A Historical Fiction Based on True Events During the Ashanti-Fante-British Conflicts
© capecoastcastle.com / Remo Kurka 2025
Characters introduced: Kojo Bediako, Kwaku Aputai, King Osei Bonsu
The death of an aristocrat should have been the end of a lineage’s tale. Instead, it became the spark for a war that would change the face of the Gold Coast.
Kwaku Aputai, a petty Assin chief known for his sharp tongue and sharper greed, robbed the grave of a noble. Gold was stolen. The dishonor spread like disease. His defiance of royal judgment, followed by the murder of two sacred Asante envoys, was no longer a crime — it was rebellion.
King Osei Bonsu, newly crowned and determined to reassert royal authority, declared war. The Asantehene summoned the full weight of the Ashanti military — 40,000 warriors moved south.
Among them: Kojo Bediako, a scarred veteran of internal wars, now one of Osei Bonsu’s most trusted commanders. And Kofi, a young warrior barely blooded, who marched south with fire in his eyes and dreams of glory.
The first target: Aputai's stronghold. It did not last a day.
Characters developed: Kofi, Kojo, Otibu, Aputai
Aputai fled with Kwadwo Otibu, a blind old chief who still held power over the hearts of his people. The pair fled to the Fante Confederacy, whose refusal to surrender them was not just an insult — it was a challenge.
The war expanded.
Ashanti soldiers razed Assin villages, took captives, and moved toward the coast. Kofi saw his first taste of true slaughter. Kojo began to question the justice of a war born from a grave and a grudge.
As the Fante mobilized to protect the fugitives, the coast became a battlefield.
Characters involved: Kojo, Kofi, Aputai, Otibu, Colonel Torrane
Aputai, somehow, escaped again — this time to Fort William at Anomabu, a stone British fort under the command of Colonel George Torrane. With him came hundreds of Fante refugees.
Thousands followed.
Torrane hesitated — bound by alliances, unsure of the fugitives’ crimes, and under pressure from both local chiefs and the crown. He let in only two thousand, turning away countless others.
The Ashanti host, led by Kojo, surrounded the fort. Kofi stood at the front, staring at walls that could not bleed.
The slaughter began.
Outside the fort, nearly 8,000 Fante died. British cannon tore through Ashanti ranks — 3,000 warriors fell in just six hours. The Ashanti could not breach the gate.
Inside, Aputai cowered. Outside, Kojo Bediako buried friends.
It was the first time British and Ashanti soldiers fought — and no one who lived forgot it.
Characters expanded: Torrane, Osei Bonsu, Kojo
In the bloody silence that followed, Torrane sent envoys to Kumasi. Many feared the Ashantehene would kill them outright. Instead, Osei Bonsu received them with royal grace — and returned them unharmed.
But he demanded Torrane come himself.
The governor obeyed.
Dressed in red, Torrane marched to Kumasi. He was awed by the grandeur of the Ashanti court. But he was also cornered.
To seal peace, Torrane betrayed his Assin allies — handing over the blind chief Otibu, who was killed brutally by the king’s men. In a secret deal, Torrane also sold the 2,000 Fante refugees at Cape Castle into slavery, hoping to clear personal debts before Britain banned the trade.
Aputai escaped again.
Kojo watched this unfold with bitter honor. Kofi returned to Kumasi a hero — but something in him broke.
Characters focus: Kofi, Kojo, Osei Bonsu, Senyo (survivor of Anomabu)
Kofi was honored. Given land. Called “Kofi Anomabu.” But the fire inside him cooled to ash.
He found Senyo, a boy orphaned at Anomabu. Now grown, Senyo lived among the Nzima, scarred but silent. He became Kofi’s shadow — not a soldier, but a witness.
Kojo sat in court, listened to merchants praise the trade routes again. He wore gold on his chest and ghosts in his heart.
Osei Bonsu believed the British now respected Asante supremacy. In truth, they were merely regrouping.
Characters evolved: Kojo, Kofi, Aputai, Osei Bonsu
In 1811, Fante resistance returned — this time not with soldiers, but by blocking Ashanti merchants from trading on the coast.
Osei Bonsu’s answer was fire.
Kojo marched again. Kofi rode silently beside him. Senyo followed, not to fight, but to document what the blade could not.
In 1814, the Fante resisted again — and again, they were crushed. Villages burned. Forts shook. The British and Dutch did nothing.
Through it all, Aputai re-emerged, now commanding small Assin warbands and harassing Ashanti patrols. His face became a myth. His name — a curse.
Foreshadowing Future Events
Kojo knows the war is not over.
Kofi dreams of laying down his blade, but he cannot forget the screams outside Fort William.
