism. 

The conversation delves into the historical context of the Ashanti Kingdom, the significance of the golden stool as a symbol of identity, and the vital role women played in resistance movements. 

Yaa Asantewa's leadership during the 1900 war against British forces highlights the importance of cultural memory and the ongoing struggle against imperialism. 

The episode emphasises the need to remember and honour the sacrifices of those who fought for freedom and sovereignty.

Takeaways

*The strongest resistance is embodied in the collective memory and spiritual sovereignty of a people
*The strategic use of environment and unconventional tactics outmatches technological warfare
*Power is rooted in structural and symbolic governance, not mere top-down authority
*Resistance is a perpetual act rooted in the spiritual and cultural identity of a people
*Suppression tactics aim to fragment, demoralise, and erase collective will, but are ultimately ineffective
*The destructive force of technological domination is countered by moral courage and cultural resilience
*The act of remembrance transforms collective identity and sustains resistance

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance Podcast
00:53 Context of the Ashanti Kingdom and Imperialism
02:57 Yaa Asantewaa: A Historical Figure of Resistance
06:12 The Role of Women in Ashanti Society
10:28 The Golden Stool: Symbol of Sovereignty
12:22 The British Aggression and Wars Against the Ashanti
17:52 Leadership and Resistance in the Ashanti Kingdom
20:16 The Demand for the Golden Stool
21:20 Women Rising to Defend Their People
24:16 Strategic Resistance Against Colonial Forces
26:46 The Impact of the Maxim Gun
34:00 The Capture and Exile of Leaders
36:29 Legacy and Memory of Resistance

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:01.922)
Yes, greetings, greetings, and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance, your podcast where we center women, their role in history, how they help the struggle against imperialism in all shapes and forms. And today we are going to the continent. Specifically, we're going to the Ashanti Kingdom to sort of give context to why we're interviewing our next guest.

have to understand this is the height of post the Scramble for Africa conference of Berlin in 1884 to 1885. So we're talking about specifically the British interaction now with the Asante Kingdom and we have with us someone who pushed against imperialism within her kingdom. By that, we welcome

Ya asante wa.

A quibble.

Adesoji Iginla (01:08.27)
Good evening. So could you give us a proper context of how you came into our consciousness?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:49.992)
When the invitation was extended to me to speak with you and your friends, first let me say thank you for the invitation because you never, you always show appreciation for when people want to give you an audience.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:25.406)
thought about.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:33.342)
version of me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:39.636)
should speak to you today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:46.248)
been long gone from the face of this physical earth in my physical form.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:58.228)
since 1921.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:04.424)
Would you like to speak to the young woman?

being raised.

in the courts in the cradle of an empire.

heralded for its gold, its government structure.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:31.102)
would you want to talk to?

the woman who became Queen Mother.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:44.094)
Do I present?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (03:53.736)
the woman who challenged.

our men and our people to fight for our golden stool, for our heritage, for our legacy.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:11.4)
Would you like to speak?

to the one who was banished, exiled from her land.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:22.609)
only to die.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:26.812)
on foreign soil.

Which version?

Adesoji Iginla (04:33.806)
would like to speak to all of them.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (04:34.864)
I even thought, do I come as the warrior and show you my gun, my musket, and my daggers? Do I come with my amulets?

Do I come bearing evidence of the gold?

that fired up the greed, the insatiable greed of the white man.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:09.416)
Do I come with my own stool?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:23.656)
This is not easy to have this conversation, but it's necessary. And I am.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:41.076)
The word is not grateful. It is not a happy occasion. It is necessary to have the conversation, but it does not make me happy.

In fact, it is very heavy.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:01.128)
So perhaps I start at the beginning.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:10.172)
You said, how did I come into the consciousness? My name is Yaa Asantewa.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:22.224)
If you can hear my voice, I hope you can hear the drums also playing in the background, our ancestral drums.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:40.148)
stirring up the waters, stirring up the winds.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (06:50.398)
telling you to remember, to remember, to remember. Get out of your comfort to remember.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:01.788)
my land.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:07.088)
It was a difficult land to grow crops on because it was so rich.

with the minerals.

that the world craves, the white man in particular.

