More than 120 years ago, the mighty Asante Kingdom, once the beating heart of West Africa's gold-rich interior, faced the crushing weight of British colonial power.

In 1896, British forces finally stormed Kumasi, the cultural and spiritual capital of the Asante people, and arrested the 26-year-old Asantehene, Nana Agyemang Prempeh I, along with the Queen Mother, Nana Yaa Achiaa, and more than 50 royal family members, chiefs, and attendants.

What began as a mission to negotiate the Asante's place within the expanding British Gold Coast protectorate ended in betrayal.

While an Asante delegation argued its case in London, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Joseph Chamberlain, authorised the military invasion to break the Asante's fierce independence once and for all.