View source for Mensa Bonsu

{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Mensa Bonsu
| title        = [[List of rulers of Asante|Asantehene of Asanteman]]; [[List of rulers of Asante#List of rulers|Kumasehene of Kumasi]]
| succession   = [[List of rulers of Asante|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  = [[List of rulers of Asante#List of rulers|Kwabena Dwomo]]
| successor    = [[Kwaku Dua II|Kwaku Dua II]]
| spouse       =
| issue        =
| house        = [[List of rulers of Asante#List of rulers|Oyoko]]
| father       =
| mother       =
| full name    = Otumfuo Nana Mensa Bonsu
| birth_date   = {{circa|1840}} <!--{{Birth date|1840|?|?|df=y}}-->
| birth_place  = [[Kingdom of Ashanti|Praso, Kingdom of Asante]]
| death_date   = {{circa|1896}} (aged 56)<!--{{death date and age |1896|0|0|1840|0|0|df=yes}}-->
| death_place  = [[Kumasi]], [[Kingdom of Asante]]
}}
'''Mensa Bonsu''' ({{circa|1840}} – {{circa|1896}}) was the tenth [[List of rulers of Asante|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 [[Ashanti people|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 [[Anglo-Ashanti wars#Third Anglo-Ashanti War|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|Asante civil war]]-->Asante civil war. Asantehene Mensa Bonsu died in British captivity in 1896 and was succeeded to the throne by heir apparent [[List of rulers of Asante#Asantehene of the Kingdom of Ashanti (Ashanti Empire)|Kwaku Dua II]] of the [[Kingdom of Ashanti|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'').
==See also==
*[[Ashanti people]]
*[[List of rulers of Asante|Rulers of the Kingdom of Asante]]
*[[Kingdom of Ashanti]]
==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]
{{RulersOfAsante}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsu, Mensa}}
[[Category:1840s births]]
[[Category:1890s deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century monarchs in Africa]]
[[Category:Ashanti monarchs]]