The long years of exile had changed Prempe. He learned to read and write and encouraged Asante children to go to school.
He converted to Christianity and, according to the Asante historian and politician Albert Adu Boahen, “brutally and uncompromisingly imposed this religion on his comrades for political reasons and on their children”.
At St. Paul’s Anglican Church, the Asante were not the only exiles in the congregation, as they often sat with Buganda’s King Mwanga and King Kabalega Bunyoro, both from present-day Uganda.
Indeed, at various times the British also sent political prisoners from Egypt, Palestine, Zanzibar, the Maldives, Malaysia and Cyprus to the Seychelles, which was known as the “prison without bars” as their isolation made it an ideal location for the British. point of view, put troublesome opponents.
Years passed and Prempeh dreamed of a house.
In 1918 he wrote to King George V and asked to be allowed to return.
“Think how miserable I am because I have been taken prisoner… it has been 22 years now, and now how miserable it is to see my father, mother, brother and nearly three-quarters of the chiefs dead. The remaining quarter, some are blind, some are worn out with old age, and the rest suffer from various diseases,” Prempe wrote.
A few years later, the British, perhaps aware that Prempeh’s potential death in exile would cause political trouble in Asante, finally relented.
In November 1924, Prempe set off on a ship back to West Africa with about 50 Asante comrades, most of whom had been born in the Seychelles.
“We, who do not know him, are anxious to see his face,” wrote the prominent local paper, The Gold Coast Leader.
In Kumasi, many slept outside the station to greet him, and, according to a British official, “a scene presented by an immense concourse…with white headbands signifying joy or victory, some laughing and cheering, while others wept with emotion. , was the most touching and unforgettable sight.”
In theory, “Mr. Edward Prempeh” was now a private citizen, but his people treated him like a king and presented him with royal regalia, including the Golden Stool, which is said to contain the soul of the Asante nation.
