Yaa Asantewaa

There is a moment in every woman's life when the room goes quiet and she realizes she is the one who has to speak.

Yaa Asantewaa had that moment in 1900. She was in her sixties. She had already lived a full and devoted life as Queen Mother of the Ashanti people in what is now Ghana. She was the keeper of the Golden Stool — not a throne, but something far more sacred. The soul of an entire nation, held in gold.

And then the British came and demanded to sit on it.

The chiefs met in secret. They debated. They hesitated. They went quiet.

So she stood up.

She told them that if they would not fight, then the women would have to fight instead. The shock of her declaration forced the men into action.

She was named war leader. The first and only woman ever given that role in Ashanti history. She led 5,000 fighters against the British Empire at an age when the world would have forgiven her for sitting down.

They eventually captured her. Exiled her. She died in the Seychelles in 1921, far from home.

But they never got the Golden Stool.

And in 1957 Ghana became the first African nation to win independence. A dream she refused to let die, even when it cost her everything.

This is what awakening looks like. Not a quiet stirring. A woman standing up in a room full of silence and deciding she will not add to it.

She refused. And nothing was ever the same.

She deserves more than one afternoon of your attention. Follow the Links below.