Who was Yaa Asantewaa?
Yaa Asantewaa was the queen mother of Ejisu in the Asante Empire. When the British exiled the Asantehene Prempeh I in 1896 and later demanded the Golden Stool, the sacred symbol of Asante nationhood, the chiefs hesitated.
Yaa Asantewaa rallied them, declaring that if the men would not fight, the women would. In 1900 she led the uprising known as the War of the Golden Stool, which besieged the British fort at Kumasi for months.
She was captured and exiled to the Seychelles, where she died in 1921. The Golden Stool itself was never surrendered. She is celebrated in Ghana as a symbol of courage and of women's leadership.