On this day in 1824, the Ashanti defeated a British army in the Gold Coast (now Ghana).
By 1817, the Ashanti were expanding with an army of about 20,000, in response to various British incursions, so the (British) African Company of Merchants which was operating in various ‘castles’ along the coast signed a treaty of friendship that recognized Ashanti claims to sovereignty over much of the coast. The British merchants, however, refused to pay the rents demanded by the Ashanti.
In 1820, another British mission headed by Joseph Dupuis arrived in Kumasi in an attempt to resolve the dispute. Dupuis signed a treaty that was denounced at the time as “a complete sell-out” that recognized the Ashanti claim to collect tribute from the coastal peoples; renounced the British claim to protect the coastal peoples from Ashanti raids and recognised the right of the Asantehene (King of the Ashanti) to “eradicate from his dominions the seeds of disobedience and insubordination”.
the British governor, Sir Charles MacCarthy, wrote to the Colonial Secretary, Lord Bathurst his belief that the Ashanti were “blustering” and “they were not prepared for war, but depended solely upon the terror of their name to bring us to seek a compromise, and I suppose to extort from the native people under our fort…a contributions of six hundred ounces of gold”. MacCarthy asked for and received permission to have the Royal African Corps redeployed from the Cape Colony (modern south-western South Africa) to the Gold Coast.
MacCarthy led an invading force from the Cape Coast in two columns. Moving out to confront the British were an Ashanti force of 10,000 men armed with their “Long Dane” muskets. MacCarthy failed to understand until it was too late for him that the Ashanti force that he was facing was the main Ashanti army instead of an advance-guard as he assumed.[15] The governor was in the first group of 500, which lost contact with the second column when they encountered the Ashanti army of around 10,000, in the battle of Nsamankow. The British ran out of ammunition, suffered losses and were overrun. Almost all the British force were killed immediately while 20 managed to escape. MacCarthy, Ensign Wetherell, and his secretary Williams attempted to fall back. MacCarthy was wounded, however, and killed by a second shot shortly thereafter.
Some weeks later, a larger British force made up of White and Native troops came to a standstill with the same Ashanti army that had defeated MacCarthy’s force. The British army withdrew back to the coast with 176 dead and 677 men wounded.
Asante Warriors Displaying their weapons in a ceremony.
Another abbreviated post today
Today is the birthday, in 1950, of British singer and songwriter Billy Ocean. His 1984 single ‘Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) peaked at No.1 in the US and Ocean won the 1985 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song. He accumulated a series of international hit singles ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’ (1985 and the theme song for the film The Jewel of the Nile), ‘There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)’ (1986). In 1988, his single ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car’ reached No.1 in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNgcYGgtf8M
