Kuntunkununku Tributes

Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II

The late Okyenhene was born on February 22, 1942, at Asiakwa and installed on August 2, 1976 as the 34th occupant of the Ofori Panin Stool at the age of 34. He succeeded his uncle, Nana Ofori Atta III.

He was educated at Prempeh College (1957-61) and Accra Academy (1961-62), before proceeding to the Sofia State University Medical School in Bulgaria to study medicine. On his return in 1969, Dr. Fredua Agyeman worked at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and later at the Ridge hospital until his enstoolment. Osagyefo Kuntunkununku served two-terms as President of the Eastern regional house of chiefs (1994-98), before his election as national president in December 1998 and becoming a member of the Council of State.

He singled out his election as President of the National House of Chiefs as one event that he will never forget and always cherish. According to him his "foot soldier serene" did all and was very sure that he would win.

However, he stated in an interview that, on the polling day, tension went very high when his agent cum polling assistant who knew the results did not show any sign of victory or failure, and that made him almost get a heart attack.

Later, it was explained that the results had been so close that it shocked his agent hence his impassive mien. Our dead king, Kuntunkununku, was the 34th to sit on the Akyem stool. His name was made for the talking drums. It was also the name of the very first Akyem king, King Kuntunkununku I (1400 AD).

Agyemang was trained in Sofia and Prague as a doctor and was one of a new breed of professionals who were eagerly accepted to become the occupants of important stools (thrones) when they were elected by their king-makers.

It was a miracle that he completed his course as a doctor, for while he was in Bulgaria, he and a group of African students were set upon by racist Bulgarian students who did not look favourably on the way Bulgarian girls were flocking around the Africans in a night club called Chuchuluga. Alex was repatriated to Ghana, sporting a bandage on his head. But he wasn't put off by Eastern Europe and went on to Prague to qualify. He practised for six years before being elected to succeed his maternal uncle, Nana Ofori Atta III, on August 2 1976.

A former medical officer at the Ridge Hospital in Accra, Kuntunkununku elevated a number of "adikros' to chief status with palanquins. During his reign, Kuntukununku undertook a tour of all towns in the Akyem Abuakwa traditional area which was described as very successful. But it was his desire and effort to have the Kibi bauxite deposits exploited to provide employment to the people that will be remembered. It is hoped that his successor will continue in his effort to attract investors for the project.

He continued to practise after his enstoolment (though he dropped the title of Doctor, as being unsuitable to his position), and was able to make a start on the modernisation of the government hospital at Kyebi.

Devoted to public work, the Okyenhene sat on Land and Forestry Commissions (one of his ancient titles was Kwaebibiremhene, or King of the Forest). An attempt by the son of Nana Sir Ofiri Atta to de-stool him in the 1980s only proved his popularity.

The Okyenhene was president of the Ghana Ethos-Medical Foundation, and a trustee of the Ghana Society for the Blind. He was also a member of the Consultative Assembly which in 1992 drew up a new constitution for Ghana. Such was his reputation that he was elected to two consecutive three-year terms as President of the East Regional House of Chiefs, and from 1998 as President of the National House of Chiefs, numbering more than 5,000 in all. He was also a member of the Council of State.

Yet he remained every inch an African king in his ability to carry off ceremonial grandeur. When he visited London he would don cloths of the costliest silk, and deck himself with gold ornaments - accoutrements which were set off by his superb dignity and grace.

Kuntukununku was destined to rule. According to an elder at Asiakwa, the Okyehene, Sir Ofori Atta I, saw a handsome young policeman at Asiakwa as he drove through the town.

He stopped and told him he would give him one of his sisters in marriage so they would give birth to a son who would one day occupy the Ofori Panin Palace. That youngman was Okonpa, Kuntukununku's father.

Kuntunkununku was delightfully literate. In 1991 he wrote a forward to the brochure of a major Akyem Festival, Odwira, in which he said: "One of the surest ways to undermine a people's self-esteem and enslave their minds is to alienate them from their own culture. European imperialism understood this too well. We must therefore hold on doggedly to our cultural heritage, to avoid becoming caricatures of other nations."

