Audience with the Asantehene Kwaku Dwa II (also: Kwaku Dua Ḳomah; Quaco Duah of the colonial literature). The British officer is (probably) Captain Brandon Kirby, who had been sent to Asante by the Governor, Sir Samuel Rowe, in order to listen to the parties of the civil war in Asante and if appropriate, mediate between them. The civil war had broken out on the basis of disputes over the succession of the Asantehene Mensa Bonsu, who was dethroned in March 1883.