You know, my people, we were bedecked in gold. Even those who were in some form of servitude all had some gold. We had gold amulet and bracelets and necklaces and the men would walk around with walking sticks with heads of gold.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:56.146)
and when they came and they saw and they wrote and they told their people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:08.008)
I was born into responsibility. I was born with a sense of purpose that your life has meaning. Yeah, born on a Thursday as was and is a tradition. You can tell mostly the day a child was born. Of course, we didn't call it Thursday back then.

we had our own ways.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:44.974)
Nana Yaa Asantewa, daughter of Ampoma, daughter of...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (08:55.218)
I was of Beisiasi, of Ejisu, of Ashanti.

of course also called asante which means of war because we were surrounded by people who initially different as they will call it groups clans that would sometimes try to make war with us and we became a strong warrior group and we were able to bring those clans together on that one.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:40.604)
I was born, they say, around 1840.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:49.144)
In my land lineage flowed through the mother.

We were not patriarchal in the way that Europe understood power. are matrilineal society.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (10:09.288)
This is not to mean that men are absent or subjugated to any kind of or relegated to any kind of less as that you know. In fact, the uncle of the child played a very important role, but the lineage and the inheritance came through the mother. And so back then, when you had a daughter,

We rejoiced!

See, because a son helps a woman belonging to another family to father, to increase the children for that family. But a daughter is what multiplies in your home. look at how things are.

Adesoji Iginla (11:05.742)
Good.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:07.014)
upside down now. Now people don't want to have dot ads. When you don't have dot ads, who's going to bring your children into the world?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:25.456)
The leader of the people, now we use the term king, is chosen from the royal matrilineage. And the woman, the queen mother, is the one who names the king.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:50.866)
The Abusua, the matrilineal clan, is actually the foundation of the society.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:04.636)
Now what did the Queen Mother do? Not Queen Mother as in your only power is because you are married to the King. Then you get a little... No. The Queen Mother advised the King. Had veto power. Do people understand veto in your language? Nominates successors.

Adesoji Iginla (12:26.678)
Overriding power.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (12:33.426)
represents the interests of women and serves as both a spiritual and political authority. This was replicated in so many places across what we now call Africa before Islam and Christianity and colonialism said no, women are objects.

and the man only is supreme.

was not born into symbolic power. I was born into structural governance. Women had a council of elders. Women controlled the markets. You understand me?

Adesoji Iginla (13:30.36)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (13:33.062)
We had women as oath keepers, land custodians, war financiers, and warriors themselves. So I was not raised to sit and just cook and bear children. I was raised to understand the governance of my land.

understand the needs of my people, to understand trade, to understand what it means to have a structure that allows for a prosperous empire.

women were not invisible we were not what do you people call it today eye candy

We were an integral part of the infrastructure, just as men were too. There was a balance.

Adesoji Iginla (14:45.134)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:46.952)
I think in Kemet you will talk about Ma'at balance.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:55.956)
So my brother, Nana Akwasi.

Franny Oweze became king. He was the chief of the Jisu.

This is after they have taken Prempe. You know I will come back to him. But after the British had come, taken Prempe and exiled him to Seychelles.

Adesoji Iginla (15:24.526)
The other side of continent.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:28.198)
Now we were fighting the whole time. See on one side you had the Dutch who were fighting to maintain control. They would give guns and their ammunition. The other side you had the Britain and that's why we also had some of their guns. They would arm us so that we could help fight to defeat the other side. But eventually Britain prevailed.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:55.936)
When my brother Nana Akwasi became the king, I became queen mother with all of the responsibility that that title holds. Now back then you understood that to be a leader is to be a servant. You were there.

to serve your people. And the people you served were not just the ones you saw living.

You served the ones who came before you who had passed on to the spirit realm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:46.864)
and you served the ones who were still going to come in the future. The yet unborn. There was a responsibility. Your decisions could not just be for the people here and now.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:06.612)
Queen Mother is Mother of the Nation.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:14.772)
I presided over disputes. I advised on war. I guided and guarded the lineage legitimacy. And I protected the stools.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (17:33.968)
understand. I will tell you more about this golden stool. But the stools were part of our heritage. When a child was born, the first gift a father would give their child is their own stool. When a woman is married, the gift her husband would give her is a stool. She would sit on that stool.