The death of Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II has robbed Ghana of one of her most distinguished sons who devoted his life to the service of his nation and people.

King Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II was married with six children. His successor will be nominated within 40 days of his burial. The most likely candidates are thought to be his nephews: Nana Atta Akeah, a lawyer in Accra; and Nana Kwame Boakye, an American insurance broker. May he rest in heavenly peace!!

TRIBUTE BY THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

OSAGYEFOO HAS LEFT US

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OSAGYEFOO KUNTUNKUNUNKU II, DEAD

It has been reported that Dr. Alexander Kwadwo Fredua Agyeman, also known as Osagyefoo Kuntunkununku II, has died. The Okyenhene, who was also President of the National House of Chiefs, died at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra at dawn on Wednesday, March 17, having been suddenly taken ill the previous evening.

The late Okyenhene was born on February 22, 1942, at Asiakwa and installed on August 2, 1976 as the 34th occupant of the Ofori Panin Stool at the age of 34. He succeeded his uncle, Nana Ofori Atta III. He was educated at Prempeh College (1957-61, Pearson House) and Accra Academy (1961-62), before proceeding to the Sofia State University Medical School in Bulgaria to study medicine. On his return in 1969, Dr. Fredua Agyeman worked at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and later at the Ridge hospital until his enstoolment.

Damirifa due, Dr. Agyemang! Amanfoo, ye ma wo damirifa.

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Ghana Review International

Kyebi (Eastern Region) 23 March ’99

The sudden death of the Okyenhene and paramount chief of the Akim Abuakwa traditional area, Osagyefo Kuntunkununku the second in Accra last Wednesday was formally announced to an emergency meeting of the Okyeman Council at the Ofori Panin Fie (palace) Kyebi on Sunday.

Osabarima Kena Ampaw the second, Adontenhene of the traditional area who has assumed the position of acting president of the council, made the announcement. The Okyenhene, who was also President of the National House of Chiefs, died at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra at dawn on Wednesday, March 17, having been suddenly taken ill the previous evening, he said.

The announcement to the hushed meeting was immediately followed by the sounding of the 'fontonfrom' drums and the wailing of women who thronged the palace to listen to the confirmation of the death reported in the media on March 18. Osabarima Ampaw paid glowing tribute to the Osagyefuo, who was a member of the council of state, for his "dedicated leadership role" in the traditional area, the Eastern region and the nation.

The meeting was also attended by a government delegation, led by the Eastern Regional Minister, Miss Patience Adow, the deputy regional minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, district chief executive for East Akim, Mr Mike Odame Darkwa, and the New Juaben Municipal chief executive, Mr E. Adu Boateng. In line with custom, Osabarima Ampaw presented six rams and six bottles of schnapps to the council, after which libation was poured and two of the rams slaughtered at the forecourt of the palace. The regional minister, on behalf of the government, also presented 12 bottles of schnapps, 2 cartons of beer and two crates of minerals to the council. Miss Adow expressed regret about the "great vacuum" created by the death of the Okyenhene in the chieftaincy institution, especially at the regional level, saying by his death, the Eastern regional house of chiefs could not form a quorum for sometime to come.

This, she explained, was due to the vacancies earlier created by the deaths of the paramount chiefs of Akim Bosome, Nana Oware Agyekum, Akim Kotoku, Nana Agyeman Attafua and Boso-Guan, Nana Nyarko Yeboah, over the past two years. She said the stools of Akwamu and Manya Krobo are also yet to be occupied because of litigation which followed the deaths of Nana Kwafo Akoto and Nene Azu Mate Korle. The only remaining members of the 11-member regional house include those of New Juaben, Akuapem, Yilo Krobo, Kwahu and Anum traditional areas. Miss Adow appealed for a peaceful atmosphere to prevail in the areas without paramount chiefs until successors are enstooled Apart from the death of the Okyenhene, Akim Abuakwa has been without a substantive queenmother since 1997, following the death of Nana Sekyeraa the second.

