Kwaku Dua I. Panyin

Kwaku Dua I. Panyin (* around 1797; † April 27, 1867 ) was the Asantehene (ruler) of the Kingdom of Ashanti from 1834 to 1867 , which from the beginning of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century was first the central and later the entire area of ​​the ruled today 's Ghana .

Kwaku Dua I. Panyin took over an empire from his predecessor Osei Yaw Akoto, which after several defeats against the British showed signs of disintegration. The Ashanti had had to recognize the independence of their southern vassal states and were confronted with striving for independence in the northern areas. Kwaku Dua I. sought a peaceful coexistence with the British and the expansion of business relations with the Netherlands, which were competing with the British.

In March 1837, Kwaku Dua signed a contract with the Dutch King William of the Netherlands , in which he promised the employment of 1,000 recruits for the Dutch colonial army in return for the delivery of 2,000 rifles . However, the Ashanti delivered fewer people of their own than slaves to the Dutch. Later, the Dutch also recruited black soldiers in Elmina according to this scheme, who later became known as Belanda Hitam (Black Dutch).

In 1863 a war, unwanted by Kwaku Dua, broke out between the Ashanti and the British. The background was a misunderstanding or the ignorance of the laws of the Ashanti by the then British governor of the coastal fortresses, Richard Pine . An Ashanti had kept a gold nugget he had found instead of giving it to the Asantehene as the law of the Ashanti Empire provided, and had fled to a British fort. Kwaku Dua demanded the extradition of his subject, but the British did not see him as a lawbreaker, but as a refugee under their protection and refused to extradite. Kwaku Dua then sent an invading army to the coast, which destroyed several villages and towns and besieged the British fortresses. However, an outbreak of dysentery among the soldiers forced the Ashanti Army to withdraw without this war bringing any decision.

See also

• Government of Ashanti
• History of Ghana

literature

• Basil Davidson : A History of West Africa. 1000 - 1800. New revised edition, 2nd impression. Longman, London 1977, ISBN 0-582-60340-4 ( The Growth of African Civilization ).

Web links

• worldstatesmen.org