You're Dead to Me - The Asante Empire (Radio Edit)

Episode Date: January 7, 2023

Greg Jenner is joined by historian Dr Augustus Casely-Hayford OBE and comedian Sophie Duker to explore the incredible Asante Empire. We learn the roots of Ghanian heritage - from storytelling, fabric, food, music and rhythm as communication, to how centuries of traditions across the empire came together to protect the most sacred symbol of power in the Asante Kingdom from the hands of the British during the War of the Golden Stool.For the full-length version of this episode, please look further back in the feed.Produced by Cornelius Mendez Script by Greg Jenner and Emma Nagouse Research by Lloyd RobertsA production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4.

This is the BBC. This podcast is supported by advertising outside the UK. All day long. Taxes extra at participating Wendy's until May 5th. Terms and conditions apply. BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster, and I was the chief nerd on the BBC comedy show Horrible Histories. On this podcast, we hook you up with proper history whilst being proper funny. And today we are nipping to the Bureau de Change and swapping our pound sterling for West Ghanaian gold dust and travelling back hundreds of years to learn all about the Ashanti Kingdom.

And to help me do that, I'm joined by two very special guests. And to help me do that, I'm joined by two very special guests. In History Corner, he's an art historian and broadcaster and the inaugural director of the new V&A East Museum, as well as the former director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C. You may have seen his fascinating BBC series, The Lost Kingdoms of Africa. It's Dr. Gus Casely-Hayford. Hi, Gus. Lovely to have you back. Hi, Greg. So delighted to be back. And in Comedy

Corner, she's a fab stand-up comedian and writer and you'll know her from TV's Mock the Week, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster and Frankie Boyle's New World Order and you may have heard her hosting the BBC podcast Obsessed With, I May Destroy You or on the Grown-Up Land podcast, it's Sophie Duker. Hi Sophie, thrilled to have you here. Hello, it's me. You're currently in Ghana. You've really taken the research to a new level. Yeah, I thought that's what we did. I thought it was a sort of magic school bus type thing. I'm in Ghana. I misunderstood the brief. It was a long commute, but now I'm here. I thought, why not get stuck in? Fair play. You are of Ghanaian heritage, as are you, Dr. Gus.

So actually a bit more of a personal connection, I guess, for both of you. But Sophie, you studied English and French at university. We know you're brainy. But did you squeeze any history in there? Did you do any African history at school? I didn't do any African history at school when I was at school in the UK. But when I was about four years old, my parents told me I was going on holiday and sort of left me in Ghana for two years. Like home alone. Like home alone. So I went to school in Ghana for two years and did African history. All right.

Well, that's fantastic. So we have a comedian in Ghana and a historian of Ghana in London. It's perfectly set up. So what do you know? This is where I have a guess to what listeners might know about today's subject. And let's be honest, you probably know, well, zip, the Asante Kingdom, sometimes known as the Ashanti Kingdom,

is not covered at all on the UK school's curriculum. It doesn't really pop up very much in pop culture either. You may have seen some Asante art in museums. And if you're a hardcore military buff, you might know that there were Anglo-Asante wars in the 1800s. But what else is there to know about the Asante kingdom other than gold, colonial conflicts and seriously fancy furniture? Well, actually, there's quite a lot to know. So let's get cracking. Dr. Gus, to start things off, when we talk about the Asante Empire, where and when are we talking?

Are we talking Ghana? And are we going back 300 years or a little earlier than that? A little early. I mean, the Asante, they hail from the central area of Ghana, and it comes really into its ascendancy in the colonial period, in the period in which this area was known as the Gold Coast. It's a region which was traditionally deeply forested, very inhospitable, incredibly humid, a difficult environment in which to thrive. But from the 17th century onward, they turn it into an area that can be farmed.

And also, there is the discovery that this area is really rich in gold. And they turn this into one of the most successful nations that this bit of West Africa has ever seen. And that is in part because it's an area which values education and culture. The oral poetry, the stories told, is that they emerge from out of the ground, out of the forest floor. The land itself sort of gives birth to them almost. It's such a beautiful way of talking about your origins and it reflects the importance of land and of stories. These aren't people who wrote down their histories traditionally, that they would be remembered by a particular figure whose

role it was, was to remember the history on behalf of the family of the town. Sophie, does that feel familiar to you, that narrative culture? Yeah, I think it does absolutely. When I was little, one of the memories that I have my dad is that he always used to tell me loads of Nancy stories. Nancy is like, he's the absolute boy who's like a spider trickster. These stories were kind of like a way of understanding like culture and villages and elders and sort of like Br'er Rabbit or like folkloric stories, but also were a way that I felt really connected to Ghana when I was little. So Sophie, the Asante are living in a very heavily forested area. They didn't have chainsaws and they didn't have electricity. So Sophie, the Asante are living in a very heavily forested area.

