Mensa Bonsu

{{Infobox royalty | name = Mensa Bonsu | title = Asantehene of Asanteman; Kumasehene of Kumasi | succession = King of the Kingdom of Asante | image = Mensa Bonsu.jpg | caption = Mensa Bonsu after his forced abdication in 1883 | reign = 1874 – 8 March 1883 | coronation = 1874 | predecessor = Kwabena Dwomo | successor = Kwaku Dua II | spouse = | issue = | house = Oyoko | father = | mother = | full name = Otumfuo Nana Mensa Bonsu | birth_date = {{circa|1840}}  | birth_place = Praso, Kingdom of Asante | death_date = {{circa|1896}} (aged 56) | death_place = Kumasi, Kingdom of Asante }}

'''Mensa Bonsu''' ({{circa|1840}} – {{circa|1896}}) was the tenth king of the Ashanti Empire, from 1874 until his forced abdication on 8 March 1883.<ref name=McCaskie/>

==Biography==

===Accession to the Asante throne=== Mensa Bonsu was the son of Afua Kobi.<ref name="Sheldon2005">{{cite book|author=Kathleen E. Sheldon|title=Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36BViNOAu3sC|year=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5331-7}}</ref> He became Asantehene (king of the Asante) after his elder brother Kofi Kakari was deposed in September 1874. Mensa Bonsu tried to restore the fortunes of Kumasi after its destruction in the 1873-4 Anglo-Asante war.<ref name=McFarland>Daniel Miles McFarland, ''Historical Dictionary of Ghana'', Scarecrow Press, 1995, p. 121.</ref> However, he did not make himself popular with contemporaries: "Chronically short of revenue, and personally avaricious (for women as well as gold), King Asantehene Mensa Bonsu carried punitive exactions to new and insupportable levels."<ref name=McCaskie>T. C. McCaskie, ''State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante'', Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 69-70.</ref> Attempts were made to depose the Asantehene in 1877 and 1880.<ref name=McFarland/> In 1881 Bonsu sent a golden axe to Queen Victoria as a gesture of good will.<ref name=vicju1881>{{cite web |url=http://www.queenvictoriasjournals.org/search/displayItem.do?FormatType=fulltextimgsrc&QueryType=articles&ResultsID=2738801218100&filterSequence=0&PageNumber=1&ItemNumber=5&ItemID=qvj17674&volumeType=PSBEA |title=RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 13 June 1881 (Princess Beatrice's copies) |date= 24 May 2013 |website= |publisher=Royal Archives, Bodleian Libraries |accessdate=22 May 2013}}</ref> He was destooled and banished from Kumasi in 1883<ref name=McFarland/> by his sister Yaa Akyaa.<ref name="Sheldon2005">{{cite book|author=Kathleen E. Sheldon|title=Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36BViNOAu3sC|year=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5331-7}}</ref> The following five years saw Asante civil war. Asantehene Mensa Bonsu died in British captivity in 1896 and was succeeded to the throne by heir apparent Kwaku Dua II of the Kingdom of Asante. In 1911, Mensa Bonsu's corpse was disinterred for ceremonial burial at the Asante capital city, Kumasi.<ref name=McCaskie/>

== Bibliography == * Basil Davidson: ''A History of West Africa. 1000 – 1800.'' New revised edition, 2nd impression. Longman, London 1977, ISBN 0-582-60340-4 (''The Growth of African Civilisation'').

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20121030062600/http://www.ghanatoghana.com/Ghanahomepage/kings-queens-asante Kingdom of Asante Kings And Queens Of Asante]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsu, Mensa}} Category:1840s births Category:1890s deaths Category:19th-century monarchs in Africa Category:Ashanti monarchs