Asantehene Osei Tutu Ababio

The first year

Last year, before the selection of the new Asantehene, I predicted that he would be called Osei Tutu II and if that happened, it would be the rebirth of the Asante nation. I have been correct on the first score and if what I am hearing is correct, that he has got fire in his belly, then I am on course to getting the second part of my prediction correct too.

The name prediction was not the most difficult. It was going to happen sooner or later and there was no time better. Nana Agyeman Prempe II should have been Osei Tutu Ababio but the name was shelved because the British objected on the grounds that the name was too emotive. The nation acquiesced. It was therefore inevitable that the name was going to resurface and with it, the aspirations of the nation. Whether the aspirations are going to be fulfilled remain to be seen but I am rather confident that the nation's smouldering hesitancy will come to an end rather soon.

At long last, the nation has somebody who has set his stall out. That stall will have to invariably, plug the 29 year vacuum of Otumfuo Opoku Ware II. The near resolution of the problem of Tafo, the ultimatum to chiefs, seem to be firm grounds from which to launch bold initiatives. I, for one, will be keeping an eye on Agogo.

The first 180 years of the nation's history gave us some of the finest leaders ever. People with whose vision and foresight, the nation came a long way. Their legacy has yet to be surpassed

The last 120 years in contrast, has been rather dim and demure. Throughout these last 120 years, the only Asantehene of some repute has been Nana Agyeman Prempe II. The reign of Nana Agyeman Prempe I is a matter of inconclusive debate. From the controversy of his election, to the war between Kumasi and the Amantuo through war with the British and his eventual deportation to Seychelles. These are issues which will be debated but the consensus will remain that the Amantuo were right in going to war with Kumase; it was only on a matter of principle. At least in those days they had principles. That he was young, he was only eighteen when he became Asantehene, is neither here nor there. That he converted to Christianity in Seychelles much, it is said, to the chagrin of Yaa Asantewaa, could have had grave consequences had the old men in the palace not made sure that he did not carry this new fangled conversion too far on his return. His letters from Seychelles make profound reading. Had he not followed up his beliefs on his return to Kumasi, there would have been some doubts as to the authenticity of those letters. Those new beliefs manifested themselves in the interest he took in the young, later to be, Opoku Ware II, in making sure he was given a Christian education.

Previous Asantehenes together with Asantemannhyiamu (Asante Parliament) up to that point had resisted Christianity, and rightly so. They had not resisted because they knew that the gospels had not been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as many people even now believe, but by a Turkish born middle class Jew by the name of Paul. They had resisted because of the hypocrisy, sham and double standards of the British and their missionaries who were nothing more than commercial John the Baptists; preparing the way for the rampaging capitalists. These missionaries have today been replaced by aid and charity workers. They also preparing the way for their commercial sponsors

On 13^th May 1751 the first British missionary, Thomas Thompson, arrived in Cape Coast. He was later to be instrumental together with The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in the sending of Philip Quarcoo and two other boys to England to be educated. Of course Philip Quarcoo is always held up as the beacon of Christian education principally because he became the first African to be ordained priest in the Church of England. The contradictions of his later life, and I do not blame him for the contradictions, seem to bear testimony to his questioning of Christianity in those later years. Worse still, the tragedy of the other boys, little of which was and is said in relation to Philip Quarcoo, was not a good reflection of Christian charity. One of the boys had a mental breakdown, the other had Tuberclosis. By about 1780, both had died in London. In spite of the boys parents' repeated requests for their children to be returned to them, these requests went unheeded

Thomas Thompson set about to convert the Fantis, starting with those around the castle to Christianity. The Fantis initially resisted but gradually capitulated. How that capitulation came about is a matter for another day.

When the Fantis eventually went into the Cape Coast Castle for their Sunday church service, they realised that they were the only people attending church and wondered why the British in the castle were not attending too. Gradually, the number of Fantis going to church in the castle began to decline. Word soon got to the missionary as to why the Fanti numbers were declining. To stem this decline, the British in the castle were bribed to attend church on Sunday evenings. The consequence of this was to become all too evident on Monday mornings. Come those Monday mornings, the streets of Cape Coast were littered with British men too drunk to find their way back to the castle. They had merely drank their bribes away in Cape Coast town after church.

While the British found it convenient to denounce the drinking of the Fantis from the pulpit, they found it equally convenient to turn a blind eye to their litter on the streets of Cape Coast on Monday mornings.

