User:Kwesi Yema/sandbox/Political systems of the Ashanti Empire

The Ghana Armed Forces are heavily committed to international peacekeeping operations. Ghana prefers to send its troops to operations in Africa. The United Nations has also used Ghanaian forces in countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Georgia, Nepal, Cambodia and Lebanon.

Ghana armed forces provided the first Force Commander of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo. Quainoo led the force from July 1990 to September 1990. Ghana Armed Forces peacekeepers have many roles: patrolling, as military police, electoral observers, de-miners (bomb disposal units and clearance divers), ceasefire monitors, humanitarian aid workers, and even special forces or frogmen against insurgents.

Elmina and the Ashanti Empire
Elmina and the Ashanti have been linked by a 200-year-long alliance. In 1701, the Ashanti, during the reign of Osei Tutu I, defeated the army of the Denkyira, to which the Dutch at that time paid notes in the form of rent or regular gifts. The Ashanti captured the Elmina Note, a document in which this lease was regulated. Even though there was disagreement between Ashanti and the Dutch about the nature of these payments, the Dutch regularly paid two ounces of gold per month for Elmina to the new regional power which was the Ashanti Empire. [49] For the first time, the Ashanti had direct access to the sea via Elmina and to trade with a European power (the Dutch). This resulted in an alliance between the city of Elmina along with the Dutch as well as the Ashanti. This alliance was opposed on the other hand by a similar alliance between the Fante (to which Elmina belonged linguistically and culturally) and the British. For example, in 1810, 1828 and 1829, the Fante besieged the city. The Ashanti also refused to conclude a peace treaty with the British and Fanti because it did not include Elmina. The conflict over Elmina after the handover of the city to the British in 1871 by the Dutch was ultimately the reason for the invasion of southern Ghana by the Ashanti in 1873, which ended with the military defeat of the Ashanti and the Treaty of Fomena, in which the Ashanti had to renounce any claim to southern Ghana.

Retreat of the Dutch and destruction of the city
In 1850, for the first time, the Dutch made serious efforts to get rid of their possession of Elmina, which had become unprofitable after the prohibition of the slave trade. The inhabitants of the city then sent a letter to the Dutch king, protesting against the planned sale to the British and pointing to the 250-year-old joint connection. The plan to sell the possessions in Elmina was dropped but probably not because of this letter. In 1867, the Dutch and the British decided on a mutual exchange of fortresses on the Gold Coast. The areas west of Elmina were to become Dutch, while those a few kilometres to the east were to become British. Although Elmina was to remain Dutch, the city was drawn into conflicts that ultimately ended in its destruction.

The plan met with fierce opposition from various villages previously under British influence, which were now to become Dutch. These villages feared that the change of ownership would sooner or later fall to the Ashanti, the traditional allies of the Dutch and Elminas. This threat led to the unification of the hitherto divided Fanti states into the Council of Mankessim, the later Fante Confederacy. The Fante formed a common army and moved to Elmina in March 1868 with the aim of expelling the Dutch. In April, the Fanti Army was strong enough to begin an effective siege of the city. In May of the same year, however, after a failed attack on the city, disagreements arose among the Fante, which led to the end of the siege. At the end of June, a peace treaty was concluded between the Fanti Confederacy and the city of Elmina. In the treaty, Elmina committed himself to neutrality in the event of an attack by the Fanti by the Ashanti. However, a blockade of the city, which was completely surrounded by the territory of the Fante Confederacy, remained in place in 1869 and 1870 and trade with the Ashanti came to a standstill. Attempts to persuade Elmina to join the Fante Confederacy failed. Elmina was the only place in the Fante settlement area that did not join the Confederation.

