The African Kingdom of Gold: Britain and the Asante Treasure

‘Magnificent… The history is laid out with clarity and conviction… What makes the book all the more valuable is its contemporary resonance.’ —Tim Butcher, Spectator

‘This detailed and well researched book is more than just another chronicle of bad behaviour in Britain’s less than glorious colonial past. Yes, it captures in excruciating detail imperial avarice, but it also beautifully renders the courage and resistance of a people… This is a timely intervention in the ongoing debate over colonial thievery and appropriate restitution.’ —Clive Myrie

‘What begins in Phillips’s account as the terror of military conquest and the destruction of Asante sovereignty ultimately settles into a quieter, more durable story of the bureaucratic custody of Asante gold… Such retelling is possible only because of Phillips’s meticulous research… He adeptly follows individual objects while keeping the larger category of loot in view.’ —Times Literary Supplement

‘Phillips’s The African Kingdom of Gold is the engrossing and skillfully told story of what happened to the fabled riches of the Asante kingdom… With exemplary attention to detail, Phillips shows that the seizure of Asante treasure was not only, or even primarily, a matter of anarchic and individualised looting.’ —Literary Review

‘Vividly narrated, judiciously presented.’ —Oldie

‘A book that will take your breath away – a story that may make you angry, perhaps sad, but will ultimately leave your heart bursting with vicarious joy – an epic generational tale of a people’s grace, tenacity, and sheer indefatigability.’ — Gus Casely-Hayford, director of V&A East

‘This carefully researched and compelling read provides an unsettling insight into one important episode in the global criminal enterprise which accompanied Britain’s imperial expansion. Barnaby Phillips’ book will prove an invaluable tool as we confront the uncomfortable truth of the presence of hoards of stolen treasure in some of our great national institutions. The cry for restitution on the part of the dispossessed cannot be ignored indefinitely and this book illustrates with detailed scholarship the manifest justice of their cause.’ —Lord Boateng of Akyem and Wembley, CVO

‘The meticulous retracing of the histories of these objects from the colonial era down to the present is impressive… Phillips remains especially alive to the shifting meanings that specific objects take on during their passage through history.’ —Apollo

‘The African Kingdom of Gold brings together imperial history and material culture, offering a clear view of how the legacy of British imperialism continues to shape what is held, displayed, and contested today.’ —Voice Magazine