But Osabarima Ampaw told newsmen that despite the situation, "everything will go on smoothly, including the finding of a successor to the Okyenhene, since it's the family which selects the candidate to be announced to the kingmakers by the queenmother". The council would soon meet to plan the burial arrangements. The late Okyenhene, known in private life as Dr Alexander Kwadwo Fredua Agyeman, was born on February 22, 1942, at Asiakwa and installed on August 2, 1976 as the 34th occupant of the Ofori Panin Stool at the age of 34. He succeeded his uncle, Nana Ofori Atta the third. He was educated at the Asiakwa, Asamankese and Old Tafo Presbyterian schools, Prempeh college (1957-61) and Accra Academy (1961-62), before proceeding to the Sofia State University in Bulgaria to study medicine. On his return in 1969, Dr Fredua Agyeman worked at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and later at the Ridge hospital until his enstoolment.

Osagyefo Kuntunkununku served two-terms as President of the Eastern regional house of chiefs (1994-98), before his election as national president in December 1998 and becoming a member of the Council of State.
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The Chronicle

Okyehene's death: Woes for Eastern Region
By A. C. Ohene, Kibi

THE DEATH of Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II apart from throwing Akyem Abuakwa into grief, has also virtually rendered the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, of which he was a member, inoperative.

Furthermore, the problem of whether his post of president of the National House of Chiefs would be filled through a fresh election or Nana Boa Amposem, whom he beat narrowly, would be handed the post, remains to be solved.

At the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs, Osagyefo's death has reduced membership from six to five in a house where there are eleven seats. Before his death, the two other Paramount chiefs in Akyem, Okotwasuo Oware of Bosome and Okoforoboor Agyemang Attafah of Akyem Kotoku, had died and been succeeded. Likewise Odeneho Kwafo Akoto of Akwamu, Nene Azu Mate Kole of Manya Krobo and lately, the Omanhene of Boso Traditional Area, Nana Nyarko II, had passed away.

Litigations are raging at Akwamu and Manya over the rightful successors, as such their places at the Regional House have been taken by regents who have no votes. The remaining three paramountcies are yet to name their new chiefs and their seats remain vacant at the house.

With the death of the Okyehene, the Eastern Regional Minister, Ms. Patience Adow, has wondered whether the five out of eleven members remaining can form a quorum to deliberate on the numerous socio-cultural and chieftaincy issues pending before them.

Principal among the burning issues are the requests for more paramountcies at Kwahu, Akuapem and other parts of the region, which are threatening to tear some traditional councils apart.

Ms. Patience Adow, virtually weeping at the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi, could only ask all Christians to pray for the Eastern Region "in these very difficult times."

According to some traditional authorities, the ideal custom would have been for the deceased chief to be succeeded and then the successor prepares for the final funeral rites of the dead chief. The queenmother normally nominates a new chief, but Akyem Abuakwa is currently without a queenmother. The last queenmother, Nana Sekyera II, died about two years ago and still her successor has not been installed.

Observers say the obvious delay that will occur in getting a successor to the Ofori Panin Stool will give room for schemings from many candidates including those with partisan backing.

The Online Independent

Kuntunkuni Engulfs Kuntunkununku

Just as we were looking for handkerchiefs to wipe our tears away over the painful exit of Otumfuo the Asantehene into eternity, the news from Kyebi is that the newly elected President of the National House of Chiefs, Osagyefo Kuntunkunuku, has also crossed the river. This really is double agony for the chieftaincy fraternity in Ghana.

I had really never met the man personally until Friday, February 19, 1999 when in my capacity as chairman of the Board of Directors of Image Africa Limited, organisers of the Miss Africa Beauty Pageant, we went to his Accra Palace to formally confirm our invitation to him as guest of honour of our then upcoming launching.

We got to the Palace circa 7:30pm and we were told Osagyefo was upstairs, doing some physical exercise. He interrupted his exercises to meet us.

Reader, it was an extraordinary experience. He was wearing a track suit, seated in the Royal Living Room in the Palace, upstairs.

He beamed with smiles and received us in a very genial manner, chatting so freely with us on subjects from Alpha to Omega.

I asked him the meaning of his name “Kuntunkunuku” and he said it has no meaning; it is just one of the names of one of his predecessors.

I asked him what has been the most exciting period in his reign as Okyenhene.

