Yaa Asantewaa- Ghana
One of the bravest queens from West Africa will forever be Yaa Asantewaa of Gold Coast, now Ghana. Yaa Asantewaa was the brave queen mother of the Ejisu in the mighty Ashanti Kingdom. During her reign, she was highly respected for her maintenance of peace and development of her people. She was one of the many outspoken queens who unapologetically expressed her views and dislike of the British invasion of the Gold Coast and the Ashanti Empire.
At the exile of the Ashanti King and other chiefs including her grandson, the British were planning to take over the kingdom and make it a protectorate. Yaa Asantewaa was the protector of the Golden stool, the pride of the Ashanti kingdom and the most wanted monument of the British. In 1900, she led her people to war against the British to protest against colonisation. The War of the Golden Stool lasted from April 1900 till March 1901 when she was captured and exiled to Seychelles.
Yaa Asantewaa died in Seychelles in 1921. It is believed that she surrendered to the British to protect her grandchildren and restore peace in the land. Yaa Asantewaa was honoured with a senior high school in 196o and is best known for her words “We the women will fight…till the last of us falls in the battlefields.”
