THE ASANTE HENE (King) - Asante power personified, yet Asante inheritance is through the female, whose main duty is to produce daughters.

 The Asante Kingdom emerged out of the Ekoona, Aduana, Bretuo Asene and Oyoko clans in the Twifo and Adanse regions of the Pra and Ofin basins. The Oyoko state was transformed into the large Asante Kingdom by the diplomatic skill and state craft of Obiri Yeboah, Osei Tutu and Opoku Ware. Supremacy was established through marriage, diplomacy and war. At the battle of Feyiasi (1701) Osei-Tutu defeated and overthrew the Denkyiras. Numerous Denkyira chiefs transferring their allegiance to Osei Tutu followed this. Their lands were incorporated into the Kumasi Political unit. The defeat of the Denkyiras opened the path to the Western Gold for the Ashanti.
 

Institutions were put in place by the kings that ensured the rise and growth of the kingdom. With the assistance of Okonfo Anokye, a priest, a golden stool was devised that served as a symbol of unity for all member states in the Kingdom. This firmly established a fusion of all the states under the highest office in the land, vested in the Oyoko clan to which Osei Tutu belonged. Osei Tutu moved the national capital from Kwaman to a central site in present day Kumasi. He also established a national festival, the annual Odwira festival.

He devised a constitution for the Union and introduced a military which was extremely effective and ensured victories, both for state security and expansion.

Boakye Tenten (1818-1884) of 'Ashanti' had a career in public office that spanned the reigns of four 'Ashanti' Kings, during that time he demonstrated political and administrative skills of a high order. He was the son of an Okyeame (Senior spokesman) of the Asante Hene, Osei Bonsu (ruled 1800-1824). Through his mother, Birago of Korase near Kumasi, Boakye Tenten could claim descent from the Asante Hene Osei Kwadwo (reled 1764-1777).

At an early age Boakye Tenten became known for his wit and unusual memory for details. In his early 30s he was appointed Resident commissioner of Salaga, a Gonja town north of the Volta River. Salaga was then the most important of Ashanti's northern market towns, and Boakye Tenten was accountable to the Asante Hene and his council for its affairs. Discharging his duties efficiently, and thus enhancing his reputation, he was recalled to Kumasi to take the Boakye Yaw Panyin stool, which had become vacant through the death of Kofi Nti in about 1852.
 

He became the stepfather of two future kings, Kofi Kakari (ruled 1867-1874) and Mensah Bonsu (1874-1883), by marrying the widow of Kofi Nti. He served the Asante Hene Kwaku Dua I (ruled 1834-1867) loyally, and became a strong adherent of that king's cardinal policies of "Peace, Trade and Open Road".

During the time of the British invasion into 'Ashanti' in the 1870s, Boakye Tenten made an energetic but fruitless last minute effort to negotiate a settlement with the British Commander, Sir Garnet Wolseley.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, the British exiled King Prempeh from the hinterlands of the Gold Coast (present day "Ghana"), in an attempt to assume power.  By 1900, still not gaining dominance, the British sent a governor to the Asante capital Kumasi, to demand the Golden Stool, the supreme symbol of Asante sovereignty and independence.

Ohene Tuo – the 'King's gun'

 

Yaa Asantewa (1850-1921) was present at the meeting with the British governor, Lord Hodgson, and Asante leaders.  When the kings failed to reject Hodgson's demands she vilified them for their cowardice.  Her speech found an audience and went into recorded history, when she said : "if you men of Asante will not go forward, then we will - we the women will - I will call upon my fellow women and we will fight the red men until the last of us falls on the battlefields".

The Asante Confederacy still plays a prominent political and socioeconomic role in the region today.

The Asante Nation is seen by the region as a powerful one, partly because of the Asante Hene figure, who is  traditionally regarded as being more powerful than the elected President of neo-colonial 'Ghana'.

The entrepreneurial Asante spirit generates considerable revenue for the region which has large and valuable mineral reserves though they are 'owned' and exploited by neo-colonials supported by quislings. It also has an extensive farming sector that could produces foodstuff in abundance, although the farmer under present leadership is unable to compete effectively with heavily subsidised and dumped American and EU agribusinesses' waste.

The Asante region is characteristic of neo-colonial Africa in that it is endowed with its fair share of three brain-celled populations of imported religious movements and sects, symptomatic of a people deprived for a long time of appropriate leadership. However it is still viewed as with respect for its own traditions and culture.

Because of the long history of the Kingdom, most heads of government respect the office of Asante Hene.