They didn't have chainsaws and they didn't have electricity. So how would you go about chopping down those trees? Oh, is it people who are being remunerated for their labour? Sadly not, isn't it? It's unfortunately somewhat unethical practices. Gus, we have to say at this stage, we are talking here about an emergent kingdom that is using slave labour, isn't it? It's prisoners of war, perhaps. So we have to honk our slavery klaxon earlier than anticipated. I was expecting to honk it later when the British turned up. But we also therefore get the rise of very wealthy people, individuals, and they're called berrenpong, the big men.

The gold you've already mentioned, there's now land to be farmed. So we're starting to see the emergence of a hierarchy but there's also stool culture we know in terms of Ghanaian heritage the stools are so important why is a stool so important Gus? It's so much more than a piece of furniture it's more than even a throne the idea was history and land and power that they were connected and one of the ways in which you would share those things was through powerful people sitting down at the centre of communities and talking about history, talking about family. And of course, the thing that they would be sitting on, that would be

rooting them to that critical thing land, would be these beautifully carved stools and they are curved in shape wrap around your bottom and beneath there would be four sturdy legs and at the center a space within which you could place material that would link you through magic to history to the spirits. I got given, not an actual stool, I got given like little stool earrings when I was a baby, like a little. But I also, when I was at school in Ghana, I learned about the golden stool. And the thing that really struck me,

the golden stool in particular, felt like a really significantly magical item. And you've mentioned the golden stool there, Sophie. And I suppose we should probably actually bring up the man who is gifted it. So the first king, really, of the Ashanti empire, of the Shanti power, is called Osetutu. And he was the Ashantihene, I think is the phrase, is that right, Gus? Ashantihene, yes. Ashantihene, thank you. He managed to turn the Ashanti into a power in the region by defeating their rivals, the Dinkira, by getting hold of guns from the Europeans.

But he then creates this kingdom using the stool as a symbol. He is a fascinating, slightly enigmatic figure, Osai Tutu. And he has, as a lieutenant, this man called Aconfo Anoche. And Aconfo is like a priest. Anoche was his name. And he is a really interesting figure, slightly Peter Mandelson-y to Tony Blair, you know, a sort of guru who, around the Asantahini, wove this incredible set of cultural traditions that would weave together a set of communities that had very little in common other than trying to survive in this hostile environment.

And it really works against all odds. They go on the rampage and they build this huge empire that is utterly dominant across the central region of Ghana and into Ivory Coast at its peak, with many hundreds of thousands of subsidiary towns and villages that pay tribute in gold to the Asantahini. And it creates a very stable and very wealthy monarchy. Sophie, have you heard stories of King Ose Tutu? Is he well known to you? I'm not going to lie to you. He's not particularly well known.

I feel like the real celebrity in the history that I learned was the stool, which is not a sentiment I've had. I mean, it's meant to have come down from the sky, you know, a moment. And this is damning because obviously British stools don't measure up to this. I walk around DFS and I feel nothing. But I don't know too much about OG Osa Tutu. The stool is so special that it cannot be touched.

So it's not a throne. It has its own stool, which I love. It has its own canopy umbrella to keep the sun away. It might rest upon an animal skin. It's treated almost like a king. away. It might rest upon an animal skin. It's treated almost like a king. What everyone invested in was the idea of the continuity and the authority of the stool itself. Ossetutu is the founding king, the first Asantahini. He will, of course, die. He is mortal and he will be replaced by others. But the stool will stand as this eternal symbol. The economy now is strong. It's

thriving. They have guns. They have warriors is strong, it's thriving. They have guns, they have warriors. They are also slave traders. They are selling enslaved people to the colonial European powers, of course. It's a place where the economy is based on gold, but also on farming. Are there other things going on as well, Gus, in terms of how people make money, how people get rich? Yes, you could be wealthy. I mean, there's Santohini, of course, that is hugely wealthy, but around him are a court of very powerful and wealthy men and a huge middle class, people who are trading both with the Europeans on the coast, but also across into North Africa and across the desert. And it's not just a golden

