(Soundscape: distant drums echoing through thick jungle, faint ocean waves in background)
Narrator (calm, immersive tone):
Welcome to Drums in the Dawn.
In this episode, we return to the Gold Coast of West Africa—modern-day Ghana—in June 1806.
It was a time of rebellion, ambition, betrayal, and blood.
Through the voices of two men—an Ashanti commander and a British marine—we relive the Battle of Anomabu, where the mighty Ashanti Empire met the British for the first time in battle.
This is a true story, built from the bones of history.
(Sound: heavy drumbeats layered under birdsong. Marching footsteps blend in.)
Kojo (firm, proud):
I am Kojo Bediako, commander in the army of His Majesty, Osei Bonsu, King of Asanteman.
They say our drums shook the earth that morning. That’s how we let them know—the forest was alive, and we were coming.
We marched south—not for conquest, but justice.
Two Assin chiefs—Kwaku Aputai and Kwadwo Otibu—had defiled a royal grave, murdered our king’s envoys, and fled into Fante lands.
Rather than surrender them, the Fante gave them protection. Worse still, they ran to Fort Anomabu, seeking shelter behind British guns.
So our king ordered us to move.
I led our warriors through the thick brush. We surrounded Anomabu before first light. The drums stopped. The earth stood still.
Then we attacked.
(Sound: early morning breeze, followed by alarm bells ringing and shouting in the distance)
Williams (tight, urgent):
My name is Edward Williams, Private in His Majesty’s service, stationed at Anomabu.
We heard the drums before we saw them. A strange, rolling rhythm that seemed to come from every direction at once.
By the time we reached the battlements, the villagers were panicking.
Women and children screamed. Refugees from the countryside poured in, Fante warriors scrambled for weapons, and the town began to shake.
They came in black tunics and gold ornaments—thousands of them. Ashanti warriors.
The mighty army of Osei Bonsu.
Inside the fort—what they now call Fort William—we had cannons, powder, and a few dozen British troops.
Francis Lucas Swanzy stood beside me, musket ready, with Henry Meredith. The embrasures were too wide to aim well, but we fired anyway.
(Sound: chaotic battle—muskets, cannon, shouting)
Kojo (determined, fierce):
We pressed hard against the fort’s walls. No fear. No retreat.
We had no artillery, but we had numbers, discipline, and fury.
Thousands of us rushed forward, muskets firing, blades drawn.
The British cannons tore through us—grape shot cut down men by the dozens. Still, we came.
We smashed against the gates for six hours. Blood soaked the ground.
Our warriors died in honor, as Asante warriors must.
We could not break the stone.
But we broke the Fante.
(Sound: cannon blasts, groans of pain, then eerie quiet)
Williams (haunted, slow):
The Ashanti lost over 3,000 men that day.
But we... we stood on a wall and watched 8,000 Fante butchered outside the gate. Their bodies piled like sandbags, their screams still echo in my head.
Inside the fort, the smell of gunpowder and blood clung to everything.
Colonel George Torrane, our commander, tried to negotiate.
He didn’t know—or didn’t care—that these two chiefs, Aputai and Otibu, were fugitives from Ashanti justice.
He gave one of them—Otibu, old and blind—to the Ashanti. They killed him in front of their king.
The other, Aputai... somehow slipped away. Again.
Then came the worst.
Torrane betrayed the two-thousand Fante refugees who had sheltered beneath our flag.
He sold them into slavery.
(Sound: quiet drumming, mournful tone)
Kojo (reflective):
We did not take the fort, no. But we took their pride.
And we made our message clear:
Asanteman is not to be mocked.
Osei Bonsu is not to be disrespected.
Justice will come, even through walls.
(Sound: ocean waves, a single bell tolls)
Williams (soft, regretful):
After the battle, John Swanzy, the Lieutenant Governor of Accra—Francis's brother—rose from his sickbed.
He traveled to Cape Coast to confront Torrane.
He denounced the betrayal. He tried to free the enslaved Fante.
He died trying. Fever took him on October 22nd, 1807.
By then, it was too late. Most of the captives were already gone—shipped to the Americas.
(Sound: fading drums, solemn strings)
Narrator:
The Battle of Anomabu was not just a fight between empires.
It was a brutal confrontation shaped by betrayal, greed, and resistance.
It was the first time the Ashanti and the British met in open combat—
but it would not be the last.
The Ashanti would go on to challenge Britain again and again.
And Fort Anomabu—once the busiest slave-exporting port on the Gold Coast—would stand as a silent witness to a history too few dare to remember.
Thank you for listening to Drums in the Dawn.
Until next time—remember the names. Remember the drums.
(Fade out with ambient ocean and forest sounds)
Add drum motifs throughout as thematic elements.
Use dynamic panning in audio production to emphasize spatial tension (e.g., musket fire to the left, drums behind).
Vocal tones should contrast: Kojo – strong, reverent, bold. Williams – British, controlled, but increasingly shaken.
Optional background score: minimal percussion, African string instruments (kora), light ambient textures.