Prempeh II.
Prempeh II (* 1892 - May 27, 1970 ) or Otumfuo Nana Sir Agyeman Prempeh II was the 14th king of the Ashanti Empire in present-day Ghana from 1935 to 1970 .
Childhood and youth
Prempeh II was born under the name Kwame Keretwie in Kumasi , the capital of the empire, and was later baptized under the Christian name Edward Owusu . His mother Nana Akua Bakoma was a daughter of the Ashanti Queen. Four years after his birth, the British smashed the Ashanti Empire, abducted the then Asantehene Prempeh I to their colony in Sierra Leone or the Seychelles and declared the Ashanti area a protectorate .
The later Prempeh II attended the Methodist Weslayan Methodist School in Kumasi from 1907 to 1915 and was then active as a trader in various parts of the country. He was one of the founding members of the Asante Kotoko Union , which, originally a literary society, was soon active in the campaign for the return of Prempeh I. In 1924 the British allowed his predecessor Prempeh I to return to his homeland, which was now part of the British Gold Coast colony , but only as Kumasihene, ruler of Kumasi, not as King of the Ashanti.
Ruler under British colonial rule
Prempeh II could therefore only succeed Prempeh I as Kumasihene in 1931. In 1933, however, the Kingdom of the Ashanti was reestablished as a traditional kingdom under British rule and in 1935 Prempeh II was enthroned as Asantehene. Prempeh II achieved the return of the "crown lands " of the Ashanti Empire , ie the lands belonging to the Golden See, through diplomatic channels . Prempeh II campaigned for the integration of the Ashanti areas into the Gold Coast colony. In 1947 the British made him Commander of the British Empire .
Asantehene in independent Ghana
Prempeh II had not joined any of the competing political parties in the phase before the country's independence in 1957. However, Kwame Nkrumah , the charismatic and power-conscious president of the now independent Ghana saw in the Ashanti ruler a strong competition that went against his political ideas of pan-Africanism and African socialism and did his best to curtail his power. In 1958, the stool land was withdrawn from the Asantehene and the Brong-Ahafo region was spun off from the Ashanti region . However, Prempeh II tried successfully to counter the impression that he was a supporter of the National Liberation Movement , which competed with Nkrumah's Convention People's Party , and by the early 1960s the relationship between the two most powerful men in Ghana had relaxed.
When the National House of Chief , a kind of upper house in which the most important traditional chiefs of Ghan had a seat, was established in 1969, Prempeh II became its first president. Shortly before his death, he received the second highest civil order in the country, the Order of the Volta .
See also
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Prempeh II. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Otumfuo Nana Sir Agyeman Prempeh II .; Edward Owusu; Kwame Keretwie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Asantehene (ruler) of the Kingdom of Ashanti in what is now Ghana |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1892 |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 27, 1970 |