A post by Ghanaweb on Twitter has generated an all-new conversation about the true identity of the legendary Ashanti warrior queen, Yaa Asantewaa.
This was after a debate ensued following a picture shared by the media house asking Ghanaians to identify who she was.
Since most Ghanaians have been exposed to an iconic picture of Yaa Asantewaa, many did not know the image did not accurately represent her.
@abenamagis wrote: This is Yaa Asantewaa. I hate the fact that we Ghanaians pushed a false narrative for decades. My social studies textbooks have had a student representing Ohemaa Yaa Asantewaa for too long
@ellyszn wrote: A foreign student who came to Ghana for education research got dresses like this, not Yaa Asantewaa pls
@Mrbelgium1 wrote: That’s a white lady who posed as Yaa Asantewaa when she was researching about her. This is never the Original Yaa Asantewaa’s image.
Question of the day: Who is the woman in this photo? pic.twitter.com/2mkIfnzxgs
— GhanaWeb (@TheGhanaWeb) December 8, 2022
Looks like we’ve been lied to all these years by this history books. I still can’t believe this.
So, the true image of Ohemaa Yaa Asantewaa is on the left and the right is of an American theatre student posing as her. https://t.co/4AavqaAuQH pic.twitter.com/GiCDbFpcis
— MacJordan (@MacJordaN) March 15, 2021
What Is The Fact About Yaa Asantewaa?
Two photographs are shown in a tweet from the @Ashanti Kingdom that includes a link to a verified Twitter account, @MacJordaN, one of which is the more well-known Yaa Asantewa, and the other of which is a less well-known image of an elderly woman.
The new image, however, bears the phrase “Ohemaa Yaa Asantewaa… Mother of Ejuso who led the Ashanti warriors against the… in 1900” underneath it.
“An American Girl Theatre Arts Student poses as Yaa Asantewaa in a bulletproof war jacket and boots clutching a gun and this photograph has gone all over the world with some people assuming that the picture is real Yaa Asantewaa,” read the caption on the original tweet from @Ashanti Kingdom.
There are undoubtedly still many paradoxes in our collective histories, and if this is any indication, there is a long list.
After it was discovered that the book had numerous historical inaccuracies, there were already requests for the recall of a textbook that was being sold in the Ghanaian market, along with threats from some Ewe organizations to burn the books.