In year 1900 Queenmother Nana Yaa Asantewaa of Edweso (Ejisu) in Ashanti led an army of 20,000 Strong Ashanti warriors to resist attempts by the British Imperialist Army to capture the golden stool. This was at a time when the then Asantehene, Nana Agyemang Prempeh I, had been captured and exiled by the British Colonial Government to the Seychelles Islands.

As legend has it, the golden stool was not made by human hands. It was conjured up from the heavens by Okomfo Anokye, the powerful high priest and the guardian of the Ashante nation. The stool is reputed to be the embodiment of the spirit of the Ashantis. Seizing it would therefore signify the end of the Ashante Kingdom, a prospect Yaa Asantewa was not prepared to consider.

Although Nana Yaa Asantewaa was captured and deported to the Seychelles Islands where she died in 1921, she has personified the Asante intense resistance to foreign domination and oppression.