President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, during his 2024 State of the State address on Tuesday, February 27, announced that the Kumasi International Airport will be renamed after King Nana Agyeman Prempeh I upon completion. did.
“I have one more date scheduled with the House of Commons, at which time I will be here to explain my term in office. By then, my successor will have been elected and preparations for the swearing-in ceremony will have begun,” he said. The elections will be held peacefully and the credible candidates who will take us to a higher level will win. I wish you all the best in the elections on December 7th. .
“Before that, we have many important tasks ahead of us, one of which is the commissioning of the Nana Agyemang Prempeh I International Airport in Kumasi and the recently operationalized Tamale Airport. and to name the airport Yakub Tali International Airport.”
Read the biography of Nana Agyemang Prempeh I below.
Otumfuo Nana Prempeh I (December 18, 1870 – May 12, 1931) was the 13th king of the Ashanti Empire and Oyoko-Abohyen Dynasty. Prempeh I ruled from his March 26, 1888 until his death in 1931 and fought the Ashanti War against the British in 1893.
childhood and family
The original royal title of Asantehene Prempeh I was Prince Kwaku Dua III Asam of the Ashanti Empire. Asantehema, the mother of King Prempeh I, Queen Yaaakia, was the queen mother of the Ashanti from 1880 until 1917. Through her strategic marriages of convenience, she built the military power to secure the Golden Chair for her son Prince Prempeh.
reign
In 1888, Prince Prempeh ascended the throne using the name Kwaku Dua III. His kingship encountered difficulties from the beginning of his reign. He began defending Ashanti from the British, and when Pumpe I was asked by the British to accept a protectorate of Ashanti, he refused, stating in his reply that the British had miscalculated.[3] He began an aggressive campaign for Ashanti sovereignty. Britain offered to take Ashanti under its protection, but he refused both requests.
Ashanti-UK relationship
In December 1895, British troops departed from Cape Coast with an expeditionary force. It arrived at Kumasi in January 1896 under the command of Robert Baden-Powell. The Asantehene instructed the Ashanti not to resist the British advance, as they feared retaliation from the British if the expedition turned violent. Shortly after, Governor William Maxwell also arrived in Kumasi.[citation needed]
The British annexed the territory of the Ashanti and Fanti peoples. England and Fante were allies during this period, but still did so. Asantehene Agyemang Prempeh was deported and arrested, and he and other Ashanti leaders went into exile in the Seychelles. The Ashanti Empire collapsed. Britain officially declared the Ashanti region and coastal areas the Gold Coast Colony. British residents settled permanently in the city of Kumasi and soon a British fort was built there.
Eleven years later, Baden-Powell published Scouting for Boys. Prempeh was eventually released and subsequently became Gold Coast’s chief scout.[citation needed]
The Telegraph Battalion of the Royal Engineers (predecessor to the Royal Corps of Signals) played an important role in the Ashanti Campaign. Soldiers from the Telegraph Battalion hacked a 112-mile route through the jungle from the coast to Prass. These armies then staggered out of the jungle and confronted King Prempeh, who accepted the surrender of his army. King Prempeh’s throne is now on display at the Royal Museum of Signals in Blandford.
In 1900, a request was made to the Ashanti people to hand over to them the Golden Chair, the very symbol of Ashanti absolute monarchical rule.[2] The Ashanti Kingdom put up no resistance and became a semi-autonomous member of the British Empire. The Ashanti people then rebelled against the British in 1900-1901 and fought the War of the Golden Chair (also known as the Yaa-Asantewa War). In the end, the British won. They exiled Asantewaa and other Asante leaders to the Seychelles and joined Asante King Prempeh I. In January 1902, Britain finally declared the Asantemans a protectorate. Asanteman regained her independence on January 31, 1935.
Prempeh I spent the time after my return to his villa on Mahe Island, the largest of the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean. This villa was previously a huge plantation, covered with coconut trees, mango, breadfruit and orange trees, and also had two-storey villas. Prempeh I’s villa and his 16 new wooden houses with sandy floors and corrugated iron roofs were built in the Seychelles and assigned to various Asante nobility. Mr. Prempeh was educated in English and worked hard to ensure that his children received an education.
Asantehene Prempeh I once said: “My Ashanti Kingdom will never engage in such a policy of protection. The Ashanti people and the Ashanti Kingdom must remain the traditional independent and sovereign nation they are, while at the same time remaining friends with all white men. No need.”