When a British official demanded the sacred Golden Stool of the Ashanti, he ignited a rebellion led not by a seasoned general but by a woman in her sixties. This deep dive constructs the chronological biography of Yaa Asantewaa, Queen Mother of the Ashanti, who rallied thousands and brought the British war machine to a halt.

Born around 1840 in modern-day Ghana, she rose through the matrilineal Akan power structure to become Queen Mother of Ejisu. After the British exiled the king and her grandson, and then demanded the Golden Stool, she shamed hesitant chiefs into war, was named supreme commander, and led a six-month siege of the Kumasi fort before her capture and exile.

• The matrilineal Akan system and the real power of a Queen Mother
• Why the Golden Stool was the soul of the nation, not furniture
• Her council spee ...