Aura poku

Aura Poku was an Ashantin princess and founder and first queen of the Baulé Kingdom , which was founded in the central region of what is now the Ivory Coast in the 18th century .

Starting situation in Asante

In 1750 the Asantehene Osei Opoku Ware I. dies and a civil war breaks out in Asante in connection with the succession to the throne. In order to ensure the continuation of his previous policy, the late king had appointed his brother Aquassi (in other sources also Daku, Darko, etc.) as his successor while he was still alive. When Opoku died in 1750, the kingmakers of Asante ignored Aquassi's claim and chose Kusi Obodum as the new Asantehene in his place . In the following year 1751 z. B. the Danes from Christiansborgthat Kusi had been firmly established on the throne and that Aquassi, who had contested Kusi's claim, had committed suicide and his chief followers had been executed. The civil war in Asante was not yet over, however, because Kusi Obodum was roughly only installed by a certain splinter group.

Baulé's founding history

In the course of the succession disputes in Asante, one of the nephews of the late Asantehene and brother of Princess Aura Poku was also killed. Aura Poku then gathered her followers and the residents of her home area who were willing to emigrate and left Asante with them in a westerly direction in search of new places to settle. One finally reached the central region of today's Ivory Coast , where settlements were found again between the rivers N'Zi and Bandama . The Kingdom of Baulé was founded here with Warebo (near Bouaké ) as its capital and Aura Poku as its first queen. The population that settled the area and with whom one was accepted had been largely displaced by the Guru in the west and the Senufo in the north, and the acceptance of the Ashanti meant a welcome increase in the military force for the displaced groups. They say they got married to each other. According to legend, Aura Poku had to sacrifice her son, who was then a child, on her march on the Comoé River so that she and her people could cross the river unhindered and move on with the permission of the river deity. The news about the new Ashanti colony in the west triggered a real wave of emigration in Akan's homeland and many moved to their relatives in their new homeland. In addition to the Kingdom of Baulé, Agni (Anyi) also emerged in the 18th century as another Akan state on the southwestern territory of what is now the Republic of Ivory Coast.

Aura Poku died around 1760. Her successor as Queen of Baulé was her niece Akwa Boni.

swell

• Basil Davidson, West Africa before the Colonial Era - A History to 1850 , London / New York 1998

Footnotes

1. ↑ According to other sources, the procession of the Aura Poku and the establishment of the Baulé state took place in the course of the events around 1717 or probably even in 1712. However, the representation in the literature is not uniform.