KUMASI FORT AND MILITARY MUSEUM, KUMASI, ASHANTI REGION, GHANA

 

Kumasi fort and military museum. Author’s picture taken in March 2023

The Kumasi military museum is located in the city of Kumasi, Ashanti region of Ghana. To easily access this building, take a commercial bus or Uber to Adum central business district and just ask the locals to help you locate the building.

The Kumasi fort and military museum was built by the king of Ashanti kingdom (traditionally called the Asantehene), Osei Tutu Kwamina in the year 1820 to mimic the castles built by the colonialists. It was built with materials such as brown soil and granite.

From medals to guns/weapons, amour tanks, maps, helmets, cutlery, jackets and others, a tour around this historical building will provide you with credible information about life in colonial Ghana precisely Ashanti kingdom and most importantly, world war 2. I was told about how soldiers from Ghana were trained by the colonial masters and were sent to fight during World War Two (1939-1945).

From the photographs I’ll attach here, you’ll get to understand about war times, how the colonials chose soldiers, trained them and how they made use of weapons given to them. Another thing that stood out to me was the discrimination of blacks during the colonial times and second world war era. Another interesting story I couldn’t forget in a hurry was the life and times of Queen mother of the Ashanti kingdom, Nana Yaa Asantewaa. Though her life was not detailed in the tour, I found out she was imprisoned in that building after refusing to yield to the British forces on account of the golden stool.

Observation point. Image Taken by author.

A view of the building showing the observation point of the building and the

 street behind it

Armored tanks placed in front of the museum.

The stairway to accessing the observation point.

The passageway to the courtyard within the facility.

One of the rooms used by the soldiers back then which has now been 

converted to a museum to store old relics.

This room was used to jail people who were “disobedient” to their masters,

 including queen mother of Ejisu town, Nana Yaa Asantewaa.

The room where queen mother, Nana Yaa Asantewaa and other prisoners 

were jailed. When locked in here for a long time, one could go blind due to

 many weeks of being in darkness. 

The door that leads to the prison where queen mother, Nana Yaa Asantewaa 

was jailed.

This tall object was used to measure the height of prospective soldiers by the 

British colonialists before being recruited into the military. The soldiers were 

said to be mainly people from Tamale as the Ashantis were shorter in height.

The metal objects shown in this picture are actually the old locks that were 

used over a hundred years back before they were changed to modern locks

 and keys.

One of the old maps used at the time of the war during the colonial era in 

Ghana (formerly called Gold Coast)

Old medals worn by soldiers during the colonial era and world war.