stool, of course. Rich individuals would also have their own stools, beautifully carved, not gold, that was reserved for the golden stool. The stool represented an individual spirit and power and their identity. Sophie, if we were to try and capture your spirit and soul in an object of furniture, would you go with a stool or would you go with something a bit more comfortable, in an object of furniture? Would you go with a stool or would you go with something a bit more comfortable, lazy boy, something? I feel like it wouldn't be a stool

because I feel like my stool would be quite comically small. I'm quite a small woman. So I feel like it would look like a footstool. If there was going to be an object of furniture that captured my essence, I think maybe it would be like a chaise longue. Oh, nice. Yeah, I feel like something where

you can like sort of prop yourself up at any angle but you're always fundamentally relaxed and I cover it with a bit of actually this is something that I don't think you're allowed to do but kente cloth from Ghana I'd cover it with that actually let's talk about kente cloth again it's sort of that symbolism Gus of how do you reflect these people brought together by a great king in design. This is another way in which they thought really carefully about how do we bind these different peoples together. One of the ways in which powerful people articulate and demonstrate their power in Ghana is through their appearance, through their clothes, through their cloth. Kente was created out of necessity. Many of the local people, they would get pieces of cloth that would be brought by Europeans or come across the desert from North Africa. These pieces of cloth that would be some of them bright, beautiful kind of colours, that they would then unravel these pieces of cloth and use the thread again on small looms because you could

only unravel certain amounts without the thread breaking and build up these incredible patterns, strips of very bright, intense woven textile that they would then stitch together. I recently went to my cousin's wedding. She had a traditional wedding in Ghana. My cousin's friend was like making kente cloths for all the family so we had to send our measurements on the day of the wedding my mum broke the zip of my kente cloth which was a drama that lasted about two hours it was really bad I considered never speaking to her again but we fixed it I got sewn into the dress and I couldn't go to the toilet for nine hours okay and. And Gus, another thing that unites the kingdom

would have been a form of music. In your notes, you've said this extraordinary thing that language could be transposed into rhythm. And so you could send messages with drums, which I suppose we're used to with like Morse code. But can you tell us a bit more? The language is, I can, languages that they are tonal. So you can transpose those languages

pretty successfully into passages of drumming. And so you can do amazing things with music. You visit one of these big festivals and you will see the drumming and the dancing and you can appreciate it just as glorious music. But it just has these multiple layers that you can just keep unpicking and picking of metaphor and history of trying to uphold ancient tradition and law. The recognition that these are traditions that managed somehow to survive the slave trade, colonialism, and they are the sorts of rhythms which connect us all as humanity because they underpin most contemporary music. So we've talked about drumming, we talked about, I guess, jam sessions. Let's talk about yam

sessions. That's the best segue I've ever heard. I mean, it had to be done, didn't it? I mean, come on. But we know at least as far back as 1816, where we have a British traveller who goes out there called Thomas Bowditch. He reports this really interesting yam festival, a harvest a harvest festival i suppose sophie i've heard you on other podcasts talking about yams and cooking and so on and it's a part of your culture and your cuisine is that right yes although it's quite confusing because if you ask for yams from north american they like give you sweet potatoes which is not what ghana people would consider yams so that's led to some confusion a yam is like it's like a tuber it's got a very hard shell yam fries are a big thing you'll find in ghana i mean they're hearty like i had boiled yam as a kid quite a lot you get a little hockey puck of yam it's been like sliced up and it's

sort of meant to ground itself in your stomach so it's sort of potatoes equivalent it's sort of available it's nutritious it powers you yeah it's like a potato that's done CrossFit. I do wonder what Thomas Bowditch, this 19th century traveller, what he would have made of the GAM Festival, because these are huge events. The Santahini would be there with all of his court and people would dance and they would drum and they'd be wearing their fine kentes. And they would invite guests from right around the region. So Thomas Bowditch, he witnesses all of this and he writes this amazing book about his experiences at the Ascenti Court. He sees state executions as well, doesn't he? He's seeing this glamour, this glory, this

joy, but he's also seeing the state going through the process of executing criminals, which I think, is it fair to say, is also a kind of cleansing ritual. It is in part that, but it's also that this is a growing state that is really an alliance of a number of substates with their own chiefs who are in control of them, who all pay tribute to the Asantehini. To keep control of that, you had to, of course, lead by example, by being generous. But you also had to demonstrate that the state wasn't to be messed with. It was a real statement about the unquestioned power of the Asantehini and his state and his court. What's so interesting is that the Asantehini is trying to keep together a coalition of tribes,

of peoples, of those who share the Akan language perhaps, but they're not always necessarily friends. And there is then beef that kicks off in the early 19th century. And we are now getting into the part of the show where I have to honk my colonialism klaxon. and we are now getting into the part of the show where I have to honk my colonialism klaxon. And this is where we get the arguments about land control between the Fante and the Ashanti. And the European powers get involved. So the Dutch side with the Ashanti and the British side with the Fante. And it leads to a war.