There is no doubt that these shenanigans would have reached Kumasi and ultimately government in Kumasi. Needless to say, it went some way to shore up the nation's mistrust of the British and Christianity. Nothing illustrates this more than a conversation which the Asantehene Osei Bonsu had with an Englishman in Kumasi.

In 1817, Bodwich, the Englishman, tried to convince the Asantehene that the English intentions in Kumasi were anything other than noble. In a reply laced with utter contempt, the Asantehene told him, 'This motive cannot be the real one. I see that you are much superior to the Asante in industry and the arts; for in the fort of Cape Coast itself, which is only a small establishment, you have many things which we do not know how to make: But there exists here, in the interior, a people, those of Kong who are as little civilised relative to us as we are relative to you. They do not know how to make ornaments of gold, to build comfortable houses, or to weave garments. However, there is not a single one of my Asantes, not even the poorest, who would leave his home for the sole purpose of going to teach the people of Kong. Now, how do you wish to persuade me that it is only for so flimsy a motive that you have left this fine and prosperous England?'

As far back as 1740 the government in Kumasi knew what sort of education it wanted and it was technological. In that year Katakyie Opoku Ware I sent twelve boys and two girls to the Dutch in Elmina for onward transmission to Holland to be educated. That they did not get to Holland was due partly to, I believe, Dutch unwillingness to encourage technological education among Asantes. Nevertheless, they continued in their quest for the right kind of education. They experimented. They sent ahenemma rather than adehye to be educated. Their efforts were met with qualified successes. They remained cautious throughout because they were not prepared for the indoctrination that normally accompanied such, mostly, Christian education. In spit of their fear, they did achieve success to some extent. By far the most successful was Kwesi Boakye son of Asantehene Kwaku Dua. He studied mining engineering in Freiberg then emigrated to Indonesia where he became the director of mines in the 1860s never to return to Kumasi. It is a matter of speculation, what his influence on the Asante mining industry would have been if he had returned to Kumasi.

The other successes were notably of the Owusu Ansa brothers especially the junior one though their education was religious rather than technological. There were casualties too, those who took their religious education too far like Opoku Awoni and those who were culturally brain washed like Kwame Poku. These two perished especially for the events of March 1844. There were also those whose potential was not fully utilised like Owusu Nkwantabisa, son of Asantehene Osei Yaw.

By the time of Reverend Picot's ill-tempered confrontation with Adu Borfuor and Bantamahene in Kumasi in April 1876, the nation had firmly shut the door on religious education only for it to be given a new lease of life with the return of Prempe I from Seychelles.

Otumfuo Opoku Ware II clearly manifested the consequences of what the royal household feared would be the result of education of royals. Nearly 100 years on we should be greteful to those old men who resisted Christian education for the royals. Of course Otumfuo Opoku Ware II did not go as far as Opoku Awoni but we do not know who was on our side, the gods or time

There is no doubt that if they had got the right education for the ahenemma, then they would have opened education up for the rest of the population. That would have catapulted the nation to higher achievement.

The turning point as far as the insistence on nothing other than technological education must have been after the Asantehene's conversation with Bodwich. For nearly 60 years after that, the Asante government had drawn up a blueprint for Asante industrialisation. They procured the services of a firm of Liverpool solicitors, Messrs Radcliff, Durant & Co to advise them on obtaining European capital and expertise backed up with Asante treasury funds for process. The first phase involved the improvement of the road network, the building of railways and bridges and the setting up of newspapers. Why did this not happen was due to a series of complex internal and external factors not the least of which internally, was the civil war. Externally, was the war with the British and the British government's obsession, with the ruin of Asante at any price .

120 years on, if we allow ourselves, history has some important lessons to teach us. In spite of our arrival in the twenty first century, the Asante nation of the 1870s was a more sophisticated society than the Asante nation of today. Its government, civil and public servants, its diplomats were far more skilled than anything that can probably be pitted against them today. In 1874, the British writer W. Reade made this observation of Sir Garnet Wolseley in his negotiations with Asante civil servants, '(Wolseley) had made his reputation as a soldier and now aspired to be a diplomatist. But has was matched against men with whom he was merely a child'. They may not have been to school and therefore not literate but that did not necessarily make them uneducated. Up to the start of the civil war, the economy had been well run. Interest rates and inflation were kept under control and the collection of taxes was ruthlessly efficient to the point that even in death, one could not escape punishment for tax evasion. The body of the Akroponhene Gyamfi Kwadwo came to grief in the 1820s on the issue of tax evasion. To get round the literacy problem, they employed Moslem secretaries. They did not want Moslem education either because it did not take them long to realise that the Moslems were just as bad as their Christian counterparts. In fact Asantehene Osei Kwame was deposed because of his inclination towards Moslems.

