The Return of a King to Seychelles

On Friday, September 25, 2015, there was a solemn gathering at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi when the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, hosted a select audience of 250 people for the premiere of the television documentary, The Return of a King to Seychelles.

The 40-minutes documentary reflects events of 120 years when the Asantehene, Nana Agyeman Prempeh I, was exiled by the British colonialists with 54 of his elders, chiefs and others to the Indian Ocean Islands of Seychelles. The Asantes had resisted colonial rule for years and had engaged in wars with the British.

The 1896 arrest and exile first to Cape Coast in the Gold Coast and then to Freetown in Sierra Leone before Seychelles, eventually led to the Yaa Asantewaa War of 1900 or what in Europe is referred to as The War of the Golden Stool. Yaa Asantewaa was also exiled after the war to Seychelles where she died but Nana Prempeh I returned to Kumasi after 27 years, a period equivalent to Nelson Mandela's Robben