But the gold stool, no one sat on that stool. It doesn't touch the ground.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:14.15)
It's not furniture. It is not what do you people call it is not art. It is not for decoration. It is a secret.

Adesoji Iginla (18:21.198)
you

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:29.21)
it is a sacred what is the word it is the soul it is the soul of the people it is not a thing it is actually the the source of our sovereignty

Adesoji Iginla (18:34.796)
of the people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:49.272)
A golden stool. Sika Dwa Kofi.

Adesoji Iginla (18:54.926)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:57.864)
The golden stone descended from the heavens.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:07.112)
during the reign of Osei Tutu in the 17th century.

The king does not sit on it. No human sits on it. It is placed. It has a cushion and then it is placed beside the king.

but those are all guns.

and ignorance.

British did not understand this or perhaps they don't care because everything is open to desecration for them. Everything and every human being.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (19:53.704)
They value nothing except power.

and power for what sake? Power to destroy.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:08.38)
We fought numerous wars against the British because of their aggression. How do you leave your land and come to my land to fight me? Did I bother you where you are?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:31.198)
By the late 1800s, the British had fought four wars against the Ashanti. In fact, they worked so hard to go and recruit other Africans across the

Adesoji Iginla (20:37.614)
That's it.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:48.408)
anywhere they had a footprint they would try to get those leaders to give them soldiers to come and fight against us. They wanted to conquer us by any means. I think some of your guests have talked about this before.

Adesoji Iginla (21:08.418)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:10.492)
What did they want?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:14.984)
They wanted power. They wanted our gold. They wanted our trade routes. And they wanted our submission.

not to trade as equal partners. There's no equality in their vocabulary. Do not believe them from yesterday to today. They are the same till tomorrow. They are the same. You see them coming. They have come in to destroy. Trust me. And that is why even when I got this invitation, said,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:59.476)
Will these hard-headed children listen? Because I see the people. You are dancing with them. You are happy with them. You want to be like them.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:29.268)
My pedigree.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:35.026)
will not permit me.

to shed the tears.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (22:45.18)
behind my eyes right now when I see the ignorance and complicity of my children today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:01.842)
My people will say, using the white man's English, una decres.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:15.024)
Is it that you have forgotten or is it that you don't care?

Which one is it?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:31.564)
In 1896, these aggressors, they exiled our King, Nana Prempe I, the first, to a place called Seychelles.

You know, anywhere they go, they name it after themselves. So that name came from one of their finance ministers. They said, nobody lives there. They didn't see sign because when you went to that Seychelles Island, you saw this big gigantic tortoise roaming freely, tens of thousands of them.

Adesoji Iginla (24:09.644)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:16.306)
They said, the animals there, when they saw human beings, they didn't run because they had not yet had enough interaction with human beings to know that we are super predators, especially white people. And so they just looked at them like they would look at any other animal and carried on with their business.

Adesoji Iginla (24:27.832)
coming.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:45.842)
They were pirates and some other people from time to time will inhabit certain parts of the island but France went and put their flag first because everything they must claim, everything is their own. The whole world, white people.

and then they named it after one of their own. They're now, we're still calling their name. And you know, might be, by people, believe in libation. Every time we call the names of one of these places that they called after themselves, do you know that we're calling their name? We're keeping them alive.

Adesoji Iginla (25:21.806)
Yeah, glorifying them.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:28.531)
Mm-hmm.

So will not call it that name again. I will call it the open air prison. Cause that is what it was. So that is where they sent in an apprentice and they sent him with some of the royal family, some of his attendants, banished him. First they took him to Sierra Leone.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:54.152)
Then they took him to this open air prison.

Adesoji Iginla (25:56.334)
shows.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (26:01.862)
with him at that time they took queen mother Akiya his mother some other chiefs some other royal figures they thought

In fact, let me ask you this. Why do you think, because you have to study their patterns, why do you think so many times they chose to deport, exile us as opposed to kill us? Why do think that they did that? Do you have any idea?

