Of Britain's Imperial conflicts in Africa, perhaps few were more bizzare than the Ashanti Wars. From the start, the British Gold Coast administration underestimated its opponent. In 1824, Sir Charles Macarthy led an army into the interior. While his bandsmen answered the war drums with "God save the King", the Ashanti army quietly encircled the British force.

Fifty years later, Sir Garnet Wolseley mounted Britain's first full scale jungle offensive against the Ashanti King, Kofi Karikari. Ashanti could no longer be allowed to remain an independent power. King and leading chiefs were tricked into exile. But a British attempt to capture the vanished Golden Stool, symbol of the Ashanti State, led to a farcical but horrific three month siege.

The Ashanti Wars show British colonial policy at extremes of disinterest and acquisitiveness. The Ashanti opposition was remarkably fearlesss and awesome. The facts provide a historical satire, an astonishing mixture of horror, heroism and adventure.