Badu Bonsu II was a leader of the Ahanta who originally migrated south and separated from the Fante people upon reaching the Pra River and a

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian king who was executed in 1838 by the Dutch, who, at the time, were in control of the

Dutch Gold Coast The Dutch Gold Coast or Dutch Guinea, officially Dutch possessions on the Coast of Guinea (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Nederlandse Bezittingen ter Kuste van Guinea'') was a portion of contemporary Ghana that was gradually colonized by the Dutch (et ...

Rebellion against the Dutch

In 1837, Badu Bonsu II rebelled against the Dutch government, and killed several officers, including acting governor Hendrik Tonneboeijer. The Dutch government used the Treaty of Butre as the basis for military action against Badu Bonsu and an expeditionary force was sent to Ahanta. In the war that followed, the king was captured, sentenced for murder, and hanged. The Dutch disorganised the Ahanta state, appointing their commandant of Fort Batenstein at Butre as regent, keeping the country under close control with an enlarged military and civilian presence. Following the execution of king Badu Bonsu, his body was desecrated as a Dutch surgeon removed his head. The head was taken to the Netherlands, where it was soon lost for more than a century.

Rediscovery and return of the head

The head was rediscovered in the

Leiden University Medical Center Leiden University Medical Center (Dutch: ''Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum'') or LUMC is the university hospital affiliated with Leiden University, of which it forms the medical faculty. It is located in Leiden, Netherlands. LUMC is a modern u ...

(LUMC) in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

by Dutch author Arthur Japin, who had read the account of the head during research for his 1997 novel '' De zwarte met het witte hart''. Japin found the head in 2005, stored in formaldehyde at the LUMC. In March 2009, government officials announced that it would be returned to its homeland for proper burial, a promise fulfilled on July 23, 2009, after a ceremony held in The Hague.

Citations

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Badu Bonsu Ii 1838 deaths Executed Ghanaian people 19th-century executions by the Netherlands People executed by the Netherlands by hanging Executed monarchs Year of birth unknown Ghanaian royalty