Telling the Tale of Osei Bonsu: An Essay on the Making of Asante Oral History

ABSTRACT This paper is about the Asante perception and understanding of Asante history as expressed in the apae or ‘praise songs’ of Asantehene (King of the Asante) Osei Tutu Kwame, known as Osei Bonsu (1804–23). As such, it offers an indigenous portrait of kingship and the expectations and behaviours attaching to it in Asante thought. The core of the paper is centred on the role of Osei Tutu Kwame as a leader in war, against the Fante of the southern Gold Coast in 1806–07 and against the Abron of Gyaman (today in the eastern Côte d'Ivoire) in 1818–19. Both campaigns are interpreted from the point of view of Asante thinking about their own historical goals and understandings, and of the fit and proper role of an Asantehene in such matters. Throughout, extensive oral historical materials are used in conjunction with the apae , and a rich range of European sources are deployed as a counterpoint. The paper's claim to originality is that it offers an Asante view, at once intellectual and ideological, of their own constructions of their past and of the nature of their history as they themselves chose to understand it.