Nana Yaa Asantewaa was born in the 1840s as Asona royalty from the Besease clan in central Ghana and was of the Edweso stool line. Her brother was Kwasi Afrane and their parents were from the village of Ampabame in Kumasi, the ancestral home of the Asante people. Growing up, Yaa Asantewaa was a dexterous woman who had keen interests in farming (especially in the town of Boankra) and local administration. Kwasi Afrane was enthroned as the ruler of Edweso while Yaa Asantewaa married Owusu Kwabena—one of the grandsons of Osei Yaw Akoto, the seventh King of Asante who reigned from 1824 till 1834. Yaa Asantewaa was later appointed the Queen Mother of Ejisu by his brother, Edwesohene (King of Edweso) Kwasi Afrane.

In the late 1880s, the Asante confederacy was still struggling to unite; meanwhile the British were expanding their authority from the coast (predominantly Fante territories) inland into Asante territory. The animosity between the British and Asante dragged on. In 1863, Asante soldiers invaded and razed more than two dozen coastal villages to the ground in an attempt to reinstate their authority over the south, sending a warning shot to the British. The Governor of the Gold Coast, Richard Pine, counterattacked against the Asante, though the effort failed. However, the Asante were equally unable to control the coastal territories, leaving the nations locked in a stalemate.

In 1873, the Asantehene Kofi Karikari led an Asante advancement into the southern territories once again, but the Asante were defeated this time by formidable British resistance. The two belligerents signed the Treaty of Fomena in 1874 to end hostilities, which permitted the British to declare the creation of the British‐​controlled Gold Coast Colony. [7] Later in 1888, Asante enstooled a new Asantehene, Kwaku Dua III, also known as Agyeman Prempeh I, who was a thorn in the flesh of the Gold Coast puppet government. Among Agyeman Prempeh’s many goals was to rejuvenate the influence of Kumasi. But some of his policies did not settle well with the British and they attempted to bring the king under the control of the Gold Coast protectorate.

In 1894 the British sent a Resident Minister (who would have the power of indirect rule over the Asante) to Kumasi, but Prempeh rejected the overture. In defiance, he sent an Asante embassy to London to meet with the Queen of England, which implied equal standing between Asante and British royalty. The Gold Coast governor, Sir William Brandfrod Griffith, did everything possible to keep the Asante mission from reaching London. He delayed the Asante officials for four months at the coast while threatening their lives. It was eventually allowed to leave the Gold Coast in April 1895 and they reached Liverpool in May. While in London, the Asante mission gained sympathy from sections of the British media and from several Members of Parliament. The Colonial Office initially paid them no attention but instead demanded that the Asantehene paid indemnities owed to the British from the 1874 Fomena Treaty that ended one of the Anglo‐​Asante wars in 1873–1874. Ultimately, British colonial hardliners were furious at Prempeh’s audacity in sending the embassy and began considering ways to bring the Asantehene to his knees.

While the Asante mission was involved in other endeavors in London, including looking for potential British investors in Asante, in 1896, the colonial government sent an official expedition to Kumasi to relay orders from Queen Victoria of England. Part of the expectations of the colonial government was for Agyeman Prempeh I to cover the cost of the British expedition, an insult given that he had not requested the expedition in the first place. As expected, the Asantehene refused to pay for the expedition and his refusal was seen as a grave dishonor to the Queen and a pretext to finally seize Kumasi and arrest Agyeman Prempeh I. The Asantehene was arrested in January 1896. Immediate relatives of Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh were also arrested including his mother (the Asantehemaa or Queen Mother), his father (the Apebiakyerehene), his brother (Adumhene), some chiefs, and kings of Offinsu, Ejisu (Kofi Tene)—who happens to be Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s grandson—and Mampong. It was almost a complete sweep of the Asante leadership. (Yaa Asantewaa’s brother Kwasi Afrane, or King of Edweso, had died in 1894 hence why he was not among those arrested.)

The Asante struggled to unite following the arrests, but Nana Yaa Asantewaa acted as regent of Ejisu Juaben. The British arranged for Prempeh and his court to be exiled to Sierra Leone and, later, to the Seychelles Island. In the aftermath of the British swoop of Asante leadership, the remaining chiefs were not united in challenging the British; some even supported them. But in 1898 a few Asante chiefs did unite and formally request that the Asantehene be released and returned to Kumasi. The request was turned down by the British citing the fact that not all Asante wanted their King back given that the petition for the release was only signed by a few and that some Asante chiefs supported the Asantehene’s destoolment.

While the Asantehene and other Kings remained on the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles, British Governor Sir Frederick Hodgson was still unable to bring the whole Asante nation under his control. Hodgson soon realized that the Asante confederates would only recognize the authority of someone sitting on the Golden Stool. In March 1900, Hodgson laid out a series of insulting demands on the Asante chiefs during a meeting at the Kumasi Fort, which Yaa Asantewaa attended on behalf of Edweso. Among his demands was that the sacred Golden Stool be brought to him as the Queen of England’s representative on the Gold Coast, arguing that the Queen, after the deposition of the Asantehene, was the rightful ruler of Asante.

The chiefs were dismayed and disgusted by the sheer audacity and disrespect of Hodgson’s claim, but they had no way to resist, especially as the Asante political structure was almost non‐​existent after the banishment of so many powerful Kings. They had also suffered huge losses to their army during their many confrontations with the British in the preceding decades and confronting superior British firepower once again seemed like certain suicide. Still, if Hodgson and the British were allowed to seize the Golden Stool, the future of the Asante nation would have been in the hands of their longstanding adversary.

In a secret meeting held to determine the course of action by the remaining local chiefs, at which Yaa Asantewaa was again present, the chiefs struggled to agree on a military solution. Instead, they suggested conceding to British rule. Yaa Asantewaa was left livid by the words of her fellow Asante. She was said to have responded in these words: