In the confused period between 1894 and 1896, the Asante continued to control much of the then Northern Territories, in spite of their having been subdued by the British at home. In 1896 after Kumase fell and Prempeh I was exiled, the Ya Na, stated “I want to be English, not German. The English conquer Asante, now I want to be English…” In spite of the British view that the Dagomba and Nanumba, automatically were under them by virtue of the Ashanti conquest, the Germans occupied Yendi, the capital of the Dagombas in the east.
On August 14, 1896, the British established a garrison in Kintampo (the geographic centre of modern Ghana) to protect trade and to advance their territorial interest in the north. There was always the threat from the slave trader Samory Toure, whose main interest was to continue to trade in slaves.
Everywhere the British went in the north, they found evidence of Asante administration, law, order and pacification of the territory. The north as a source of labor for the south was its greatest economic value to the colony. Slave labor in the service of the Asante in the 19th century was replaced by indentured labor of the British in the 20th century.