Yaa Asantewaa was the Queen Mother of the Ashanti Empire in Ghana who led Ashanti forces in the War of the Golden Stool against British rule in 1900. After the British imprisoned the Ashanti king, Prempeh I, Yaa Asantewaa gave a speech criticizing Ashanti men for their reluctance to fight and vowed that if the men would not go to battle, Ashanti women would fight instead. She then called upon the Ashanti women to take up arms and fight against the British until every one of them had fallen in defense of their kingdom.

1. YAA ASANTEWAA
Q U E E N O F T H E A S H A N T I

2. YAA ASANTEWAA
(c.1850-c.1920)

4. Chief
Prempeh I.

5. Major
Baden
Powell –
Founder of
the Scouts.

6. The Golden Stool.

7. Okomfo Anokye calling down the golden stool.

8. Fredrick
Hodgeson The
20th Governor
of Ghana.

10. The Golden Stool.

11. "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 Osei Tutu,
Okomfo Anokye, and Opolu Ware, leaders
would not sit down to see their King taken
away without firing a shot.
No white man could have dared to speak
to a leader of the Ashanti in the way the
Governor spoke to you this morning.

12. Is it true that the bravery of the Ashanti is no
more? I cannot believe it. It cannot be!
I must say this, if you the men of Ashanti will
not go forward, then we will. We the women
will. I shall call upon my fellow women. We
will fight the white men. We will fight till the
last of us falls in the battlefields."
-- Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewa

13. Kumasi Fort and Armed Forces