The first of five Anglo-Asante wars. The first one is 1823 and the second 1863. These are wars where the Asante sort of win, really, which is perhaps quite surprising. Well, the Asante, they've been astute. They recognise that the British had the power of new technologies, new weaponry. And so they open up trade routes, which means that they can acquire some of these sorts of things. And they actually arm a pretty powerful army. So when the Brits stand against them, they push back. And in 1823 and then in 1863, they defeat the Brits. And it's embarrassing, I think, for Britain.

And so that brings us to the third Anglo-Asante war, because everyone loves a sequel. First, you don't succeed, because everyone loves a sequel. First, you don't succeed. Try, try a gun, because the Brits now have machine guns. What's surprising about this one is it's still really close. The British put into the field a very brilliant soldier called Sir Garnet Walsley, and he's a very clever tactician who studies the Achante. And he then is pretty violent when he arrives into the capital, isn't he, Garci? He is merciless. They go in and they do what you could imagine.

And they don't just kill huge numbers of people, but they burn down the central palace. It's not just a victory, it's humiliation as well. He is this great colonial hero back in Blighty. But of course, in West Africa, he has killed a lot of people and he has deployed the sort of full strength of the newly reformed British army. And what this sets up is what's called the British Gold Coast Colony, which is the first formal territory owned and run by the British Empire in West Africa, isn't it, Gus?

Absolutely, yes. And it's a foothold upon which the British can then begin to really formulate what their ambitions will be. And they will go on to control the greater part of Africa and, you know, from it draw huge amounts of resource in gold and bauxite and cobalt and all kinds of materials that would strengthen the British Empire, transform Britain, but also subjugate generations. And it's taken, I think, almost until the 21st century for a really sustained level of recovery in that region. So he does win Sir Garnet Walsley, but there are a couple of moments where he is humiliated and embarrassed. And so let's enjoy those. Because, you know we need a little bit of a chuckle we've mentioned the

gatling guns when he tried to demonstrate them to show off the british imperial power they broke and apparently he later on reported that the local ashanti people were somewhat impressed by them which is i mean it's quite cringe really isn't it it's it's very cringe i've operated a gatling gun sure a role-playing game called desperado that i had on my pc i don't know if i should start that anecdote by saying that i myself have innate understanding of it but it's quite it's quite wieldy it's not very sophisticated it does just destroy things i mean that was our attempt to have a little bit of levity but unfortunately it is where things get quite sad this is where we then get a civil war in the Shanti Empire.

This is the fourth Anglo-Santi war, Sophie. So Perempe I, he wins the civil war and then the Brits are like, sorry, no, we're not having that. And they come in and invade again for the fourth time and they exile him. Do you know where they exile him to, Sophie? I feel like there's a pun.

Like if they could exile him with a pun, they'll be like, oh God, this is so bad. I can't believe I'm going to say it exhale him with a pun they'll be like oh god this is so bad I can't believe I'm gonna say it into a microphone but they'll be like you have to go so like they'd exhale him to like Togo. That's good. Or Cote d'Ivoire could be like Coventry. Send him to Coventry yeah nice. They sent him to the Seychelles which I don't know about you but sounds quite nice. Yeah. So he and his family are booted out of the country. But now it's time to get to our favourite and final of the five Anglo-Asante wars, the War of the Golden Stool, also known as the War of Yar-Asante-Wa.

Sophie. Yar, yes. I feel like she puts the yar in Yas Queen. I feel like she puts the ya in Yas Queen. So Gus, why is this war known as the War of the Golden Stool? How does that become the central focus? At this time, the colonial secretary of the Gold Coast was a chap called Frederick Hodson. He feels that subjugating the Asante in so many different ways and attempting to humiliate them wasn't enough if they were still rallying around this stool. So Frederick Hodgson is rumoured to want to put his buttocks on the stool and even to give it to Queen Victoria.

