Prempeh II Jubilee Museum
Small, personal and full of royal objects, named after him.
Ghana-Net.com · People of Ghana · Kings of Asante · Kumasi · c.1892–1970
He was four years old when British soldiers marched his uncle, the Asantehene, out of Kumasi, and the Asante kingdom was abolished. Thirty-nine years later he stood in the same city as the restored king of a restored nation. In between, the Golden Stool had been hidden, fought for, found and defiled. Then, in the 1950s, he took on the most powerful man in the new Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and lost. Prempeh II reigned for 39 years, through colonial rule, independence and three coups, and every Asantehene since has ruled on the foundations he rebuilt.
He was born in Kumasi around 1892, into the royal Oyoko house, as Kwame Kyeretwie. His uncle was the Asantehene Prempeh I, and his grandmother was the powerful queen mother Yaa Akyaa.
In January 1896 a British expedition marched into Kumasi without a fight. Prempeh I, Yaa Akyaa and other members of the royal family were arrested, held at Elmina Castle, and later exiled to the Seychelles. The British built Kumasi Fort and treated the Asante kingdom as finished. In 1900 the governor demanded the Golden Stool itself, and Yaa Asantewaa led the last Asante war. Asante was annexed in 1901.
For almost thirty years there was no Asantehene. The young Kyeretwie was educated at the Wesleyan school in Kumasi and worked as a clerk and storekeeper, as the colony's new economy of cocoa, gold and trade grew around the old capital. The Golden Stool was hidden in the forest; in 1920–21 road workers found it and stripped some of its gold ornaments, and an Asante court sentenced them to death, a sentence the British commuted to exile. It showed how alive the kingdom still was beneath colonial rule.
Prempeh I comes home: after years of petitions, supported by chiefs including Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, the old king was allowed to return in 1924. In 1926 the British recognised him, but only as Kumasihene, chief of Kumasi, not as king of Asante. He died in May 1931.
On 22 June 1931 Kwame Kyeretwie was enstooled as Prempeh I's successor, taking the name Osei Agyeman Prempeh II. Like his uncle he was recognised by the colonial government only as Kumasihene. The paramount chiefs of the old Asante states, Mampong, Juaben, Kokofu, Bekwai and the others, answered to British officers, not to Kumasi.
Prempeh II set out to change that. He settled disputes between the Asante stools, restored old customs and oaths, and worked patiently with the chief commissioner of Ashanti, who by now saw a restored Asante as a useful partner for indirect rule.
On 31 January 1935 the governor, Sir Arnold Hodson, declared the restoration of the Asante Confederacy. Prempeh II became Asantehene, occupant of the Golden Stool, with the Confederacy Council of paramount chiefs around him. He is remembered as the first king to take the title Otumfuo, "the powerful one", which every Asantehene has used since.
Restored, but within limits: the kingdom came back as part of British rule, not against it. The Confederacy Council administered Asante under colonial supervision; the British remained in charge of the army, police and the courts above it. Asante Restoration Day is still celebrated in Kumasi on 31 January.
In 1954 Nkrumah's government froze the price paid to cocoa farmers, and Asante, the biggest cocoa region, exploded. In September 1954 the National Liberation Movement (NLM) was founded in Kumasi, demanding a federal Ghana with strong regions. Its organiser was the Asantehene's own senior linguist, Baffour Osei Akoto, and it had the open blessing of Prempeh II and the Asanteman Council.
For three years Kumasi was the centre of the opposition, with bombings and street fighting between NLM and CPP supporters. Britain made a further election in 1956 a condition of independence, and Nkrumah won it. See the road to 1957.
The price: after independence the CPP government cut the chiefs' powers, took control of stool land revenues, and in 1959 carved the Brong-Ahafo Region out of Asante, partly to answer old Brong grievances and partly to weaken Kumasi. Prempeh II was told to stay out of politics, and he did. See from 10 to 16 regions.
The coup of 1966 removed Nkrumah and brought to power men, among them Akwasi Afrifa of Mampong, who were far friendlier to Kumasi. In 1969 Kofi Busia, the NLM's old ally, became Prime Minister. The old king had outlasted his rival.
Prempeh II died in Kumasi on 27 May 1970, after a reign of 39 years. His nephew, the lawyer and former commissioner Jacob Matthew Poku, succeeded him as Opoku Ware II, taking the name of the eighteenth-century Asantehene who built the empire. The present Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, followed in 1999.
Kumasi is about four to five hours from Accra by road, or under an hour by air. His Kumasi is easy to follow in a day:
Small, personal and full of royal objects, named after him.
The palace built for Prempeh I's return and used by Prempeh II until 1974.
The British fort of the conquest. Our dedicated site: fortkumasi.ghana-net.com.
Yaa Asantewaa's town, 20 km east, where the last war began.
Time it right: an Akwasidae at Manhyia, every six weeks, is the best way to see the Asante court in full. Also near Kumasi: Bonwire, Ntonso, Ahwiaa and Lake Bosomtwe.
From Osei Tutu I and Okomfo Anokye to today.
How the kingdom was defeated before he could inherit it.
The NLM's politician, and Prime Minister in the king's last year.
Also: Asante traditional buildings, People of Ghana and the 1,000-year timeline.
Prempeh II achieved what his uncle could not: he put the Asante nation back together, with its king, its council and its customs, and made Kumasi a royal capital again. He did it by working with the British, not against them, and the restored kingdom was a partner in indirect rule rather than an independent power. When independence came he chose regional pride and federalism over Nkrumah's centralised state, and he lost that fight at a real cost to Asante's political power. But the institution he rebuilt outlived the CPP, the soldiers and the Republics. Today's Asantehene, one of the most respected figures in Ghana, sits on the stool Prempeh II restored.
Verified: 29 September 2026. His birth around 1892, the 1896 exile, his enstoolment as Kumasihene on 22 June 1931, the restoration of the Asante Confederacy on 31 January 1935, and his death on 27 May 1970 follow standard histories and the Manhyia archives as cited. His role in founding Prempeh College and the NLM's link to the Asantehene's linguist follow published accounts. The Golden Stool episode of 1920–21 follows colonial and Asante records. Corrections welcome and will be published in full.