Otumfuo Baidoo Bonsoe ll, King of Ahanta
Otumfuo Baidoo Bonsoe ll, King of Ahanta
Badu Bonsu II was the leader of the Ahanta tribe and a Ghanaian king who was executed in 1838 by the Dutch, who, at the time, were in control of the Dutch Gold Coast.
The final funeral rites of Otumfuo Baidoo Bonsoe ll, King of Ahanta, who was captured and beheaded by the Dutch in 1838, where held in the third week of August 2012.
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"The Ahanta tribe's ruler was lynched by the crew of a Dutch trading galleon in 1838 as part of a mafia-style "offer the country could not refuse". - telegraph.co.uk
Nana Bonsoe was a courageous King who by his confrontation with the Dutch authorities, booked his place in the history of Ghana as one of the great African Chiefs who resisted the domination, exploitation and under-development of Africa by the European powers.
He was assassinated for his fortitude in fighting against the heinous crimes and slave trade by the Dutch.
He was assassinated for his fortitude in fighting against the heinous crimes and slave trade by the Dutch.
The King’s head was taken and kept at a medical laboratory at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands for 172 years. His remains were returned to Ghana in 2009 with the support of late President John Evans Atta Mills, after diplomatic exchanges between Ghana and the Dutch authorities.
The government of Ghana also has taken care of the building of a befitting mausoleum for the mortal remains of the late king.
Above map of Sekondi
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In 1837 King Badu Bonsu II (Baidoo Bonsoe II) of Ahanta rebelled against the Dutch Colonialists and killed several Dutch Officers including the Acting Governor Tonneboejer.
Using a treaty they had signed with the Ahanta State in 1656 as the basis for military action, the Dutch sent an expeditionary force to Ahanta.
In the war, King Badu Bonsu II was decapitated and his head was sent to The Netherlands. Following the execution of king Badu Bonsu, his body was desecrated as a Dutch surgeon removed his head. The head was taken to the Netherlands, where it was soon lost for more than a century. The Dutch reorganized the Ahanta State by appointing the Chief of Butre as regent, and keeping the state under its close control. See Here the Fort Batenstein and Butre Home Page |
Badu Bonsu II, a Ghanaian Chief, beheaded by the Dutch Colonialists in revenge attack in the 1730s and had since been kept at Leiden Museum, Netherlands.
Asnate Kingdome involved? The Asantes throughout history never went to battle with the Dutch.
Indeed the Dutch were the allies of Asantes, supplying them with arms and ammunition during the Anglo-Asante Wars. The British were the only European Colonialists, they engaged in battles with the Asante Kingdom. |
When the Dutch transferred their possessions in the Gold Coast to the British on 6 April 1872, the treaty of 1656 was still in effect, having regulated political relations between the Dutch and the Ahanta State for more than 213 years.
The head was rediscovered in the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands by Dutch author Arthur Japin, who had read the account of the head during research for his 1997 novel De zwarte met het witte hart. Japin found the head in 2005, stored in formaldehyde at the LUMC. In March 2009, government officials announced that it would be returned to its homeland for proper burial, a promise fulfilled on July 23, 2009, after a ceremony held in The Hague
Bring us the head of King Badu Bonsu, said Ghana – and the Dutch said yes. After almost 200 years, a colonial wrong is set right as tribal chief's body part is finally returned to his homeland.
Saturday, 25. July 2009 - The pickled head of an African chief murdered by Dutch colonialists almost 200 years ago was on its way back to Ghana yesterday, at the end of a strange voyage through the darkest corners of colonial history.
Preserved in a jar of formaldehyde, the head was discovered gathering dust in a laboratory in the Leiden University Medical Centre by Arthur Japin, a best-selling Dutch author, when he was researching The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, his novel about 19th- century Africa. It had been there since its arrival in the late 1830s from what was then called the Dutch Gold Coast and is today Ghana. - Source: The Independent UK (New Window)
Preserved in a jar of formaldehyde, the head was discovered gathering dust in a laboratory in the Leiden University Medical Centre by Arthur Japin, a best-selling Dutch author, when he was researching The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, his novel about 19th- century Africa. It had been there since its arrival in the late 1830s from what was then called the Dutch Gold Coast and is today Ghana. - Source: The Independent UK (New Window)
*The Ahanta, based near the coast, were the first tribe to trade with the Portuguese. But as a descendant of King Badu Bonsu lamented July 24th, 2009: "Their friendly and generous nature was taken for weakness. They fought back when they realised the Europeans were up to no good. And despite facing down cannons with bows and arrows, they managed to stand their ground."
Fort Batenstein and Butre - Home Page
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