And this obviously enrages people. Yeah, absolutely. And this is where all of the different component parts that have been put in place over centuries, they actually come into play. The infrastructure built to make communication possible between the different bits of the Asante Empire, the symbols and the drumming and all of these things are then deployed as a cultural force against the British and caught this at the very centre of it. This thing that they all rally around and want to protect in the face of everything else was the Golden Stool. The new figurehead who is going to lead this resistance movement is Yara Sentewa, who, how would we call her, a queen mother?

Well, I mean, she's not the mother of the Asantehini, but she's the grandmother of a very powerful chief. And she is enormously charismatic, incredibly eloquent, and she becomes the commander-in-chief of the army. She mounts enough of an opposition to thwart the British attempts to gain enough control to take the stool. Even though Asante is eventually annexed as a crown colony, and she's also exiled to the Seychelles, even despite that, it's seen as a symbol of great defiance, the sense that this stool was never, ever relinquished. It remains a symbol of the independence of the kingdom. That's right. And Yara Santiwa lived out in exile in the Seychelles

until her death in her 80s. She died in 1921. But as you say, Gus, the Asante Empire was now defeated and formally annexed and was now part of the British Empire in total until we get to the foundation of modern Ghana. And Sophie, presumably, you know this story a little bit? Oh, yes. Being from Ghana and having visited Ghana, I have had to go on many, many tours of the Kwame Nkrumah Museum. So I do know a little bit about

the formation of modern Ghana. But I won't tell you because that would ruin the fun. I do know a little bit about the formation of modern Ghana. But I won't tell you because that would ruin the fun. So in 1957, Ghana became the first African nation to gain its independence from a European colonial power. Absolutely. I mean, all of those traditions that we've talked about that were about embedding education and learning and history and law, there are a generation of really eloquent, really brilliant politicians who train in Britain, who come from the sorts of families that a generation before would have actually been sitting on stools and ruling in a traditional context. They are now fighting against the British in the courts for independence. And then in 1957, the British accept.

And there's this amazing image of Kwame Nkrumah standing on a platform surrounded by his first cabinet. And they choose to wear kente. And Nkrumah stands there and he says, we don't look toward the West. We don't look toward Russia and the East. We are looking toward our future and our destiny. And it's a moment which defines for other African nations, a sense of how you could craft something that was confidently African. And of course, a new name for the nation. Why Ghana? Ghana is an ancient African kingdom. It wasn't located where present-day Ghana is. It was about Kwame Nkrumah investing in that history. It's a statement about pride in Africa. The Nuance Window! That brings us to the nuance window. This is where we allow our expert, Dr Gus,

to give us a two-minute mini-lecture on what we need to know. Dr Gus, the nuance window. Thank you. I think it's such a crime that African art is so seldom celebrated, that African art is so little taught, so rarely given worthy platforms. And I don't just mean here in Britain. Africa boasts a handful of the very best museums in the world. If you get the chance, visit Zaitse Moka or the Norval Foundation in South Africa, and probably like me, you'll be in awe. But these truly world-class museums, they sit

within a wider landscape that remains stubbornly patchy. I think that's a bit of a crime. This is the longest, most thrilling art history, and it's been ill-served and it's been neglected. And this is a heritage that cannot be meaningfully enjoyed by the descendants of the people who created it. And even if you look at a country like Nigeria, Africa's wealthiest nation, a country with astounding history of visual arts production, yet its museum sector is generally deeply under-resourced and under-sponsored. We've got to change that. In Nigeria, one of the good news stories is that in Edo State, they're beginning to consider

how they might build a museum that will be the home for the return of the Benin bronzes, an initiative that's happening alongside substantive conversations with museums across Europe and America where the bronzes are presently held. But these projects, they remain exceptional. There's a huge continental deficit. Of course, African museums and governments have to address it. But alongside it, we have to, in the West, change the way in which we think about Africa. It's partially our deficit. And our museums, which hold huge, huge collections of African material that need to change, it's time to look back at some of that colonial period with a degree of shame, but also with an opportunity for us to learn and to reshape a kind of more equitable future for our young. Amazing. Well, thank you so much. And a huge thank you again to our guests. In History Corner, we had the magnificent Dr Gus Casely Hayford from the V&A East Museum.

And in Comedy Corner, we had the superb Sophie Duker. in a East Museum. And in Comedy Corner, we have the superb Sophie Duker. And to you, lovely listener, join me next time as we sashay down a new historical side street with a different delightful duo.

But for now, I'm off to go and eat my lunch while sitting on a far less impressive stool. Bye! Another thunderstorm. Lights out. Sometimes I just can't hear difference between thunder or shelling or explosions.

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