Mensa Bonsu ( – ) was the tenth

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

of the

Ashanti Empire The Asante Empire (Asante Twi: ), today commonly called the Ashanti Empire, was an Akan state that lasted between 1701 to 1901, in what is now modern-day Ghana. It expanded from the Ashanti Region to include most of Ghana as well as parts of Iv ...

, from 1874 until his forced abdication on 8 March 1883.

Biography

Accession to the Asante throne

Mensa Bonsu was the son of

Afua Kobi Afua Kobi ( fl. 1834–1884) was an ''asantehemaa'' of the Ashanti Empire. Afua Kobi, an Asante ruler in the Asante Kingdom in present day Ghana, was an "''asantehemaa"'', that refers to a "queen mother". She informed the Asante royal council to a ...

. He became

Asantehene The is the title for the monarch of the historical Ashanti Empire as well as the ceremonial ruler of the Ashanti people today. The Ashanti royal house traces its line to the Oyoko (an ''Abusua'', or "clan") Abohyen Dynasty of Nana Twum and t ...

(king of the Asante) after his elder brother Kofi Kakari was deposed in September 1874. Mensa Bonsu tried to restore the fortunes of

Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is the ...

after its destruction in the 1873-4 Anglo-Asante war.Daniel Miles McFarland, ''Historical Dictionary of Ghana'',

Scarecrow Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, 1995, p. 121. However, he did not make himself popular with contemporaries: "Chronically short of revenue, and personally avaricious (for women as well as gold), King Asantehene Mensa Bonsu carried punitive exactions to new and insupportable levels."T. C. McCaskie, ''State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 69-70. Attempts were made to depose the Asantehene in 1877 and 1880. In 1881 Bonsu sent a golden axe to Queen Victoria as a gesture of good will. He was destooled and banished from Kumasi in 1883 by his sister

Yaa Akyaa Yaa Akyaa (1847–1917) was a queen mother of the Ashanti Empire in 1884-1896. She had great influence during the reign of her son, and acted as his de facto co-regent. Early life Yaa Akyaa was born in the Ashanti empire circa 1847. She is the da ...

. The following five years saw Asante civil war. Asantehene Mensa Bonsu died in British captivity in 1896 and was succeeded to the throne by heir apparent Kwaku Dua II of the Kingdom of Asante. In 1911, Mensa Bonsu's corpse was disinterred for ceremonial burial at the Asante capital city,

Bibliography

Basil Davidson Basil Risbridger Davidson (9 November 1914 – 9 July 2010) was a British journalist and historian who wrote more than 30 books on African history and politics. According to two modern writers, "Davidson, a campaigning journalist whose fir ...

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

References

External links

Kingdom of Asante Kings And Queens Of Asante
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsu, Mensa 1840s births 1890s deaths 19th-century monarchs in Africa Ashanti monarchs

Biography

Accession to the Asante throne

Bibliography

See also

References

External links