The Adae Kese is the annual culmination festival of the Akan calendar, the ninth Adae Festival (which occurs every six weeks).
Adae Kese ushers in the New Year, with dates ranging between July and October, though some Akans like the Akim, Akwamu, and Ashanti celebrate New Year in January.
It is also celebrated at the Manhyia Palace.
It comprises rituals which is aimed purifying the spirit of the King’s palace chambers by members of the royal family and other dignitaries.
The custom of holding this festival came into prominence between 1697 and 1699 when statehood was achieved for the people of Ashante after the war of independence, the Battle of Feyiase, against the Denkyira.
The festival was observed subsequently to the establishment of the Golden Stool (throne) in 1700.
The festival was a time to consecrate the remains of the dead kings; those remains had been kept in a mausoleum at the sacred burial ground of Bantama, a royal suburb of Kumasi.
Adae Kese brought a link and a level of faith and solidarity between the living and the ancestral spirits.
In its early times, this festival also had implications of sacrifice, both human and animal.
The main festival used to be held first at Hemmaa, close to the king’s palace near the location of the ancestral shrine of the kings.
The second and more important part of the festival was performed at Bantama, which also was the last burial ground of the Asante kings, and was known as the “notorious Bantama ritual” as the sacrifices involved were of large proportions.
When the festival was announced, by beating of drums, people went into hiding for fear that they may be selected for the human sacrifice.
As part of the ritual, sheep sacrifice was also involved.
Whether human sacrifice was involved or not is a subject of debate, but the fact is that the African societies considered these rites as a “reunion between the living and the dead.”
However, the Bantama Mausoleum was destroyed by the British on 20th January 1896 According to Historian Ramseyer.
The burning took place during the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War, also known as the “Second Ashanti Expedition”.
It was brief, lasting only from December 1895 to February 1896.
The Ashanti turned down an unofficial offer to become a British protectorate in 1891, extending to 1894.
The British also wanted to establish a British resident in Kumasi.
The Ashanti King Prempeh refused to surrender his sovereignty.
Wanting to keep French and German forces out of Ashanti territory (and its gold), the British were anxious to conquer the Ashanti once and for all.
The Ashanti sent a delegation to London offering concessions on its gold, cocoa and rubber trade as well as submission to the crown.
The British however had already made their minds up on a military solution, they were on their way, the delegation only returning to Kumasi a few days before the troops marched in.
Colonel Sir Francis Scott left Cape Coast with the main expeditionary force of British and West Indian troops, Maxim guns and 75mm artillery in December 1895, and travelling along the remnants of the 1874 road arrived in Kumasi in January 1896.
Major Robert Baden-Powell led a native levy of several local tribes in the campaign.
The Asantehene directed the Ashanti not to resist, but casualties from sickness among the British troops were high.
Soon, Governor William Maxwell arrived in Kumasi as well.
The Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was unwilling to pay the 50,000 ounces of gold so he was arrested and deposed.
He was forced to sign a treaty of protection, and with other Ashanti leaders was sent into exile in the Seychelles.
Baden-Powell published a diary of life giving the reasons, as he saw them, for the war:
To put an end to human sacrifice. (the main reason behind the destruction of the bantama mausoleum which was believed to be a coven of “huge sacrifices” which included human sacrifice)
To put a stop to slave-trading and raiding.
To ensure peace and security for the neighbouring tribes.
To settle the country and protect the development of trade.
To get paid up the balance of the war indemnity.
He also believed that if a smaller force had been sent, there would have been bloodshed.
The British force left Kumasi on 22 January 1896, arriving back at the coast two weeks later.
Not a shot had been fired but 18 Europeans were dead and 50% of the troops were sick.
Among the dead was Queen Victoria’s son-in-law, Prince Henry of Battenberg, who was taken ill before getting to Kumasi and died on 20 January onboard ship, returning to England.
In 1897 Ashanti territory became a British protectorate.
