Ashanti-Fante War 1806-1807

The rivalry between Ashanti (Asante) and Fante on the Gold Coast grew much more serious in the nineteenth century. The British were usually allies of the Fante, and the Dutch of the Ashanti.

At the beginning of 1806 the Asantehene (king of the Ashanti) charged some people with robbing graves. The Fante promptly gave refuge to the accused, who were people from Assin, and Asantehene Osei Bonsu (reigned circa 1801-1824) sent an army against the Fante. At Abora, four miles from Cape Coast, a battle was fought, in which the Ashanti were victorious. A British agent (representing the African Company of Merchants) at Cape Coast sheltered the accused grave robbers, whilst the Ashanti went on to attack the fort at Kormantine (Fort Amsterdam) of their old allies the Dutch. The British then tried to make friends with the Ashanti, and Colonel Torrane, who was in charge at Cape Coast, most treacherously handed an old and blind Assin king called Kwadwo Otibu to the Asantehene, although he knew the old man would be killed; which he was.

A verbal agreement was now made between the British and the Asante that the latter should be recognized as the rulers of the Fante, except where a British fort existed. Shamelessly, Torrane sold or gave away 2,000 of his former Fante allies, and the Asante victoriously marched first east along the coast and then north back to their capital. The Ashanti thus extended their dominions to the coast.

References

Military History, 856; Conton, West Africa, 25; Ghana - A Country Study.

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