KATE DAWSON AKA KATE SWANZY, THE POWERFUL FANTE WOMAN AND MILLIONAIRE WHO PAID 486EURO'S WORTH OF GOLD TO ASHANTEHENE TO STOP INVADING CAPE COAST

KATE DAWSON AKA KATE SWANZY,The powerful fante woman and millionaire who paid 486 euros worth to Ashantehene to stop invading cape coast

 In the colonial history of Ghana, woman voice are visibly absent,but careful research of wiseempiremedia has shown that,there was a powerful women who also contribute to the development of Gold coast and their own merit

One of these great women was KATE DAWSON who paid 486 Euro's Worth of Gold to Ashantehene to stop invading cape coast and paid for military expedition against the Ashante which led to SAGRENTI war in 1873

Kate Dawson also know as Kate swanzy was a merchant, philanthropist and Patriots who became prominent in cape coast and gold coast colony's,she was born somewheres 1800s and she was name Efua Ketse,Kate was the daughter of Sarah adadzewa,of Royal house of akatakyi (komenda) in komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem district in central region modern day Ghana, Her Father was Dawson who once traces  his ancestry to Anomabo and cape coast, it's was recorded that her mother was one of the powerful woman traders on the coast and she died and Kate succeed her.

Kate brought different skills into her commerce's,

Invested in real estate and become very prosperous.infact, Samuel k. otoo,the  folkloric fante writter and historian contends in Ofusu Appiah(1977) that as the mid 1970s, some of her real estate still standing in cape coast.

This buildings are fortgate house,gothic house and government house, and the house in part of cape coast call Dawson Hills,apart from her business ventures,she also gave financial support to the churches and and across the coast

Despite her relationship with the British,

Kate as a nationalist became one of the strongest and vociferous of the poll tax ordinance 1852. She personally wrote a letter to the British govnor,Henry Connor who was in the office in 1855 about her abhorrence in the pill tax, and why she was paying the tax under protest to avoid punishment that will affect her business interest and family that rely on her.

Later Kate Dawson met Henry swanzy, a well known English trading firm of F&A swanzy limited,at their Anomabo factory (which is now swanzy house)

The two got married and through joint trading acquired vast  landed property in and around cape coast,she financed the indigenous rules in cape coast, and of some state in Gold Coast which sought her assistance.

  She also gave some of her lands to families who need land for settlement. Otoo records in Ofusu Appiah (1977) that after one of the crisis that arose between the British and the Ashante, she agreed to the request of the commander, Stephen John Hill(Commander Hill) the British commander in 1851_1854,for land in kotokuraba,to settle demobilized soldiers, which includes mercenary hausa soldiers from Nigeria,that explains the overwhelming hausa and Islamic presence in the vicinity of cape coast kotokuraba today

Otoo further averred in Ofusu Appiah (1977)

That Kate Dawson is so Rich that on another occasion, she single handedly bought a threatened Ashante invasion with 486euros worth of gold that they demanded,her actions on that occasion won her the title "EBUM"meaning the breaker of Ashantehene mighty balance, since nobody is expected such a large amount of gold is owned by one person and the most interestingly is, Woman 

When,in the 1873, the Ashante again threatened to invade cape coast,she and some Seven prominent ladies urged the govnor of the day to help the citizens,and offered to pay for the expedition of  military against the Ashante,this led to the expedition against the Ashante in the SAGRENTI war of 1873

Disscribed by G A  Henty in "the march coomassie (1874)"

CREDIT: KWEKU DARKO ANKRA

Check some of her real estate and her pictures below: