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Nana Asamani (or "Asameni") was the first black Governor of Christiansborg Castle, [1] located in Osu, Accra, Ghana, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea.
Asamani was known as the Akwamuhene who tricked the Danes and seized Christiansborg Castle in 1693. Asamani sold the castle back to the Danes in 1694 for 50 marks of gold, but kept the keys to the castle after the sale. [2] [3] [4] [5]
He was known as a businessman who traded with the Danes and the Ga-Adangbe people in Accra. He served as a broker between the Danes, the Ga-Adangbe, and the Akwamu traders. [6]
Asamani planned to seize the castle in 1693. Disguising himself as a cook and interpreter, he studied the traders and merchants who visited the castle, and the arrival and departure of ships. In June 1693, Asamani told the Danes that he and a group of Akwamu traders were visiting to buy ammunition. Asamani and the traders entered the castle under the guise of testing the ammunition before finalizing the purchase, and hid ammunition, powder and shots under their clothes. Asamani attacked the Danes and captured the castle; several Dutch officials were taken as captives. [7]
Asamani replaced the Danish flag with the Akwamu flag. Asamani appointed himself Governor of the castle, where he remained for a full year, and traded with English and Dutch merchants. [2]
The Akwamu kept the 26 silver keys won by Asamani. [8]
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, 20.4 km2 (7.9 sq mi), had a population of 284,124 inhabitants, and the larger Greater Accra Region, 3,245 km2 (1,253 sq mi), had a population of 5,455,692 inhabitants. In common usage, the name "Accra" often refers to the territory of the Accra Metropolitan District as it existed before 2008, when it covered 199.4 km2 (77.0 sq mi). This territory has since been split into 13 local government districts: 12 independent municipal districts and the reduced Accra Metropolitan District (20.4 km2), which is the only district within the capital to be granted city status. This territory of 199.4 km2 contained 1,782,150 inhabitants at the 2021 census, and serves as the capital of Ghana, while the district under the jurisdiction of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly proper (20.4 km2) is distinguished from the rest of the capital as the "City of Accra".
The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the most populated region, with a population of 5,455,692 in 2021, accounting for 17.7 per cent of Ghana's total population.
Carl Christian Reindorf was a Euro-African-born pioneer historian, teacher, farmer, trader, physician and pastor who worked with the Basel Mission on the Gold Coast. He wrote The History of the Gold Coast and Asante in the Ga language; scholars consider the book a “culturally important” work and an increasingly important source for Ghanaian history. The work was later translated into English and published in 1895 in Switzerland. He used written sources and oral tradition, interviewing more than 200 people in the course of assembling his history.
Articles related to Ghana include:
The Akyem are an Akan people. The term Akyem is used to describe a group of four states: Asante Akyem, Akyem Abuakwa, Akyem Kotoku and Akyem Bosome. These nations are located primarily in the eastern region in south Ghana. The term is also used to describe the general area where the Akyem ethnic group clusters. The Akyem ethnic group make up between 3-4 percent of Ghana's population depending on how one defines the group and are very prominent in all aspects of Ghanaian life. The Akyem are a matrilineal people. The history of this ethnic group is that of brave warriors who managed to create a thriving often influential and relatively independent state within modern-day Ghana. When one talks of Ghanaian history, there is often mention of The Big Six. These were six individuals who played a big role in the independence of Ghana. Of the big six, people of Akyem descent made up the majority.
Fort Prinzenstein is a fort located at Keta, Ghana, which was used in the slave trade. Many such forts were built in Africa, but Prinzenstein is one of the few that lie east of the Volta River. Keta served as an open port until the Tema Harbour commenced its operation to the west in 1962. The fort has been designated a World Heritage Site because of its historical importance and testimony to the Atlantic slave trade.
Osu Castle is a castle located in Osu, Ghana, on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea in Africa.
Akwamu was a state set up by the Akwamu people in present-day Ghana. After migrating from Bono state, the Akan founders of Akwamu settled in Twifo-Heman. The Akwamu led an expansionist empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. At the peak of their empire, Akwamu extended 400 kilometres (250 mi) along the coast from Ouidah, Benin in the East to Winneba, Ghana in the West.
Sir Emmanuel Charles Quist, also known as Paa Quist was a barrister, educator and judge who served as the first Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly and the first Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana.
Gottlieb Ababio Adom was a Ghanaian educator, journalist, editor and Presbyterian minister who served as the Editor of the Christian Messenger from 1966 to 1970. The Christian Messenger, established in 1883 by the Basel Mission, is the primary newspaper of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.
The Salem School, Osu, or the Osu Presbyterian Boys’ Boarding School or simply, Osu Salem, formerly known as the Basel Mission Middle School, is an all boys’ residential middle or junior secondary school located in the suburb of Osu in Accra, Ghana. The Salem School was the first middle school and the first boarding school to be established in Ghana. The school was founded under the auspices of the Basel Mission in 1843 and supervised by three pioneering missionaries and schoolmasters, Jamaican, Alexander Worthy Clerk and Angolan-born Jamaican Catherine Mulgrave together with the German-trained Americo-Liberian George Peter Thompson.
The Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, formerly known as the Basel Mission Church, Christiansborg, is a historic Protestant church located in the suburb of Osu in Accra, Ghana. The church was founded by the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society in 1847. Previously near the Christiansborg Castle at a hamlet called Osu Amanfong, where a commemorative monument now stands, the church relocated northwards to its present location near the Salem School when a new chapel was constructed and consecrated in 1902. The church is affiliated to the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Liturgical services are conducted in English and the Ga language.
Gold Coast Euro-Africans were a historical demographic based in coastal urban settlements in colonial Ghana, that arose from unions between European men and African women from the late 15th century – the decade between 1471 and 1482, until the mid-20th century, circa 1957, when Ghana attained its independence. In this period, different geographic areas of the Gold Coast were politically controlled at various times by the Portuguese, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Dutch and the British. There are also records of merchants of other European nationalities such as the Spaniards, French, Italians and Irish, operating along the coast, in addition to American sailors and traders from New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Euro-Africans were influential in intellectual, technocratic, artisanal, commercial and public life in general, actively participating in multiple fields of scholarly and civic importance. Scholars have referred to this Euro-African population of the Gold Coast as "mulattos", "mulatofoi" and "owulai" among other descriptions. The term, owula conveys contemporary notions of "gentlemanliness, learning and urbanity" or "a salaried big man" in the Ga language. The cross-cultural interactions between Europeans and Africans were mercantile-driven and an avenue to boost social capital for economic and political gain i.e. "wealth and power." The growth and development of Christianity during the colonial period also instituted motifs of modernity vis-à-vis Euro-African identity. This model created a spectrum of practices, ranging from a full celebration of native African customs to a total embrace and acculturation of European culture.
Regina Hesse (1832–1898), also Rottmann, was a Euro-African schoolteacher in colonial Ghana. As an educationist, she was one of first women exemplars on the Gold Coast to become a school administrator. Hesse was trained by the Angolan-born Jamaican Moravian pioneer woman teacher, Catherine Mulgrave who set up three girls’ specialist boarding schools at Osu, Abokobi and Odumase and was active in the women's Christian ministry in Christiansborg, Accra.
The Hesse family is a Ghanaian family of Dano-German origins. The progenitor of the family was Dr. Lebrecht Wilhelm Hesse, a German medical doctor and a subject of the Danish Crown under King Christian VII. Hesse was an employee of the Danish colonial administration. After qualifying in medicine and surgery, he sailed to the Gold Coast as a young bachelor in the late 1700s to treat chaplains from the Church of Denmark and its latter affiliate, the Danish Missionary Society, civil servants and garrison soldiers stationed at the Christiansborg Castle, now called the Osu Castle. He married a local Ga woman, Lamiorkai, from Osu Amantra in Accra.
Nii Kwabena Bonnie III, also known as Kwamla Theodore Taylor, was a Ghanaian (Ga) traditional ruler in Gold Coast, a British colony in West Africa, in 1947. He was a chief of Osu Alata Mantse and Oyokohene of Techiman.
Katamanso War also known as the Battle of Dodowa was a war that several tribes united with the British, fought and prevented Ashantis from dominating the coast in 1824. Numerous tribes in the Gold Coast such as the Fantes, Ga, Akyems, Adas were led by the British army to fight the Ashantis. It is classified as one of the "Anglo-Ashanti Wars" according to historical evidence at the National Archives.
King OkaiKoi was a warrior king who formed the Akwashong, supreme military command, which provided the basis of renewal of Ga-Dangme military power.
Akwamufie Palace is the seat of the Akwamuhene of the Akwamu people, as well as his official residence. It is currently occupied by the current king of Akwamu state, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III. Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III has been steering the affairs of the kingdom of Akwamu from the Bogyawe Palace since he ascended the throne in the year 2011. It is located at Akwamufie along the bank of the Volta river in the Eastern Region in Ghana. The palace has a museum and is also a traditional monument for tourist attraction. It is also known as the Bogyawe Palace.
Ghana was initially referred to as the Gold Coast. After attaining independence, the country's first sovereign government named the state after the Ghana Empire in modern Mauritania and Mali. Gold Coast was initially inhabited by different states, empires and ethnic groups before its colonization by the British Empire. The earliest known physical remains of the earliest man in Ghana were first discovered by archaeologists in a rock shelter at Kintampo during the 1960s. The remains were dated to be 5000 years old and it marked the period of transition to sedentism in Ghana. Early Ghanaians used Acheulean stone tools as hunter gatherers during the Early stone age. These stone tools evolved throughout the Middle and Late Stone Ages, during which some early Ghanaians inhabited caves.
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