Elmina and the Dutch sent a formal request for help to the Asantehene and on December 27, 1869, an Ashanti force under its captain Ajeampon arrived in Elmina. Eventually, the inhabitants of Elmina and the Dutch withdrew from Ashanti influence and prevented any compromise with the Fante as well as the British. In July 1870, news reached Elmina that the Dutch had lost interest in their possessions there due to the ongoing conflicts on the Gold Coast, and were willing to leave these possessions, including Elmina, to the British. The Dutch governor of Elmina, Cornelis Nagtglas, tried to convince the inhabitants of Elmina to accept the handover of their city to the British. The situation was complicated by the presence of an Ashanti army in the city, whose leader the Dutch governor Nagtglas had arrested at short notice in April 1871. In a letter to Nagtglas in 1870, the ruling Asantehene Kofi Karikari clearly expressed his claim to the fort and city of Elmina and justified this claim with the Elmina Note, which had transferred the rights of Fort Elmina to the Ashanti with the conquest of the kingdom of Denkyira by the Ashanti. This was documented by the annual tribute that the Dutch paid to the Ashanti for the fort: "The fortress in this square has paid annual tribute to my ancestors from time immemorial until today, due to the right of arms, since we conquered Intim Gackiri, the king of Denkyira, because his ancestors paid 9000 pounds, which the Dutch demanded for this right."

Nagtglas contradicted this view of the Asantehene and in 1871 Kofi Karikari revoked his claim to Elmina against the Dutch.

Bombardment of Elmina by British warships on June 13, 1873

Bombing of Elmina in overall view In 1872, the Dutch withdrew from the Gold Coast and the British took over their possessions. The majority of the population of Elmina refused to recognize the British for their rule. The Omanhene of Elmina, Kobina Gyan, explained to the British after they had entered the Elmina Castle, which had been evacuated by the Dutch:

"The castle previously belonged to the Dutch government and the people of Elmina were free men, they are not slaves who can be forced to do something. When the [British] governor [of Cape Coast] came to take over the castle, he did not consult me before raising the British flag; if he recognized me as king, he would have done so... The governor offered me a large sum of money as a bribe gift so that the handover would run smoothly and peacefully. I refused to accept the bribery gift because if I had accepted it, the Chiefs [traditional leaders] would have turned their backs on me afterwards and said that I had sold the land for money."

In June 1873, the situation escalated when the Ashanti marched south to regain control over various peoples of southern Ghana and Elmina. The Ashanti invasion was successful until the middle of the year. An Ashanti army marched along the coast towards Elmina, but was halted before Elmina. The British imposed martial law on the city and exiled the Omanhene to their colony of Sierra Leone. After several ultimatums had passed, they began bombing Elmina from warships on June 13, 1873 at 12 noon. Since the population of the city took refuge at the Castle or in the surrounding area, there were no fatalities. The Ashanti military tried to escape from the city, but 200 of them lost their lives fighting in the surrounding area. The British and Fante alliance repulsed the Ashanti invasion. When bombing Elmina, the British distinguished between loyal and disloyal districts or Asafos. Four of the city's eight asafos opposed the British, and four were considered loyal. As disloyal, Kobena Gyan had rejected the British claims to Elmina. As a result, his area of jurisdiction at the city west of the Elmina Castle was bombed and subsequently plundered by British allies from the surrounding Fante states. The parts north of the Benya were spared. The old town of Elmina on the peninsula west of the fort was later destroyed.

The British period since 1873
British Plan of Elmina, 1898: Parade Square instead of Old Town, new native town in the north

Following the bombing, the British razed the remains of the city to the ground and declared the resulting area a parade ground (see adjacent map). They also prohibited any resettlement of the Elmina Peninsula, as they saw a security risk in a settlement in the immediate vicinity of the fort. It took years before urban life resumed in Elmina. This new Elmina was, until today, no longer south but north of the Benya. Under British rule, Elmina lost its prominence for the entire region and experienced colonization for the first time. Elmina was now part of the British crown colony Gold Coast, which had been founded immediately before. From 1880, the Catholic mission of Ghana, initially forbidden by the Dutch, resumed its missions in Elmina, for which the St. Joseph's Minor Basilica Church stands as the oldest Catholic church in the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, the city had less than 4000 inhabitants and thus about a quarter to a fifth of the population in the middle of the 19th century. A large part of the economically active population did not return to the city after the British bombing, but settled in Kumasi and other places. In 1921, the city's port was also closed to trade. The 1920s saw a limited economic upswing of the city as capital from the gold and cocoa business flowed into the city.

Elmina since independence
Ghana's independence in 1957 did not fundamentally change Elmina's peripheral situation. The population increased, as did that of other Ghanaian cities. In 1960 there were 8534 people living in Elmina, ten years later it increased to 12,000.. As a major event, the city's history records the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Elmina in 1960. In 1979, the two fortresses of Elmina were declared a World Heritage Site and tourism has since taken a considerable upswing. At the beginning of the millennium, with considerable financial support from the European Union, the Elmina Heritage Project was launched, a program to restore the historic sites of Elmina, the two fortresses, and several other historic buildings. [64]

Trial
Red was the Central figure

Origin
Ghana's first peacekeeping mission and military deployment was the UN operation ONUC, which was formed in response to the Congo Crisis. Ghana was among the first countries to send an army to Congo as part of the UN peacekeeping force. The Ghana army airlifted into Congo consisted of 770 military personnel. A week after Belgian troops occupied the lucrative mining province of Katanga, Ghana dispatched more than a thousand of its own troops to join a United Nations force. By the end of August 1960, Ghana's personnel had 2,394 army officers and men in Congo. The Ghana contingent remained for three of the four years of the UN operations, and contributed a total of more than 39,000-man-months On 19 January 1961 the Third Infantry Battalion mutinied. On 28 April 1961, 43 men were massacred in a surprise attack by the Congolese army. The attack at Port Francqui remains the largest loss of life Ghana has suffered from its involvement in United Nations peacekeeping missions.

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File:Ghana on the globe (Africa centered).svg

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Army
30,000 paramilitary.

The Golden Stool
The Golden Stool was the most powerful of all stools or "offices" in the Ashanti Empire. It was occupied by the Asantehene or King. According to Ashanti oral tradition, the Golden Stool first appeared near the end of the 17th century. It became the spiritual centre of the Empire after King Osei Tutu unified the Ashanti city-states into one Empire. According to oral tradition, Okomfo Anokye, the Chief Priest and adviser of Osei Tutu brought down the stool from the sky to the earth. He proceeded by demanding that all chiefs of the Ashanti city-state surrender their stools in order to recognize the supremacy of the Golden Stool.

Asantehene
The Ashanti Empire was made up of a number of states grouped together and headed by a monarch. The Asantehene was regarded as primus inter pares. Thus, he was the highest form of authority in the empire and he held more power than the Paramount chiefs known as the Amanhene, who were leaders of the various Ashanti states. Such states included Mampong, Kokufu, Ejisu, Juaben and Bekwai. Despite such authority, the Asantehene was not a despot as several checks curbed the of abuse of power.

Asanteman council
The institution assisted the Asantehene and served as an advisory body to the king. The council was made up of Amanhene or Paramount chiefs wgo were leaders of the various Ashanti states. The council also included other provincial chiefs. It was by law that the Asantehene never ignored the decisions of the Asanteman council. Failure to do so could lead him to be destooled off the throne.

Amanhene
The Ashanti Empire was made up of metropolitan and provincial states. The metropolitan states were made up of Ashanti citizens known as amanfo. The provincial states were other kingdoms absorbed into the empire. Every metropolitan Ashanti state was headed by the Amanhene or Paramount chief. Each of these Paramount chiefs served as principal rulers of their own states where they exerted executive, legislative and judicial powers.

Ohene
The Ohene were divisional chiefs under the Amanhene. Their major function was to advise the Amanhene. The divisional chiefs were the highest order in various Ashanti state divisions. The divisions were made up of various villages put together. Examples of divisional chiefs included Krontihene, Nifahene, Benkumhene, Adontenhene and Kyidomhene.

Queen
The queen or Ohenemaa was an important figure in Ashanti political system. She was the most powerful female in the Empire. She had the perogate of being consulted in the process of installing a chief or the king, as she played a major role in the nomination and selection. Sje settled disputes involving women and was involved in decision-making alongside the Council of elders and chiefs.

Sourcing