Adesoji Iginla (26:39.34)
Well, judging from their pattern, they believe once you remove the leaders, the people are basically rather less, not knowing that the entire society is built on community rather than top-down leadership.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:01.204)
What they were hoping to avoid is if we kill them, we make a matter of the person. That might really galvanize the people. So instead, what we're going to do is to just basically disappear them.

Adesoji Iginla (27:15.576)
to resist.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:25.242)
and maybe throw the whole empire into chaos because if you take the king and the queen mother perhaps you think you have stopped the structure of succession peaceful succession and if you can help get us fighting against each other like you had the Fante fighting the Ashanti and all of that and you had

other African leaders sending their men to come and fight, then perhaps you keep us fighting one another, weakening one another, providing more spoils of war for you so you can take our bodies and do as you will.

Adesoji Iginla (28:15.406)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:22.078)
They thought that removing Nana Prempé would dissolve our spirits. Aha. But to us is a matrilineal society. And when that king was taken from us, we named a new king. I became Queen Mother.

when my brother was now killed.

I named my grandson as the king.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:06.014)
But these people were not satisfied. Four wars we fought with them. Thousands of lives lost on both sides because we were a warrior people. And we knew the terrain of our land. We understood our forests, our trees, and we used all of that to our strategic advantage when you talk about what you people now call guerrilla warfare.

Adesoji Iginla (29:33.26)
or fair, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:38.708)
Four years later, these people were not done with us. And another war ensued. You know why that war ensued?

Adesoji Iginla (29:49.624)
Please do.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:51.098)
on March 1900.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:56.808)
He called himself governor. Governor of who? All that stupid titles they give themselves. These are useless men who cannot make it in their own countries. But they come to our land to become kings. Do you know that in our lineage, the way kings were chosen, you weren't chosen just because you were of a particular lineage.

You had to also have first proven yourself capable.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:34.256)
If you did not prove yourself capable, somebody else within the lineage will be chosen.

Adesoji Iginla (30:39.982)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:43.238)
not that you are failure in your land and then they entice you and say come over here and do a dirty work and you go and then now they give you all kinds of titles anyway this person was called sir frederick hudson

He now summoned the chiefs, the Ashanti chiefs to Kumasi. And do you know what he had the nerve to do?

Adesoji Iginla (31:14.542)
Please tell us.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:17.352)
He demanded the golden stool.

Adesoji Iginla (31:22.957)
What?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:23.868)
the very soul of the people. This piece of...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:34.856)
felt that because of his skin, he was entitled to sit on the golden stool. He said, where is the golden stool? You must deliver it to me and I must sit on it.

Adesoji Iginla (31:54.27)
You

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:00.242)
I was in that meeting.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:04.923)
and our male leaders have been seeing the devastation and the number of lives lost. They hesitated.

Adesoji Iginla (32:13.006)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:18.31)
actually contemplating that perhaps acquiescing and giving him ours to the soul of our people would assuage him. Is that not madness? What in the history of what you know about these people that anytime you give them something is enough for them? What, when, where, when do they stop?

Adesoji Iginla (32:43.586)
That's all. That's all. That's all.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:50.054)
I know some of you read the Bible. Do you remember one lady? I think her name is Deborah.

And when the men decided that they were not going to defend their people and go and fight, she said there was a prophecy that a woman would deliver those people. The woman would be the one who would take the glory.

And so in our oral tradition, there is a speech that I made that day that is still being told.

And when they have the festivals to remember me, they tell this speech again. As I looked around.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:53.756)
at the audacity.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:59.28)
of this, I will not say he's less than a human being, but of this totally unqualified person to come and demand our stone, our golden stone, our soul. As I looked at the silence and the shock of our men and started to hear the whispers and the deliberations, I stood up and I said,

Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king.

If it were in the brave days of old, chiefs would not sit down to see their king taken away without firing a shot.

He

the more things change, the more they stay the same. Did not one of your government just go and take the king of a country and do no short fire?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:13.361)
Is he not?

Adesoji Iginla (35:14.894)
That was the case, yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:19.956)
I said to them, no white man could have dared speak to chiefs of Asante in the way this so-called governor has spoken to you this morning. Is it true that the bravery of the Asante is no more? I cannot believe it.

