Asante King Who Was Exiled To Seychelles For His Bravery In Fighting European Colonialists.

By the 19th century, after the Berlin conference, there was great European hunger for the resources and lands of Africa. The transatlantic slave trade was no more profitable for the Europeans and Americans and they had to focus on other resources that would enrich their continent and thrones.

Between 1820 and 1911 in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively, the Europeans waged a full-blown war on African kingdoms, Kings and indigenous peoples but among the European countries that took the resolutions of the Berlin conference, the British sent more armies into Africa, and fought more wars, in a bid to rule over Africa’s ancient kingdoms. As the British embarked and continued on their conquest of Africa, some weaker kingdoms surrendered while other stronger African kingdoms gave them a fight to the finish.

These kings/leaders/rulers were courageous and resisted the British for as long as they could. After long fighting, the British exiled many of these African kings and leaders into Seychelles, where they were left to live out their days. one of these brave and noble African kings who were exiled by the uninvited British (Europeans), for not allowing their kingdoms to be colonized was  Nana Prempeh I – Asantehene of the Asante Kingdom of Ghana. 

The Asante Kingdom was one of the strongest kingdoms in Africa. King Prempeh I was the 13th ruler and was 16 years old when he took over the throne in 1888. Today, he is remembered as one of the strong-willed and fiercest rulers in the history of the Asante Empire.

He is also the very last king of the Ashanti kingdom before it came under British rule. By the 19th century, the British Empire had laid claim to Ghana and named it Gold Coast Colony. Led by their king, Nana Prempeh 1, the Ashanti fought the British fiercely to protect their ancient Kingdom. The British and the Ashanti had trading relations. The king was willing to maintain it but refused to be ruled by the British.

He was labeled a notorious leader because he campaigned against the British – because he resolved to defend his people. Most, unfortunately, King Prempeh I and his Ashanti army were defeated by the British in the fourth Anglo-Ashanti war that was fought from 1894 to 1896.

After his defeat, the British in their usual manner looted the Ashanti Kingdom of its treasures. King Nana Prempeh I was captured together with his mother and other relatives and chiefs. They were then forcefully taken out of the Ashanti kingdom to live in exile in Seychelles.

Other leaders of the indigenous people of Ghana such as Yaa Asantewaa joined him in exile in 1901. King Nana Prempeh, in 1924 was allowed to return to Ghana, where he reigned as king until he died in 1931.