Kofi Karikari

Kofi Karikari (* 1837, † 1884) was from 1867 to 1874 Asantehene (ruler ) of the Kingdom of Ashanti, which from the beginning of the 18th to mid-19th century until the central, later dominated the whole territory of present-day Ghana. The reign Kofi Karikaris was marked by wars with the British and Fanti to sovereignty over the coastal town of Elmina and the unhindered access to the commercial center. Kofi Karikari suffered a decisive defeat against the British and left at his deposition a desolate and significantly scaled-down kingdom.

The defeat against the British

When the Dutch their possession Elmina in 1870 handed over to the British, sent Karikari 1873 an invading army to the coast to Elmina. An epidemic weakened the Aschantiarmee and forced them to retreat. Then pursued British forces under Sir Garnet Wolseley them to the capital, Kumasi and burned it down.

The British forced the Asantehene in 1874 the Treaty of Fomena on, in the acceptance of the Ashantis the independence of its former vassal states in present-day southern Ghana and had to give up their claims to Elmina. They also had to accept the illegality of slavery and the slave trade and so renounce definitively to one of its former main sources of income. Also from the Ashanti dominated states of the North shook off the rule of the Ashanti and even in the center of the Aschantilandes rebelled core states Dwaben and Adansi.

In the same year, Kofi Karikari was on the grounds that he had stolen gold from the graves of deceased kings, deposed as Asantehene.

482109
de