The Battle of Feyiase: Chilling Events at Denkyira Prior to The Battle

Ntim Gyakari, the King of Denkyira at that time (1694 – 1701) made ten classes of men and women.

These men and women were to offer their bodies as a sacrifice to the King whenever a royal family dies and these men were called Abon Chuma Fuor [Atwomafo].

Their leaders were called Ajae Bi [Agyeibi], Youdyayim [Yim Awere], and Kokobin [Kwakwa Bene].

These 3 men decided that they are dissatisfied with the treatment they are receiving and so they decided to defect and help the Ashantis when the battle is declared.

So they left their land to come to Kumasi to help the Ashantis.

When they were close to Kumasi, they sent a word to Osei Tutu that they are coming to help him in war and they sent their chief Kokobinny[Kwakwa Bene] to take an oath before the King and to ascertain before him that they are coming to help him with clean spirits.

They asked the King to send them one of his families to take an oath before them and to ascertain that the King
will not kill them when they come to help him.

 

The King sent his nephew Otieku Atwedie to those men and they in return sent one of their
men called Kwakwabin [Kwakwa Bene] to take oath.

When the oath had been taken on both sides, they came to Kwaman

Ajaebi [Agyeibi] came 8 days before Youdyayim [Yim Awere].

When they came, Osei Tutu gave them a district called Kwadwokrom, in Kwaman to live.

It came to pass that the King asked those men to give him (Kwakwabin) Kokobin [Kwakwa Bene] so that he will name
him after his birth day.

These people agreed, and gave Kwakwabin [Kwakwa Bene] to him and they also in return asked Otieku Atwedie to
come and live with them at Kwadwokrom, in Kwaman.

This was granted.

According to the account of Asantehene Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, the exchange of oaths between Osei Tutu
and the immigrants was prompted by the former’s demand for a proof of
loyalty and the latter’s need for a guarantee of safety.

 

He stated that Okomfo
Anokye worked the ‘miracle’ that brought the ‘Bontwumafo’ to Kwaman, and then made Kwakwa Bene a ‘soul-washer’ (akradwareni) to Osei Tutu
( ‘so that he will name him after his birth day’).

 

Variant accounts from the perspectives of Agyeibi, Kwakwa Bene and Yim
Awere, the leaders of the ‘Bontwumafo’, are found in the traditions of the
stools they came to occupy in Asante.

These histories are circumspect in
the matter of identifying the three men with the wretched, enslaved
‘Bontwumafo’, but they do relate a pattern of conflict with and alienation from Ntim Gyakari.

Agyeibi was Denkyira Kontihene resident at Ntoamu (‘Entuoamu’).

Ntim Gyakari seduced his wife.

Agyeibi expressed his outrage on this, but rather than submit to disgrace or death he fled to Kwaman with many who felt as he did about the Denkyirahene’s “madness”.

In a like manner
Kwakwa Bene was a Denkyira office holder resident at Asabi (‘Sabi’).

Fearful of Ntim Gyakari’s ‘despotic’ rule, he moved to Kwaman.

He was made a ‘soul-washer’ of Osei Tutu’s bosommuru amanyina (the sword that unites the nation) because of the number of people he brought with him to Kwaman.

Asante tradition says that when it was clear that the Atwema people were welcomed by Osei Tutu, others from Denkyira followed in numbers.

Denkyira tradition in turn paints an image of emigrant flight.

Anwianwia ran away as did Sabi [Asabi]’ because of Ntim Gyakari’s
‘ruling over them with despotic tendency.

He sent men with whips to take whatever he required from them’.

Some ‘Sobis’ [Asabi] were resettled at
Atwema Agogo, while others from ‘Anwanwenem’ [Anwianwia] eventually
came to live at Gyedu in Ahafo.

Similarly, the ‘Dawu-Dawu’ [Awu Dawu], a group of Denkyirahene’s servants (gyaase), fled to Osei Tutu.

They were
placed under the authority of Amankwatia, himself a Denkyira who had been
the young Osei Tutu’s personal servant during his stay in Abankeseso, but who was now a senior general with the titles of Kontihene and Bantamahene.

