Oral and historical tradition tells us that the Golden Stool, made up of pure gold, floated down from out of the sky, and landed on the lap of the first Asante king, Asantehene Osei-tutu.
King Asantehene Osei-tutu worked diligently to unify his people in the 17th centrury. His chief priest, and reliable counselor to the king, declared that the soul of the nation resided within this stool, the Golden Stool.
While the myth of the stool descending from the heavens is a wonderful story, in reality the stool was created by: Anokye, the chief priest of Osei-tutu.
The characteristics of the Golden Stool are as follows:
The stool is made of pure 24 karat gold. According to legend, the stool is 17.5 inches high, 23.4 inches in length, and 12 inches wide. Never, ever is the stool allowed to sit on the ground, so a blanket is beneath it. This relic is so sacred no one has ever sat down on it.
A new king is lowered, and raised over the Golden Stool, without touching it. In this part of land that would eventually become Ghana, no one person could be a legitimate ruler of the peoples without the Golden Stool.
War for the Golden Stool
The stool is upmost importance to the Asante people. War broke out over the stool in 1896. The British deported the king of Asante, Premeph I, instead of going to war. In March of the year 1900, European Govenor Hodgson finally demanded the stool; war broke out. Consequently, the sacred stool was never surrendered. Not many, if but very few people have seen the original Golden Stool. Only the king and his select few trusted advisors know the hiding place of the stool.
All chiefs have a symbolic replica of the stool. At the funeral of a chief, the stool is made run red with animal blood the blackened as the blood dries.
The Golden Stool of the Asante contains the soul or sunsum of the nation. It is considered so sacred, that no one is allowed to sit on it. It is kept hidden under the strictest security; taken out for use only on extraordinary occasions. Never coming into contact with the earth’s ground. The Asante people have always given limb and life to defend the Golden Stool, whenever it was at risk of theft or conquest through war.
In the year of 1896: The Asante peoples allowed their King, Prempeh I, to be deported, rather than risk losing a war, and also the Golden Stool in the process of that war. Then the year of our lord 1900 came into being. During this time the Governor of the Gold Coast – land that would eventually become the nation-state of Ghana – Sir Frederick Hodgson, demanded to sit on the stool. The Asante remained silent, knowing life would not be the same, and when the assembly of peoples ended, the Asante went home and prepared for war. Although they were eventually conquered by the British, the Asante claimed victory in the war, due to the fact that they fought only to preserve and keep the sanctity of the Golden Stool, and they did just that. In the year of 1920, a group of African road builders accidentally found the Golden Stool, and stripped it of its gold ornaments. They were tried according to traditional customs and laws of the Asante people and the death penalty was imposed those that defiled the historic relic. But, then the British intervened, and the sentence was commuted to perpetual banishment of those involved.