A GNA News Feature by Paul Eduarko Richardson/ Christiana Afua Nyarko
Accra, March 8, GNA – Every year, Ghana celebrates the month of March as Heritage Month.
The initiative is to promote Ghanaian culture, and commemorated in the same month the country gained its independence from the British in 1957.
This article looks at one historical antecedent -The battle of Nsamanko- during the independence struggle.
The “Battle of Nsamanko” was between the Ashantis and the British with its allies mainly the Fantes in 1824.
The facts
According to Mr Kweku Darko Ankrah, a Historian and Genealogist at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, the Battle of Nsamankow was one of the battles the Ashantis fought against the Fantes.
The battle arose from the quest of the Ashantis to have direct trade with the Europeans, particularly the British at the coast.
The Fantes were seen as an impediment in the trade and so the Ashantis wanted to eliminate them.
“The war actually was between the Ashantis and the Fantes. When the Ashantis were coming to fight in the coast, their intention was not to fight with the British. They were coming to fight the Fantes who were rebelling.
“The Governor, Sir Charles McCarthy, decided to give support to the Fantes and led them because the Fantes lacked the ammunition,” Mr Ankrah says.
The Ashantis, however, defeated the British soldiers and the allied forces.
Governor McCarthy was killed and beheaded by the Ashantis, who took the head back to their territory as a trophy of war.
Many Ghanaians erroneously believe that the battle was fought in a town called Nsamankow.
Mr Ankrah explains that there is no town with that name.
He says the name came about due to circumstances surrounding the war.
The Historian explains that when the Ashantis were shooting from a thick bush and the Southerners could not see who they were fighting with, they said “we are fighting with ghosts”.
The Southerners thus claimed they were fighting a ghost war, which translates in Akan as “Nsamanko”.
Impact on political landscape
Mr Ankrah notes that the Nsamanko war gave the Ashantis free access to the coast because they had defeated the Fantes.
Before the Battle, there used to be a barricade immediately after Assin and the Ashantis had to pay road tolls to the Fantes on the way and also pay tributes to the Fante chiefs in the local communities.
“All these stopped. Everything went back to the Asantehene. He was getting access to the collection of all these tributes,” he says.
Mr Ankrah adds that after the war, the Asantehene made some Fante chiefs very powerful, citing the Asikuma and Ajumako chiefs who were being paid tributes and as a result had become so powerful that their neighbouring Fante States were scared of them.
The Battle of Nsamanko also changed the nature of the trading system along the coast, as the Ashantis now had direct access to the British trade.
“After the war, we saw the Southern States coming together with the support of the British to go and fight the Battle of Katamanso in 1826.
“This created an alliance among other coastal communities against the Asante Kingdom,” he says.
Lessons from the Battle
Mr Ankrah notes that the Battle of Nsamanko shows the resilience of Ghanaians and their ability to come together irrespective of their past.
“In some countries, some of these wars could not be celebrated because it opens the wounds of the past leading to ethnic differences and anger.
“For us we are able to move beyond that and know that these are things of the past. We are now friends and we will continue to live together for a very long time,” he says.
Mr Ankrah says the Battle also shows that the African is capable of standing against both internal and external forces for a common good.
GNA