 

Ntim Gyakari’s household servants also defected.

These included Kyerema Di of Otiman (near present-
day Mease on the Ofin–Oda river confluence), the Denkyira head drummer,
who is said by Asante tradition to have absconded with his sister Boatemaa
Twum and many followers.

He made ritual obeisance to Osei Tutu by asking for some boiled maize (abete), the common food of the servant, and so he was
nicknamed Kyerema Di Abetia.

Though he was a great person at Denkyira, he did this to show he’s nobody before the “Asa Nti” hene Nana Osei Tutu.

Osei Tutu appointed him Nkukuwafohene.

 

The brothers Akwadan and Nuamoa, hornblowers of the Denkyirahene,
‘came on the side of King Osei Tutu’ with their golden horn and followers.

 

They were resettled at Akuropon, and later brought into Kumase when Osei Tutu created the Asokwa stool for them so that they might act as his traders
as well as hornblowers.

Asante stool histories record numerous other flights from Denkyira.

Thus, Domakwai in Kumase has links with Ntoamu and Ayamfori migrants;
the first chief of Akumanten, once head of those who cleared the forest for
Ntim Gyakari, left Denkyira with his people because he was ‘indignant’ at
the treatment given him; the Atwema Besiase royals left Mmayeremu near Kotimso to side with Osei Tutu; the founders of Okyerekrom, north of Kumase, migrated from Denkyira because they ‘disliked’ its ‘administration’.

Okyerekrom’s neighbouring town Amoako was also created by Denkyira
emigrants.

Nkwantakese was settled by people dissatisfied with Ntim
Gyakari’s ‘despotic rule’.

Ahensan, a very old settlement, is said to have gone over to Osei Tutu when Ntim Gyakari insulted its chief.

The ancestors
of the Bosommuru Fabem Linguist’s stool also left Denkyira.

Nkwanta Esaase was settled by people who migrated from
Denkyira Adwaaduamu; remote Ndwema in Ahafo was built by refugees
who fled from Ayamfori.

This list is far from exhaustive.

The Asantehene
Agyeman Prempeh himself observed that ‘many others that cannot be
mentioned came’.

Asante tradition states that the ‘Bontwumafo’ were the first to change
allegiance from Ntim Gyakari to Osei Tutu.

As noted, their example was widely emulated.

Perhaps the most important among those who followed
their lead were the Nkawie people.

Nkawie, 20 miles north of Abankeseso, was arguably the second most important town in
Denkyira.

It was a gold-mining centre between the Ofin and Oda rivers.

It exercised authority over Abori, Ntobroso, Abuaso and the now-vanished settlements of Obi, Atintim, Wuakrom and Nkyena.

Nkawie was itself
an ‘estate’ of some importance.

It was ruled by a lineage that occupied ‘an ancient stool from which you become Omanhin of Denkera [Denkyirahene]’.

Its female stool was occupied by Denkyirahene’s ‘nieces’.

women who were ‘eligible’ to become the Denkyira queen-mother.

The male and female stool-holders resided at Abankeseso under surveillance,
because ‘Ntim and [his] predecessor Boa Amponsem were not from this royal
line but from another’.

Ayamfori tradition states that Boamponsem was ‘a very strong man [i.e. an obirempon] who pushed off the proper heirs from the [Denkyira] stool to succeed them.

He was a great King who lived for a
long time and so the Oman gave the stool in turn to Ntim his relative after his death in 1694.

Elsewhere Denkyira tradition adds that ‘Boa[mponsem] was not the right
heir but came up to take it [the Denkyira stool] because of his exploits s a great warrior.

When Boamponsem became king (c. 1650s), power in Denkyira shifted from the northern Nkawie ‘estate’ to its southern Abankeseso counterpart.

As noted, changes of this kind were an endemic feature of forest Akan history during
this period.

In the 1660s the two royal stools that controlled the Nkawie lands were
occupied by Asensu Kufuor and his sister Adoma Akosua.

It was severally reported that in Abankeseso the detainee Osei Tutu had a child with Adoma Akosua, and then secretly married her with her brother’s consent.