Even in spite of British occupation and contrary to what the British thought, they did not govern Asante. They were made to believe that they did. The Asante government machinery manned by these civil servants remained intact during the exile of Prempe I. Apart from taxation and the lack of visible signs of government like Police, border and highway patrols, the Asante government still run the nation. It was because, as every Asante knows, Asante allegiance is not to the occupant of the Golden Stool but to the Golden Stool itself. That fundamentally, amongst others, was what the British never grasped. Ironically, it was the return of Prempe I that was to lead to the disintergration of the Asante government machinery.

Asantehene Osei Tutu Ababio will quickly need to bridge the gap between 1880 and 2000 if the nation is to make any progress. To do that will need a concerted effort and support of the nation. This generation of Asantes must begin to lay the foundations to make the next generation of Asantes better than those of 180 years ago. After all progress comes as a result of one generation not only wanting the next to do better than it did, but actually preparing the way for the next generation to do better. That is not beyond us. For the next generation to do better means we must make literate and educate Asante children of today. That must be done independently of the government of Ghana which, no matter how charitable one can be, is moribund.

We clearly know what kind of education we want and that has not changed since 1817. In addition, we need to teach our history, culture and language in order to reinforce our heritage, values, conservatism and pride. It will be a most appalling tragedy if we should end up, even in spite of their relative affluence, like African Americans or worst still West Indians. Both being people with no history or culture in search of a dream.

Some of the prominent Asantes who were educated in the 1950s had their education as a result of a scholarship scheme set up by Asantehene Agyeman Prempe II. To finance the scholarship, he imposed a levy on every adult Asante, male and female. Otumfuo Opoku Ware II attempted something similar but it fell apart due to his own apathy and also rumour had it that people were reluctant to contribute because he had instituted a scheme earlier on for which no accounts were rendered.

I am glad a new educational fund has been set up and by all accounts is doing well. It will have to do better and I am sure it will. What is required that it might not go pear shaped is transparency. That I am also certain will exist if the lessons of the past have been learnt.

Now that is off the ground, we should look and plan ahead for the next ten years. We should look at our priorities and set our standard particularly in secondary school education. If it means ditching the current educational standards in Ghana so be it. If it means capital investment in a purpose built school solely for Asante children, so be it. We can continue to support our children in the JSS or SSS for now but anybody with a cell between two ears knows that the current educational system produces sub standard achievement, if any. If the system was any good, those in government would not be educating their children abroad. Our future deserves better. Our initiative need to be both bold and radical but not reckless. Most importantly, we must make the commitment to make it free. That is the only way we can bring out the best in our future.

But we need to start from somewhere. As a matter of urgency, we should start the construction of a database of Asantes, particularly children. If we decide to have our own standards in education which means putting all Asante children in a purpose built school, the first children will have to be enrolled at least ten years after the creation of the database. By then we would know what figures are involved. We may not necessarily hit the bull’s eye with the figure, we will certainly not be plucking it out of thin air either. It will also give us at least ten years to plan both the logistics and the finance. As the database is continually updated with Asante births, we can tell how many secondary school places will be required ten years ahead and start to make both provision and preparation. Once this happens we can look further down at doing the same for primary education.

Out of this database we can extract information of Asantes living abroad to be able to tap into their resources of intellect, talent and money. Assuming that there are 10,000 Asantes abroad making a minimum contribution of £5 per person per week, I am sure we can provide very good free secondary education than what is currently available for £200,000 a month not to mention the contribution of Asantes in Ghana who have made the bulk of the contribution of the near £55,000 that has been raised in the last year. We should also be looking at making this free commitment for at least twenty five years because that is how long I think it will take us to rise head and shoulders above everybody else. I do not believe that commitment is beyond us. Nothing stops us having both the pig and the chicken.

If Asantehene Osei Tutu Ababio does nothing at all other than be remembered as the one who relaid the foundation for the education of Asantes, then the gap between 1880 and 2000 would have been bridged and with it, the nation would have been reborn. God would then have to work hard to keep the stars out of our reach.

There is a lot to be done and with the right leadership, achievement is not beyond us. Again if what I am hearing is right, and I did see signs in Kumasi recently to convince me that what I am hearing is right, we have got the right leader and we ought to rally behind him.

Kwaku Akuoko.