Celebrating the king banished by the British to Seychelles

The sphere exterior the royal palace within the Ghanaian metropolis of Kumasi was stuffed with an exuberant crowd, celebrating the return 100 years in the past of an exiled king.

Prempeh was the Asante king, or “Asantehene”, of the late nineteenth Century who resisted British calls for that his territory be swallowed up into the increasing Gold Coast protectorate.

A British military from the coast marched about 200km (124 miles) to Kumasi in 1896, and took Prempeh in addition to about 50 family, chiefs and servants as prisoners, after which looted his palace.

The prisoners had been taken to the coastal fort at Elmina, earlier than being shipped to Sierra Leone, and, in 1900, on to the distant Indian Ocean islands of Seychelles.

It was not till 1924 that the British allowed Prempeh to return dwelling, by which period he was an aged man who arrived in Kumasi carrying a European swimsuit and hat.

It’s a tragic story, but additionally certainly one of delight and resistance.

“The British did all they may however they couldn’t break the spirit of Asante,” shouted the grasp of ceremonies. The present Asantehene, Osei Tutu II, was paraded on his palanquin by way of the gang, weighed down by magnificent gold jewelry, amid an excellent cacophony of musket explosions, drum beats and the blare of horns comprised of elephant tusks.

Asante tradition is alive and nicely.

However Prempeh’s exile did have a long-lasting influence on each the Asante kingdom and Seychelles, though maybe not in methods meant by British officers on the time.

The visitor of honour on the centenary celebrations, held in Kumasi on the weekend, was Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan, who stated “it was an honour, although unhappy, for us to obtain your nice king”.

“He confirmed respect to our folks, and in return acquired the total love of the Seychelles,” Ramkalawan added.

The proof of that’s in household ties cherished to today.

Princess Mary Prempeh Marimba is Prempeh’s great-grand-daughter. Her grandfather, James, the son of Prempeh, married a Seychellois girl, and initially stayed on the islands after his father left.

Mary is a nursing supervisor in Seychelles’ capital, Victoria, and travelled to Kumasi together with her daughter Suzy, to re-unite with dozens of long-lost family and uncover extra about her Asante heritage.

“There are such a lot of combined feelings, my great-grandfather had so many difficulties, and this can be a unhappy historical past, however I additionally come right here and have fun with my household,” she stated.

The Asante exiles in Seychelles lived in “Ashanti City”, on an previous sugar plantation, Le Rocher, on the principle island Mahé, overlooking the ocean and surrounded by coconut, mango, breadfruit, orange and jackfruit timber.

Prempeh lived within the property’s villa, and was given “each respect and dignity”, in line with Dr Penda Uneven, a Seychellois tutorial who additionally travelled to Kumasi for the centenary occasions.

In 1901, the Asante group grew, as Yaa Asantewaa, a queen who led the ultimate resistance to the British, and a few 20 chiefs and attendants, had been additionally despatched to Seychelles following their give up.

The lengthy years of exile modified Prempeh. He learnt to learn and write, and urged the Asante kids to attend faculty.

He embraced Christianity, and, within the phrases of Asante historian and politician Albert Adu Boahen, “rigidly and uncompromisingly imposed that faith on his fellow political prisoners and their kids”.

Within the Anglican Church of St Paul’s, the Asante weren’t the one exiles within the congregation, for they usually sat with King Mwanga of Buganda and King Kabalega of Bunyoro, each from modern-day Uganda.

Certainly, at varied instances, the British additionally despatched political prisoners from Egypt, Palestine, Zanzibar, the Maldives, Malaysia and Cyprus to Seychelles, which was often called a “jail with out bars”, as its isolation made the proper location, from the British perspective, to place troublesome opponents.

The years glided by, and Prempeh dreamt of dwelling.

In 1918, he wrote to King George V and pleaded to be allowed to return.

“Contemplate how wretched I’m for I used to be being taken prisoner… for now 22 years, and now how depressing to see that father, mom, brother and practically three quarters of the chiefs are useless. The remaining quarter, some are blind, some worn out with previous age and the remainder being attacked of numerous ailments,” Prempeh wrote.

A couple of years later, the British, maybe conscious that Prempeh’s potential demise in exile might convey political issues in Asante, lastly relented.

In November 1924 Prempeh travelled by ship again to West Africa with some 50 Asante companions, most of whom had been born in Seychelles.

“We who have no idea him are greater than anxious to see his face,” wrote a distinguished native newspaper, The Gold Coast Chief.

In Kumasi, many slept by the prepare station to greet him and, in line with a British official, “the scene offered by the massive meeting…. with their white head bands signifying rejoicing or victory, some laughing and cheering, whereas others wept with emotion, was a most transferring and never-to-be-forgotten sight”.

In principle “Mr Edward Prempeh” was now a personal citizen, however his folks handled him as a king, and offered him with royal regalia, together with the Golden Stool, stated to comprise the soul of the Asante nation.

Prempeh died in 1931, and his successor, Prempeh II, was restored to the place of Asantehene in 1935.

Ivor Agyeman-Duah, an Asante scholar and director of the palace museum, helped organise the centenary celebrations.

They had been of added private significance, as his nice grandfather, Kwame Boatin, was one of many chiefs exiled alongside Prempeh.

However as Mr Agyeman-Duah acknowledges, exile, for all its ache, additionally introduced alternatives for individuals who suffered it.

Kwame Boatin’s kids went on to be ambassadors and main civil servants, in a position to adapt to the dramatic modifications that Asante, the Gold Coast and later an impartial Ghana, underwent within the twentieth Century.

“The exiles had been uncovered to the world, and so they had one thing to contribute,” he stated. “What they introduced again nonetheless evokes us, their dedication to scholarship and public service.”

In a village one hour’s drive from Kumasi, I met Princess Molly Prempeh, an animated girl in her 80s, and likewise a great-granddaughter of Prempeh.

“I’m the one remaining individual right here who was born in Seychelles,” she advised me.

“I’m Seychellois and Ghanaian – I used to be 5 years previous after I got here again.”

In her previous age, Molly has reconnected with the attractive islands of her beginning, and visited twice.

The Seychellois are delighted by the “Previous Creole”, which incorporates extra French phrases, she remembers from childhood.

“After I stroll down the streets they shout ‘Heh Princess, how are you?’ ‘Princess, venez, venez, tu bien?’ (come, come right here, you good?) they’re pretty folks. They love the Prempehs in Sesel (Seychelles).”

However Molly’s visits are additionally tinged with disappointment. She goes to the grave of her mom, Hugette, who introduced Molly as a younger lady to the Gold Coast in 1948.

Hugette later returned to Seychelles, the place she ultimately died.

Even in her previous age, the story goes, she liked to talk the Twi language she had been taught as slightly lady by Prempeh herself.

One household’s story of loss, exile and endurance.

Barnaby Phillips is a former BBC correspondent and writer of Loot; Britain and the Benin Bronzes