Osei Bonsu believes the British are allies. But they write reports behind closed doors, whispering of Ashanti arrogance and brutal discipline.
Aputai is still alive.
Somewhere in the bush, the man who defied a king, betrayed the dead, and lit the spark of war still breathes.
And as long as he does, the coast will never know peace.
A Historical Fiction Series based on True Events | 1814–1817
The Fante Refuse Again
The ink on the last truce had barely dried.
Merchants returned to the coast under Asante protection. The British and Dutch, while uneasy, did not interfere. But the Fante had not forgotten.
In 1814, the Fante Confederacy once again barred Ashanti caravans from passing freely to the coastal forts.
The message was not shouted — but carved in silence.
King Osei Bonsu answered. Again. With fire.
Coastal forest near Abora, 1814
The trees were burning again.
We marched for days through the old paths, lined now with bones and charred palm trunks. I did not ask why. I knew why. I asked only, how many times must we do this?
The young ones chanted. Drums pounded. Cloths of war rustled like thunder.
But I rode at the front in silence.
This was no longer conquest. It was routine.
I had met with British officers in the last campaign. They said little, but their eyes said everything: They are monsters. They are unstoppable.
I used to believe we fought to unify the forest.
Now, I wonder if we are only sowing graves.
After the burning of Mankessim, 1814
I did not draw my sword in that battle.
Not even once.
I watched as homes were torched, elders struck down, children taken.
The men we fought no longer stood in lines with muskets and shields. They hid behind stone walls. Or under floors. Or ran until their breath gave out.
This was not war. This was pursuit.
At night, I sat by the fire. Senyo said nothing. He just stared into the smoke.
We did not speak of honor anymore. Or of justice. Or of the king.
Only of Aputai.
Aputai Survives
He had vanished after Anomabu.
Three times he had escaped death. And now, he emerged once more — not as a chief, but as a shadow.
Aputai’s war had changed.
He no longer marched with banners or allies. His army was the bush itself: scattered Assin remnants, vengeful Fante survivors, and criminals who had lost everything to Asante fire.
They struck caravans. Ambushed messengers. Burned supply caches. Poisoned wells.
They moved like whispers through the mangroves and forests of the south.
And they had one goal:
To make the Asante bleed forever.
Somewhere near Twifo Hemang, 1815
They say I am a coward.
That I betrayed the king.
That I ran.
Let them speak.
Let them chant in their court beneath golden umbrellas.
Let them paint Kojo Bediako’s name on the walls of Kumasi and kiss his sandals when he passes.
But I know the truth.
I watched the Ashanti come down like fire from the hills. I watched them tear villages to the bone. I watched them laugh as elders wept.
And now, I give them what they gave us.
Pain without end.
I sleep in mud. I eat rats. I wear no cloth but the forest.
But I fight.
And every Asante boy who dies in the dark knows my name.
“…His name appears again, Majesty. Aputai. The wind carries his scent from the coast to the forest line. We strike one camp, another rises. Our scouts fear to move at night. Even the drums of the border towns are silent now.”
“He does not fight for his people anymore. He fights for revenge. And those with nothing to lose are the hardest to kill.”
The War No One Declared
Ashanti soldiers began to die by the dozen.
Kojo was tasked with hunting ghosts — a war he had no stomach for.
Kofi, once a hero, now walked alone, blade never drawn.
Senyo, the boy survivor, returned to Nzima — weary, wordless, and waiting for the next fire.
Osei Bonsu, still powerful, still king, sat on his stool of gold and believed the British were allies — even as they prepared new envoys to speak of balance, not loyalty.
And in the forests, the last embers of rebellion still burned.
Unknown location, 1817
I am no longer a chief.
No longer a man of clan or honor.
The Ashanti call me a rat.
But rats survive.
They say the white men are coming again. That they will sit in Kumasi and speak sweet words to the king.
Let them come.
Let the king fill their hands with gold. Let the drums beat again in the capital.
But so long as I breathe,
so long as my feet touch this soil,
Ashanti blood will spill.
I am the smoke in their throat.
The thorns in their sandals.
The shadow beneath their sun.
I am Aputai.
And I do not forget.
“Ashes and Embassies: The Bowdich Years”
A historical fiction narrative based on the real 1817 British diplomatic mission to Kumasi, led by Thomas Edward Bowdich.
This arc builds directly on the previous characters and themes — power, disillusionment, cultural confrontation, and the cost of war — while incorporating a real historical turning point: the first official British embassy to the Asante Empire, a dazzling encounter between empires, led by a 23-year-old Englishman into the heart of one of West Africa’s most powerful kingdoms.
Kumasi, March 1817
The British arrive. - CONTINUED