He said they have been so many, that he cannot really tell - so many of them.

He singled out his election as President of the National House of Chiefs as one event that he will never forget and always cherish.

According to him his “foot soldier serene” did all and was very sure that he would win.

However, he continued, on the polling day, tension went very high when his agent cum polling assistant who knew the results did not show any sign of victory or failure, and that made him almost get a heart attack.

Later, it was explained that the results had been so close that it shocked his agent hence his impassive mien.

As we talked on and on about the criteria for “Miss Africa” and the relevance of chieftaincy to our circumstances today, I looked around the living room - reader, it is a symbol of luxury par excellence.

Just imagine the luxurious furnishing of Labadi Beach Hotel lounge and triple that in all aspects, and you will get the picture of the luxury in the Palace.

Just a few weeks later news came on the airwares that he was gone into eternity. Oh!! I gasped in disbelief, “kuntunkuni” has now handcuffed the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Kuntunkunuku.

Burial arrangements will be announced later!!

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The Online Independent

CP Consoles Okyeman

By Kojo Botsio, National Chairman, CP

The late Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II was a comrade in the true sense of the word, having publicly identified himself with the vision of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, First President of Ghana from the early 1960s up to 1966.

In 1992, when the ban on party political activities was lifted, Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II spent his time and resources on the effort to unite Nkrumaist political parties to enhance their viability.

It is important to note that the Osagyefo passed away at a time when he was the sitting President of the National House of Chiefs, an indication that he had the full confidence of his colleague Nananom.

The death of Osagyefo Kuntunkununku II has robbed Ghana of one of her most distinguished sons who devoted his life to the service of his nation and people.

We join the Okyeman Council, the royal family and all sympathisers in mourning a great son of Ghana.

May Osagyefo Kuntunkununku’s soul rest in everlasting peace.

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The Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg

Ghana loses another king

By Cameron Duodu (Column), March 26, 1999

To the Akan ethnic group of Ghana (of which Asante and Akyem are the largest constituents) the fact that both the king of Asante and the king of Akyem Abuakwa have departed, within three weeks of each other, will be an astoundingly bad omen. For not only did the two kings share close historical affinities, but, as president of the Ghana National House of Chiefs, Kuntunkununku was to have led all the other traditional rulers of Ghana, to pay homage to the Asantehene.

In the past, such an unusual conjunction of events would have brought a harvest of enormous yield to the sangomas of West Africa. From the top babalawo in Yorubaland to the all-seeing nyame of Kankan in Guinea; from the marabouts of Senegambia to the mallams of Timbuktu and Ouagadougou, messengers would be hot-footing it to each of them to hear (for a price) why it is that the Akans have been so uncommonly smitten by the calamitous hand of fate.

It would have been remarkable for the "soothseekers" of the two courts to encounter one another in the cavernous hideouts of the powers that be. You see, the two kingdoms are best described as Siamese twins with two heads but one stomach who fight over their food at meal times, forgetting that whatever passes through either head will end up in the same stomach.

I wrote last week about how the "illiterate" Akan people use imagery, assonance, alliteration and rhyme to enrich their language. I should have added that they also use craft: there is a gold weight forged specifically to give expression to the abstract idea of two heads and one stomach that strive for the same food.

The gold weight shows two crocodiles with two heads, joined at the stomach. The proverb that explains its meaning - I wish you could hear it intoned - goes:

Funtumfurafu Denkyemafurafu

Yafuru Ye baako

Nso yedidi a na yeeko.

(Stomachs mixed together/Crocodiles joined together/They've got but one stomach yet scuffle over who gets the snack.)

The story is that Akyem was formerly part of Asante, and inhabited the area in Asante known as Adanse. But a quarrel arose and Akyem moved southwards to wedge itself between Asante and the sea. The sea was important because it was the provider of salt. It became more important when white men brought guns.

So when the great founder of the Asante kingdom, Osei Tutu, began to expand his empire, he set out to incorporate Akyem into it. But on his way down south, Akyem snipers, hiding on the banks of the Prah River, shot Osei Tutu and he fell into the water. The fast-moving Prah carried his body away and it was never found.

