War of the Golden Stool The War of the Golden Stool , also known as the Yaa Asantewaa War , the Third Ashanti Expedition , the Ashanti Uprising , or variations thereof , was the final war in a series of conflicts between the British Imperial government of the Gold Coast ( later Ghana ) and the Empire of Ashanti , a powerful , semi - autonomous African state that fractiously co - existed with the British and its vassal coastal tribes . When the Ashanti began rebelling against British rule , the British attempted to put down the unrest . Furthermore , the British governor , Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson , demanded that the Asante turn over to the British the Golden Stool , i . e . the throne and a symbol of Asante sovereignty . The war ended with the Ashanti maintaining its " de facto " independence . Even though the Ashanti were annexed into the British Empire , they ruled themselves with little reference to the colonial power . However , when the British colony of the Gold Coast became the first independent , sub - Saharan African country in 1957 , Ashanti was subsumed into the newly created Ghana . This war was the last conflict in Africa in which one of the sides was commanded by a woman . The Golden Stool . Thus Hodgson advanced toward Kumasi with a small force of British soldiers and local levies , arriving on the 25 March 1900 . Hodgson , as representative of a powerful nation himself , was accorded traditional honours upon entering the city and after ascending a platform , he made a speech to the assembled Ashanti leaders . The speech , or the closest surviving account that comes through an African translator , reportedly read : Not understanding the significance of the stool , Hodgson clearly had no inkling of the storm his words would produce ; the suggestion that he , a foreigner , should sit on the Golden Stool , the very embodiment of The Ashanti state , and very symbol of the Ashanti peoples , living , dead , and yet to be born , was far too disrespectful for the crowd . Almost immediately , the queen mother of the Ejisu dominion within the Ashanti kingdom , Yaa Asantewaa , was collecting men to form a force with which to attack the British and retrieve their exiled king . The enraged populace produced a large number of volunteers and as Hodgson ' s deputy , Captain Cecil Armitage , searched for the stool in nearby brush his force was surrounded and ambushed , only a sudden rainstorm allowing the survivors to retreat to the British offices in Kumasi . The offices were then fortified into a small stockade that housed 18 Europeans , dozens of mixed race colonial administrators and 500 Nigerian Hausas with six small field guns and four Maxim gun s . The Ashanti , aware that they were unprepared for storming the fort settled into a long siege , only making one assault on the position on 29 April that was unsuccessful . The Ashanti then continued to snipe at the defenders , cut the telegraph wires , blockaded food supplies , and attack relief columns . As supplies ran low and disease took its toll on the defenders , another rescue party of 700 arrived in June . Recognising that it was necessary to escape from the trap and to preserve the remaining food for the wounded and sick , some of the healthier men were evacuated along with Hodgson , his wife and over a hundred of the Hausas . 12 , 000 Ashanti abrade ( Warriors ) were summoned to attack the escapees , who gained a lead on the long road back to the Crown Colony and avoided the main body of the Abrade . Days later the few survivors of the Abrade attack , took a ship for Accra , receiving all available medical attention . The rescue column . As Hodgson arrived at the coast , a rescue force of 1 , 000 men assembled from various British units and police forces stationed across West Africa and under the command of Major James Willcocks had set out from Accra . On the march Willcocks ' s men had been repulsed from several well - defended forts belonging to groups allied with the Ashanti , most notably the stockade at Kokofu where they had suffered heavy casualties . During the march Willcocks was faced with constant trials of skirmishing with an enemy in his own element and maintaining his supply route in the face of effective guerilla opposition . In early July , his force arrived at Beckwai and prepared for the final assault on Kumasi , which began on the morning of 14 July 1900 . Using a force led by Yoroba warriors from Nigeria serving in the Frontier Force , Willcocks drove in four heavily guarded stockades , finally relieving the fort on the evening of the fifteenth , when the inhabitants were just two days from surrender . In September , after spending the summer recuperating and tending to the sick and wounded in captured Kumasi , Willcocks sent out flying columns to the neighbouring regions that had supported the uprising . His troops defeated an Ashanti force in a skirmish at Obassa on the 30 September and also succeeded in destroying the fort and town at Kokofu where he had been previously repulsed , using Nigerian levies to hunt Ashanti fugitives into the forests once the defenders fled after a stiff engagement . Following the storming of the town , Captain Charles John Melliss was awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in the attack , the only such award of the campaign although a number of other officers received the Distinguished Service Order . Yaa Asantewaa . Queen mother of Ejisu in what is now modern day Ghana . At that time , the Gold Coast , as it was then known , was a British protectorate . The British supported their campaigns against the Ashanti using taxes they levied upon the local population . Additionally , they also took over the state - owned gold mines thus removing considerable revenue from the Ashanti State government . As missionaries established schools and began interfering in local affairs , the Ashanti began to deeply resent the British . In a speech , Yaa Asantewaa rallied resistance to the colonialists : Now I have seen that some of you fear to go forward to fight for our king . If it were in the brave days , the days of Osei Tutu , Okomfo Anokye , and Opoku Ware , chiefs would not sit down to see their king taken away without firing a shot . No white man could have dared to speak to a chief of the Ashanti in the way the Governor spoke to you chiefs this morning . 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 . < br > We will fight the white men . We will fight till the last of us falls in the battlefields . Yaa Asantewaa Return of the King Prempeh I to Ashanti . " Thousands of people , white and black , flocked down to the beach to welcome him . They were sorely disappointed when the news flashed through that Nana Prempeh was not to be seen by anyone , and that he was to land at 5 : 30 pm and proceed straight away to Kumasi by a special train . Twenty minutes after the arrival of the train , a beautiful car brought Nana Prempeh into the midst of the assembly . It was difficult for us to realise even yet that he had arrived . A charming aristocratic - looking person in a black long suit with a fashionable black hat held up his hand to the cheers of the crowd . That noble figure was Nana Prempeh . " Extract from the " Gold Coast Leader " newspaper , 27 Dec 1924 . Aftermath . Even though Kumasi was supposedly annexed into the British empire , the Ashanti still largely governed themselves . The Ashanti goal of protecting the Golden Stool from the British was successful . However the following year , numerous chiefs , including the Queen Mother of Ejisu , Yaa Asantewaa , were arrested and exiled to the Seychelles , not being allowed to return for twenty five years — by which time many , including Yaa Asantewaa , had died . Kumasi City still retains a war memorial and several large colonial residences , although it , with the rest of the former Gold Coast , eventually became part of Ghana . The war cost the British and their allies 1 , 007 fatal casualties in total . The Ashanti casualties are estimated to be around 2 , 000 . The British never did capture the Golden Stool ; it was hidden deep in the forests for the duration of the war , although efforts by the British to find it continued until 1920 . Shortly after this , it was accidentally uncovered by some labourers , who took the golden ornaments that adorned the stool — rendering it powerless in the eyes of the Ashanti people . The labourers were sentenced to death by an Ashanti court , but the British intervened , and the accused were exiled instead .