Adesoji Iginla (35:30.136)
This.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:50.598)
If you, the men of Asante, will not go forward, then we will.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:02.106)
We, the women, we will fight.

We will fight till the last of us falls.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:18.556)
And when I said it, I did not say it with anger.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:25.52)
said it with indictment. I wanted the men to feel the abdication of their duty but to know that we the women will stand up and fight if they want.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:48.18)
And the drums of Asante went wild.

and the message was spread out across the land. We mobilized thousands. According to British archives, they said over 5,000. Of course, anything they say, you have to know that it was more than that.

because they can never tell the whole truth.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:23.664)
ours was a strategic resistance. It was not chaos. It was not just, we're angry, we're gonna rise up. It was very well strategized and planned. Let me tell you what we did.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:43.858)
We cut supply lines. You know that these people had built a fort in Kumasi.

We cut their supply lines. If you can't eat, then what? Which is why Africa today must feed itself. You cannot be dependent on some other people to feed you because you put yourself in a very vulnerable position.

We use the dense forest cover, mosquito and all. We knew even if the mosquito bites us, when it bites them, outcome is worse for them.

and then we built trenches.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:31.88)
and we blockaded that Kumasi fort. We should never have let them build it in the first place.

But when someone first comes to you as a so-called trading partner, out of a sense of hospitality, you give them a space and you say, okay, you could only live with us, but you can build a place for you to be comfortable when you come to trade, but we should never have let them build a fort.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:12.988)
We ambushed their reinforcements and all the British, they had to retreat into that fort and we besieged them for months. Disease spread among them. Their food supply dwindled. You have to see the women smuggling ammunition.

cooking for the warriors, carrying intelligence, maintaining the morale. Have you not talked to other women who were the ones getting the soldiers, keeping their spirits up? That is the essence of who we are. We financed the logistics and then we went to war ourselves. Me, not dressed in finery, but as a warrior.

Adesoji Iginla (39:49.218)
Yep.

Adesoji Iginla (39:58.435)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:06.942)
Do not now try to erase us from the war. Do not now try to teach my younger children, daughters, that women are only good for being on their back. Are you crazy? As I said before, you de-craze?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:31.54)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:36.286)
but we had not anticipated this.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:43.29)
We had not anticipated.

A tool of...

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:53.924)
extreme evil.

called the Maxim Gun.

Adesoji Iginla (40:59.822)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:07.481)
We had muskets and shotguns and courage.

They had.

a machine.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:24.244)
that could fire 500 times in a minute. Imagine the devastation of a proud warrior group charging and you look to your left and 20 people have fallen dead.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (41:49.54)
Even a good soldier with a gun takes at the most maybe 15 shots in a minute but this marks him 500.

They had a small crew that would man each gun and the gun never got tired.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:25.896)
When you are dancing and eating and embracing these people, are you deaf?

to the cries of the blood of your people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:40.72)
or you don't think you are of the people anymore.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:46.632)
Maybe that's why some of you always have to drink or smoke something so you can forget.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:56.916)
I said.

They will never take that golden stool. We can never give over our soul to these soulless people.

We hid that golden stool and it was decades before it was found and it was not found by them. Until today that golden stool exists. They never got a hand on it and it is brought out every time that we crown a new king.

we preserved the soul of the Ashanti people.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:57.042)
and remember the sound of that gun.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:04.884)
Hmm.

60 years old still out on the battlefield

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:16.05)
and they captured me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:24.18)
they capture it.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:37.104)
During this battle, there were messages that the British were trying to send home in their own writing. said things like, the rebels have completely invested, invested the force, the rebels. How can I on my own land, protecting my own land and my own people?

now be the rebel. If I'm the rebel, what are you? You are the rightful owner? Imagine the hubris. Imagine the delusion. Is it not possible to do an examination to confirm that these people are actually mad in the head?

and have convinced the rest of the world that they are smart and we are the ones with problems. Is it not possible that it's a group of people who will come to somebody else's land to take over will now label those people the problem, you the aggressor and now the victim. They said,

Adesoji Iginla (45:31.736)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:55.4)
Communications are severed. Sniping continues daily. The enemy displays surprising organization, surprising organization because they always underestimate us. And now they might be right to underestimate us. Maybe it's not an underestimation anymore because you don't even know who you are anymore. You don't even fight. Today, you people will give the stool. Take it.

