The women caucus of the African Studies Association in the US is set to honour the legendary Yaa Asantewaa this month during the body’s 43rd annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The women members of the association who are going to sponsor the award at a conference will reflect on the centenary year of the Yaa Asantewaa War. The Ejisu queen mother fought against the British in 1900. This landmark feat has earned for her a place in the annals of Ghanaian and British history.
Dr. Wilhelmina J. Donkor of the History Section, Department of General and African Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology will speak on ‘The Yaa Asantewaa War and the Modernization in Asante’ at the function.
The first premier of a TV documentary on the Ejisu queen mother which is written and produced by Ivor Agyeman-Duah and is expected to be shown later on many TV channels in Africa, Europe and America, will be one of the attractions at the conference.
It will precede a presentation of a paper, “Creating and Restoring Historical Memory: Making the Yaa Asantewaa Documentary”. Other speakers expected at the function are: Prof. Lydna R. Day, Brooklyn College- Cunny, New York and Prof. Jean Allman, University of Minnesota.
At the conference Prof J.H. Nketia former president of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and Horatio Appleton Lamb, visiting professor of Music at Harvard University will be given the Africanist award.
The African Studies Association is the biggest association on African Studies in the world with a membership of some four thousand people most of whom are university professors, journalists and writers. The association also organises the annual Abiola and Claude Ake Memorial Lectures.