Whatever transpired, the three principals were united in grievance against Boamponsem.

In the 1670s Osei Tutu offended Boamponsem – the traditions
mention sexual transgression – and fled from Abankeseso to Asamankese
(or Nyanawase) in Akwamu to the east.

In the 1680s Osei Tutu returned home to Kwaman to succeed Obiri Yeboa.

Then in 1694, Boamponsem died and Ntim Gyakari won out over Asensu Kufuor in the contest to succeed him.

Nkawie tradition reports what happened next:

Then a certain case happened between Assansu [Asensu Kufuor] and the Denkerahin, it was about a stool.

Assensu was living with Ntim [Gyakari] at
the Denkyira capital called Ebenso [Ntibanso, i.e. Abankeseso].

When this dispute
arose Assensu separated from the Denkyirahene.

He settled in a village called Awioso
near Ntoboso [Ntobroso].

Awioso is now in ruins.

He heard that his brother- in-law Osei Tutu occupied the [Kwaman] Stool.

Then Assensu came to him.

When he came several Denkera people followed.

He was connected with the Denkera Stool and they must follow him.

Nkawie Stool was not made by the
King of Ashanti.

It came in full state with Assensu.

It came with its Safohin
[subordinate chiefs].

Elsewhere, the same Nkawie source remarked that ‘Assensu [Asensu
Kufuor] quarreled with [Ntim] Gyakari and went to Ashanti to help him
revenge.

Tradition affirms that Asensu Kufuor was the single most important
defector from the cause of Ntim Gyakari.

He was a royal qualified ‘ to occupy the stool of Denkera’, and though he failed in the contest to succeed
Boamponsem he remained a potent rival of Ntim Gyakari.

When he defected to the camp of Osei Tutu he took many followers with him and, so it is
said, gold and guns.

Most significantly, Asensu Kufuor’s shift of allegiance detached the largest ‘estate’ after Abankeseso from Ntim Gyakari’s control,
and called into question the reliability of much of northern Denkyira.

After Ntim Gyakari was killed at Feyiase, Asensu Kufuor was confirmed in the title of Nkawiehene and went to live in that town.

His lands were restored
to him.

Asantehene Opoku Ware (c. 1720–50) extended Nkawie’s lands
westward over the Ofin river as far as Bibiani.

However, and paradoxically, if
Nkawie became an Asante town then it also retained a vivid sense of its past identity as a seat of Denkyira royalty.

 

How Ntim Gyakari Slaughtered His Own People in Rage

Tradition describes one detailed case of Denkyira migrants reversing their
decision to ally themselves with Osei Tutu.

Aboabo was a settlement on the
Nsutase tributary of the Oda river, about 10 miles southwest of Abankeseso.

It was inhabited by Denkyirahene’s shield-bearers (akyamfo), and by villagers who prospected for gold on the Ofin flats east of Watreso.

A quarrel arose between the two groups over the ownership of a gold nugget (sika boba)
and in the course of this the villagers killed some of the shield-bearers.

Ntim Gyakari was told of this matter.

He was incensed and summoned the villagers
to appear before him.

At the meeting, the village head Owusu Koanyama verbally abused the occupant of Bankam Dwa [the Denkyira stool, abankamdwa] saying
that the King’s own servants [the shield-bearers] were ruffians who stole every
thing from the people.

Ntim flew in a rage and ordered that the man [Owusu
Koanyama] should be killed instantly together with all his family.

This was done
on the spot! 

The people were afraid and decided to run away to Ashanti secretly.

They did so until they crossed Aboabo river to Poano [Poanu].

They took council with
themselves to return back to their home and beg the King to forgive them.

The cunning but wicked Ntim was preparing for the Fehyiase War [against Osei Tutu].

 

He pretended he was accepting them, instead he killed all of them. (Close to 200 people)

He saw their return as an opportunity to settle pending scores for he was already enraged with them.

The Boaduru Suman [a charm, asuman called ‘ the hard stone’, obo duru] was buried at the spot where they were gruesomely massacred to mark it.