Adesoji Iginla (46:22.306)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:23.095)
no, no, no. You will give it to them and take a, what do you people call it? You would take selfie and post it smiling.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:37.362)
Another report they sent, the Ashanti's fight with determination and show no inclination towards submission. That's right.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (46:50.9)
I pause to wonder if they were writing about you today you that are listening to my voice right now if they were writing about you today what would they say this one no legs no spine complete surrender as soon as we just blew they fall

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:14.684)
If I'm lying, tell me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:19.964)
I am your mother. Why would I lie to you? But I don't tell you these things to bring you down. I tell you these things to stare you up, to remind you there is no form of submission that is good enough for this people. They want your life.

Will you lay down your life?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:47.732)
That stupid Maxim gun invented 1884. Let me tell you. But for that Maxim gun, I'm not sure that they would have been able to take over the land mass called Africa in the way that they did because we fought. They will not tell you these stories, but we fought.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:14.068)
500 rounds per minute. How do you withstand that? Do you know what that gun would do?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:25.844)
Have you ever seen something that just blasts your whole, just shatter your whole bone, just open up your whole.

Adesoji Iginla (48:31.82)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (48:38.752)
It's on display. It's on display at the Imperial War Museum. People can go and look at it.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:43.688)
and they will pour water on it to cool it, to prevent it from overheating so that they can keep shooting and shooting and shooting.

before the maxim European Europeans they lost many wars to African Kingdoms many

At the Battle of the Omduran, 1898 in Sudan, the British forces killed approximately 10,000 Sudanese fighters in hours. 10,000. Can you imagine the psychological toll on a people? Largely through machine gun fire. 10,000. T-t-t-t-t. Like our lives were nothing.

mechanized slaughter. They have no soul.

Adesoji Iginla (49:38.584)
Fucked up.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:39.348)
with yourself on this one. If they have souls, show me where they've demonstrated it in the history of Africa.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:55.624)
This thing tore through flesh. It ripped through forest cover. It moved down warriors.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:07.582)
That is how they vanquished us. Through metal. Through molten metal.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:19.444)
On June 19, they wrote, our situation remains precarious. Supplies are diminishing. Casualties from fever increase. Relief column urgently required.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:35.934)
But when they came in September with that Maxim gun.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (50:44.976)
And so they captured me and then they wrote, the capture of the Queen Mother of Ejusu will undoubtedly weaken the insurgency. We are the insurgents.

Adesoji Iginla (50:59.69)
your territory.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:01.286)
And so they deported me to that open air prison. So far removed, so isolated.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:16.366)
where in their words they said she would remain under surveillance. A 60 year old woman. Because they knew my strength. They knew my capabilities. Thousands of miles from home to my head.

Remove the leadership, break the morale, fragment the resistance. Have they not done it where you are? Remove the leadership, break the morale, fragment the resistance. Have they not done it over and over again? When will we learn this strategy?

Adesoji Iginla (51:50.264)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:02.728)
But what they underestimated is you cannot kill, you can try to erase, but you cannot kill the memory of a people. And that is why it was necessary for me to talk with you today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:25.374)
That Maxim gun, they used it to conquer Sudan. Germans used it to expand in East Africa. The Belgians used it to terrorize the Congolese. The French used it for their campaigns in West Africa.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (52:49.812)
21 years I stayed in that open-air prison. I was not there alone. Prempe was there. He stayed there 24 years. He survived. And when they finally let him go back to Ashanti land, he insisted that my buried remains be dug up.

and he took me back and I was buried in Ejesu. But for 28 years, he had been banished from his land. We were not the only ones. The king of Bugunda, now Uganda, Kabaka Mwanga, the second Kabaka, yes, he was there for about four years, died in exile.

Adesoji Iginla (53:15.843)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (53:29.614)
So say except.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:37.008)
Omukama Kabalega, King of Bunyoro, also of Uganda. He was there 24 years. That is how much they feared us. Even people who committed murder sometimes get out earlier than that.