The office of Asante Hene is one of the most powerful and revered traditional authorities in the Asante domain. It naturally wields enormous economic power. Its symbol of office and authority, the Golden Stool, represents wealth. However the people are exploited like herded animals while their their natural resources are looted, and the nation's economy, which cannot even afford free education, continues to be an awful joke.

His position in the country, relationships with the companies in the region and the royalties that his office receives, place the Asante Hene in a very strong position, either as neo-colonial lapdog, or as champion of the people and the Asante Confederacy.

OTUMFUO Osei Tutu II, known in private life as Nana Kweku Dua, a professional suit, was among seven contestants for the vacant golden stool.

They were:

* Nana Akwasi Agyeman, former KMA boss

* Nana Osei Tutu, aka Naasei, London suit

* Dr Kwame Takyi, USA based engineer

* Barima Kwadwo, businessman

* Barima Osei Tutu, Kumasi dealer petroleum products

* David Osei Yeboah, quantity surveyor

* Dr James Yeboah, Takoradi medical practitioner

Nana Kreku Duah, son of Nana Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwah Ampem II was born in Kumasi on May 6, 1950. His father was Nana Boakye Danquah of Nkyenkyire.

At a very early age, he was adopted by an uncle, Oheneba Mensah Bonsu, Hiahene, one of the leading chiefs at the court of Manhyia, who took it upon himself to groom the young royal. Oheneba Mensah Bonsu was one of the main 'reconcilers' at a time of political turbulence in the relations between Asante and the colonial government during the reign of Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II.

As part of the grooming process, Oheneba Mensah Bonsu, now deceased, decided against sending him to Prempeh College in Kumasi where most of the royals in Kumasi were being educated. Rather he sent him to the late Omanhene of Sefwi Wiawso, Nana Kwadwo Aduhene, who had him enrolled at Sefwi Wiawso Secondary School in 1964. He returned to Kumasi to complete his 'A' levels at Osei Kyeretwie Secondary School.

Then Nana Kwaku Dua went to the no-colonial capital to do an accountancy course at the Institute of professional Studies, Legon in 1971. In 1973, he proceeded to the United Kingdom where he studied first at Kilburn Polytechnic before enrolling at the University of North London for a Diploma in Management and Public Administration. He became a member of the Institute of Personnel Management in the UK in 1985. Nana Kwaku Dua then worked as a finance officer at the "Oxo" Food Processing Company in London and as a Personnel Administrator at the Manpower Services Commission attached to Brent Council. In 1980, he moved to Canada and worked for a year as a senior consultant with the Mutual of Omaho Insurance Company of Toronto; he then participated in a company-sponsored course in insurance at the University of Toronto. Altogether an oddly sheltered and non stimulating personal development/training path, for the hero that the people need as creator of a critical mass of "digital natives" and as their brother captain champion and king in the 21st century (see : "Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures").

Nana Dua returned to Ghana in 1989 to set up his own business Transpomech International ('Ghana') Ltd of which he remains in control as the Executive Director. The royal and untalented suit became qualified by non competitive tendering, to hold lucrative contracts to supply mining equipment to neo-colonial,  mining companies.

Nana Dua was brought up to avoid involvement in championing the people or the Asante Confederacy and instead to maintain a posture which should "build bridges", "heal wounds" and "help forge" a collaborative effort towards the development of seriously subversively and fatally encumbered, ill-fated hopeless and neo-colonial, 'Ghana'.

Nana Dua is married to Yaa Akyaa, who has three children, Nana Afua Kobi, 23, Kweku Bonsu, 26 and Nana Kwadwo Bonsu, 4. His enstoolment made him 16th King of the Golden Stool and the 19th Asante Hene. He succeeded his late uncle, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, who died on February 25, 1999 at the age of 80 after a short illness.

15 Asante Kings have ruled over the Asante Nation.

 They are :

Nana Osei Tutu (1680 tp 1717),

Nana Opoku Ware I (1720-1750),

Nana Kusi Obodum (1750-1764);

Nana Osei Kwadwo (1764-1777),

Nana Osei Kwame (1777-1798),

Nana Opoku Fofie (1798-1799),

Nana Osei Bonsu (1800 to 1823);

Nana Osei Yaw Akoto (1824-1834),

Nana Kwaku Dua I (1834 - 1867),

Nana Kofi Karikari (1867-1874),

Nana Mensah Bonsu (1874-1883),

Nana Kwaku Dua II in 1884,

Nana Kwaku Duah II alias Nana Agyeman Prempeh I from 1888 to 1931,

Nana Osei Tutu Agyeman Prempeh II from 1931 to 1970

Otumfuo Opoku Ware II from 1970-1999.