The Ashanti were a kingdom in Africa who had been fighting the British on and off for the better part of 100 years. They had also just gotten out of a deadly civil war themselves, so war weariness was understandably high, and men had very little interest going back to war with the British.

Partial self-governess was on the table for the Ashanti, and the British were actually interested in propping them up to keep the French and Germans out of the area. Which was a deal that Ashanti men seemed ready to take.

While their resistance to European colonialism is inspiring, the methods that they used to convince men to participate might raise some eyebrows.

Yaa Asantewaa came out as a leader of the Ashanti after their king was captured. And she commanded a strong allegiance from women which helped cement her position as their leader. To stir men into action, she at first called them weak, and threatened to lead Ashanti women into war without them. Then she came up with a better idea: a sex boycott.

Men who refused to go to war were denied sex from their wives. As a result, she quickly got an army together and lead a resistance against the British. She eventually lost the war, and the British assumed full control over the Ashanti for the next 57 years until they won their independence (along with a few other African powers) under the Republic of Ghana.

Today she actually has a pretty big legacy in Ghana where she is known as the Joan of Arc of Africa. And if you look her up, there's no shortage of women's groups proudly telling her story, including the part where she emasculated Ashanti men for being weak and not wanting to go to war with the British. And of course the part where she convinced women to withhold sex from any man who refused to join her army.

The British would later adopt a similar strategy to convince men to go to war with Germany during both WW1 and WW2. It was known as the white feather campaign, and it inspired the symbol we use for our subreddit.

I don't know if this is a coincidence, or if the British learned something from the Ashanti, but a quick look on Google shows that similar strategies were used in Europe during the crusades to convince men to go to war back then too. Greek women (especially in Sparta) were also known to emasculate their sons and husbands and even say things like, "Come back with your shield - or on it".

So this was probably fairly common throughout history, and entirely coincidental that the British fought a nation in Africa that employed a similar strategy.

For what it's worth, I don't blame women for this. But I think there is a discussion to be had in society about the use of sex to control, emasculate, and manipulate men on behalf of women. Hopefully it's not too controversial to point out that it's not just war where you find this behavior.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Ashanti_wars

https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/the-royal-women/nana-yaa-asantewaa-the-joan-of-arc-of-africa/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_feather

https://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/8c_p1.html