Denis Zulu Kachetawayo from the King of the Zulu Kingdom of South Africa. He too was there. Eight years he spent in this open air prison. They had people from Egypt. They had people from India, from other places, anybody who resisted them. Some stayed for a short period of time, some longer. But their goal was

Adesoji Iginla (54:01.592)
the look.

Adesoji Iginla (54:25.826)
break.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:26.718)
Take out the leadership, fragment the resistance, create chaos.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:37.2)
I died on October 17, 1921.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (54:46.736)
In 1924, I returned, my remains returned to Ejesu, with their Asante leaders who were repatriated to their land. And I was reburied.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:02.356)
Today, there are still songs they sing. Woman warrior, woman who fought with bravery, Yawa Asante were chill school children in Ghana still chant my name. My story lives on in oral memory.

There's a high school in Kumasi, Asantewa Girls Senior High School. Every August in Ejesu, they celebrate the Ya Asantewa Festival, nine days. In 2016, this open-air prison held a memorial ceremony.

marking 95 years since my passing. They had exhibitions, they had cultural collaboration, recognition of my exile. I guess it was one more way to make money off of me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:59.924)
Today some will call me a Ghanaian national heroine. I'm more than that. Some will call me a Pan-African icon. I am more than that. Someone will call me a symbol of feminine political authority. What is feminine? Where did you people come up with these things? Did I call myself that?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (56:23.09)
I was a Queen Mother. I am a Queen Mother forever. I am a woman who was not afraid to face any kind of danger, to fight for the soul of my people. Because if you lose your soul, what do you have?

Adesoji Iginla (56:41.514)
Is everything?

Adesoji Iginla (57:03.724)
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for coming through. Again, it's important that all these stories be told, not just of losses, many of which there are. There are also victories. And sometimes remembering alone, it's a form of resistance, because the moment you forget, then everything becomes

lost. So it's important that we continue to remember. And so we thank Satwa for coming through today.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:45.416)
Say my name.

Tell your people to say my name. It will remind them because that same courage that flowed in my veins is in your veins, but you have to remember, you have to stir it up. Say my name. Say the names of your ancestors because you're calling their names every day. When you just say, I'm going here, I'm going there, is how you're calling their names. Do you understand that in this,

a person, a spirit dies twice. They die when they die their physical death. They die when people stop saying their names. Every day you saying their names. Do you understand me? Say my name. Say the names of your ancestors. Say their names. Say it. Say it now.

Adesoji Iginla (58:20.941)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (58:40.684)
Yes, I do.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:42.526)
that we don't die. Say it because your life is connected to our lives and the lives of the ones who will come. And these people have never stopped trying to extinguish us.

Say the names.

Adesoji Iginla (59:03.662)
Yeah, as a

I mean, we have been talking about talking to multiple women with regards to their rebellion. Like you said, saying their names is a way of invoking the memory of their resistance. And so every time you mention their name, you recall their resistance. And so with that said, we've come to the end of today's conversation with Ya Asatua and

We must thank you. Next week, we are looking at the life and times of Audre Lorde. Again, same time, 7 PM Eastern Standard Time on Women and Resistance. It will be the turn of Audre Lorde to take us through what it means to have been Audre Lorde during her time. With that said, yá sátíwá.

Last words.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:19.526)
It may not be in the form of a stool, a golden stool.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:29.576)
but you have a soul.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:36.754)
You must guard that soul.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:42.174)
Too many, even in my time.

fell to cowardice or fell to the highest bidder because they were some of us complicit. You cannot sell your soul. Understand the soul of a people. If you sell that soul, are mortgaging it for the next generation. You must protect that soul.

And I'm telling you, you have the ability to protect that soul. Because if, even with the Maxim gun back then, we protected us too.

I don't care what technology they have today. Your courage, your determination.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:01:43.368)
That their technology is no match for a determined people.

Protect your soul.

Adesoji Iginla (01:01:58.066)
head it here. Guard your soul with your very being and very existence. And that said we've come to the end of today's episode of Women and Resistance until next week. It will be the turn of Audre Lorde and

for our audience and those that will listen later, thank you for being here and if this is your first time of joining us, do like, share, subscribe, do all the necessary work. An audio version of this would be available on our podcast platform in the course of today, tomorrow and until next week, it's good night and God bless.