02/07/2025
Let’s stop pretending.
Wodemaya crossed a line, and no amount of historical sugarcoating will change that.
You don’t walk onto a global platform and reduce the legacy of the mighty Asante Kingdom to slavery, then pretend you’re “educating” people. You’re not. You’re fueling a narrative that outsiders have used for centuries to belittle African greatness.
•Let’s talk history? Fine. Let’s talk all of it.
Asantes were not the only tribe that participated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Fantes, Ahantas, Akyems, Akwamu, Denkyira, Bono, Ewes, Ga, Gonja, Dagomba etc were all part.
Asantes, like all powerful empires of their time, participated in slavery. No one is denying that. But to single out the Asante Kingdom, a nation built on gold, resistance, military genius, and cultural sophistication, as some kind of poster child for slave trading is not history. It’s selective attack.
Now let’s flip the script.
If you really want to talk slave trade, let’s look at Wodemaya’s own tribal history:
1. The Fantes (The Slave Middlemen)
The Fantes built entire economies around the slave trade. They served as the brokers between inland kingdoms and European merchants, controlling the coastal trade routes.
• Chief Kwamena Ansah of Anomabu ran one of the largest slave markets in West Africa.
• King Aggrey of Cape Coast openly sold slaves to the British and Dutch from Northern Ghana and even parts of present-day Burkina Faso.
•Chief John Corrente (or Corrente family). A powerful Fante trader from Anomabo in the 18th century. Worked closely with British and Dutch traders. He was known for controlling inland trade routes and serving as a broker in the slave trade.
• Chief Eno: Another Anomabo-based merchant leader known to have traded enslaved people to Europeans.
• The Eguafo and Komenda Chiefs:
Though sometimes rivaling the Fante, these nearby coastal states were often aligned or intermixed with Fante traders and similarly involved in the slave trade.
• The Bannerman Family (Cape Coast)
A well-known Fante-Euro-African family engaged in trade, including slaves during the earlier phases. Members later became colonial administrators and advocates for reform.
• The Brew Family
Based in Cape Coast and Elmina, they were Afro-European merchant elites of Fante descent who dealt in slaves and later transitioned into legitimate trade as abolition progressed.
•John Cabess
Though not strictly Fante (he was associated with Komenda and Axim), he was part of the broader Fante trade networks and wielded significant power along the coast in the late 17th century.
• The Fante Confederacy became wealthy by selling their own rivals and acting as agents of European slave forts like Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu Fort.
They didn’t just passively benefit, they were central players in shipping tens of thousands of Africans into brutal plantations across the Atlantic.
2. The Ahantas.
The Ahantas were deeply entangled in the slave trade. Their territory was home to Dutch and Portuguese forts used explicitly for the export of slaves.
Badu Bonsu II, the Ahanta chief, collaborated directly with the Dutch. He enslaved rival factions and supplied captives to European merchants in exchange for guns and gin. After a conflict with the Dutch (in part about sovereignty and trade control), he was captured and executed in 1838, and his head was infamously taken to the Netherlands (it was returned in 2009)
Like the Fantes the Ahanta acted as middlemen, traders, and facilitators, but also experienced significant colonial intervention because of this involvement.
The Ahanta allied with several European powers:
• The Dutch West India Company had a major base at Fort Batenstein in Butre.
• The Brandenburgers (Germans) operated out of Fort Gross Friedrichsburg in Princess Town, where they actively traded in slaves. These forts were often protected or supplied by local Ahanta chiefs and merchants in return for goods and military support.
Ahanta traders, chiefs, and war captains conducted raids on nearby groups like the Nzema, Wassa, or inland peoples, capturing enslaved individuals for trade.
Yet Wodemaya, a Fante and Ahanta man, never points to his own people when talking about the evils of slavery. Why? Because it’s easier, and trendier, to single out the Asantes, right?
We’re not asking for history to be rewritten. We are the most written about and the most studied people by both European and African scholars. Not even the Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas, and the Mande Kingdoms come close to us when it comes to written documents.
We’re asking for balance and integrity. You don’t pick the worst part of our story and parade it to foreigners while skipping over:
1. Our defeat of British imperial forces.
2. Our unmatched resistance during the Yaa Asantewaa War
3. Our centralized, pre-colonial bureaucracy and cultural strength
4. Our spiritual traditions that still thrive today
History is not just what happened, it’s also how it’s told. And Wodemaya told it like a man with an agenda.
Calling out Wodemaya’s disrespect has nothing to do with Asantes being “insecure” or “overly emotional.” It has everything to do with protecting the integrity of our legacy.
When it comes to other tribes, people highlight their strengths. But when it’s Asante, suddenly slavery is the main headline? We see the game. And we’re not playing along anymore.
FINAL WORD TO WODEMAYA
If you want to be seen as a Pan-African voice, then be responsible. Don’t drag down one of the strongest and most respected kingdoms on the continent just to impress your audience.
Yes, Wodemaya has done great work for Africa. He has projected Asante well on his platform. But greatness doesn’t mean you’re beyond accountability. You can’t speak irresponsibly about a major Ghanaian kingdom and expect a red carpet. And no, being criticized for this is not tribalism, it’s people demanding respect for their heritage.
The write-up’s attempt to paint Asantes as oversensitive or insecure is gaslighting. We’re not being insecure, we’re standing up for dignity.
Wodemaya, “Clean” your own tribal house before trying to air Asante’s laundry. Because truth be told, Ahanta and Fante roles in the slave trade were just as shameful, if not worse, than anything Asantes did.
When the issue broke out, I reached out to Wodemaya two days later and shared my honest thoughts with him. I told him that in recent times, Asantes have become highly protective of their identity and heritage, and understandably so, due to the frequent attacks, misrepresentations, and subtle insults they continue to receive from other tribes.
So if anyone tries to paint them in a negative light, regardless of their intentions or past contributions, they will not hesitate to push back. That’s the reality now. I said this to him directly, and to his credit, he acknowledged that he erred. I thought this issue is even dead and gone only to be resurrected again.
You don’t reopen historical wounds like this at a time when we’re all trying to build national unity and chart a new, united path as a people.
But let’s look at the logic behind Wodemaya’s statement for a moment. Are we seriously supposed to believe that the Northerners, who pride themselves on their strength, stature, and warrior heritage, were so powerless that Asantes, whom some have mockingly called “dwarfs” (like the height of Wode Maya 😂), could trek all the way from the forest belt to the North, overpower them, capture them as slaves, and then march them down to the coast without resistance?
That’s the picture being painted, and it’s not just insulting to Asantes. It’s a direct insult to the intelligence and legacy of Northerners (Dagombas, Gonja, Mamprusi, Kusase etc).
In trying so hard to tarnish the image of the Asante Kingdom, what’s actually happening is a subtle belittling of the might, dignity, and military strength of Northern peoples. It’s clear many haven’t even taken time to critically examine what Wodemaya said and how flawed that narrative truly is.
We’re done letting people distort our legacy.
We won’t be silent. And we won’t forget.
Respect the Golden Stool. Respect the Kingdom. Or keep our name out of your mouth.
And did you notice Wode Maya’s cheerleader in that video, the one who should have known better and corrected him? None other than Ben Dotsei Malor. But honestly, why am I not surprised?
It seems that whenever there’s a narrative that tarnishes the image of the Asante Kingdom, Ben Dotsei is either leading the charge or conveniently positioned at the centre of it all. It’s almost predictable at this point.
Maybe next time, we should take a closer look at the role his own tribe, the Anlo-Ewes, played in the slave trade, since he seemed so eager to help Wode Maya tell the story “properly.” That would be an interesting chapter to open, wouldn’t it?
The Asante Nation