This calamity was so traumatic for the Asante army that when it returned home, no one dared speak about what had happened. Anyone who was asked, "Psst! What happened to the king?" sulkily replied, "Hey, man, I went to the war, right? I didn't hear all that happened in it, okay?"

It was from this event that the Great Oath of Asante was born. If anyone wants to put you (and himself) into big trouble in Asante, he says, "Me ka Memenda, ka Koromante (I swear by that Saturday when people went but didn't hear anything)." Both you and he would have to appear before the king of Asante personally. And each had better have a good case to justify the oath!

Naturally, the Akyem and the Asante were forever at each other's throats after this. Indeed, had the Akyem not enlisted the assistance of the British against the Asante, and taught the British about Asante warfare, the British would never have subdued Asante.

Fortunately, the two kingdoms have made their peace. It was partly the support given by the very influential Akyem king, Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, to the Asante campaign for the return home of the Asantehene, Nana Prempeh I (whom the British had exiled to the Seychelles) that swayed the British to bring Prempeh back.

Nana Sir Ofori Atta, our most famous Akyem king, sat continuously in the Gold Coast Legislative Council from 1916 until his death in 1943. In 1942 he was appointed as one of only two Africans to become members of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) Executive Council or the British governor's Cabinet. During World War II, he decreed that his people should collect palm kernels to make margarine for the British troops. He also contributed more than œ30 000 - an enormous amount in those days - towards the purchase of a warplane for the Brits.

For all that, the Brits never provided his capital, Kyebi, with electricity or water. The only secondary school in the kingdom was financed by ourselves. I suppose it served him right: if you have enough money to give to the Brits, why should they provide you with amenities?

Our dead king, Kuntunkununku, was the 33rd to sit on the Akyem stool. His name was made for the talking drums - can you hear? It was also the name of the very first Akyem king, known in private life as Dr Alex Fredua Agyemang. He was only 57 when he died. His father came from my town, Asiakwa, and I knew him well, since his cousin was my first girlfriend.

Agyemang was trained in Sofia and Prague as a doctor and was one of a new breed of professionals who were eagerly accepted to become the occupants of important stools (thrones) when they were elected by their king-makers.

It was a miracle that he completed his course as a doctor, for while he was in Bulgaria, he and a group of African students were set upon by racist Bulgarian students who did not look favourably on the way Bulgarian girls were flocking around the Africans in a night club called Chuchuluga. Alex was repatriated to Ghana, sporting a bandage on his head. But he wasn't put off by Eastern Europe and went on to Prague to qualify. He practised for six years before being elected to succeed his maternal uncle, Nana Ofori Atta III, on August 2 1976.

Kuntunkununku was delightfully literate. In 1991 he wrote a forward to the brochure of a major Akyem Festival, Odwira, in which he said: "One of the surest ways to undermine a people's self-esteem and enslave their minds is to alienate them from their own culture. European imperialism understood this too well. We must therefore hold on doggedly to our cultural heritage, to avoid becoming caricatures of other nations."

In both Kumase and Kyebi this month, as both the Asantehene and the Okyenhene are mourned by their people, there will be such an exhibition of traditional Africa at its best as will testify that if there are Ghanaians who have become "caricatures of other nations", they are definitely in the minority.

Copyright © 1999 Mail and Guardian. Distributed via Africa News Online(www.africanews.org).

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THE LONDON ELECTRONIC TELEGRAPH

ISSUE 1513 Saturday 17 July 1999

King Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II, Ruler of Okyeman and leader of Ghana's chiefs whose predecessors were staunch allies of the British on the Gold Coast

HIS MAJESTY KING OSAGYEFUO KUNTUNKUNUNKU II, who has died aged 57, had since 1976 occupied the Ofori Panin Stool of the Akyem Abuakwa in Ghana.

The King of the Akyem Abuakwa: representative of both tradition and progress The Akyem Abuakwa are dominant in the western part of the Eastern Province of Ghana. Their kingdom, called Okyeman, consists of lush forests, rich in gold, diamonds and bauxite. The capital is at Kyebi, some 60 miles north of Accra.

The name Okyeman derives from a chieftain who flourished around 1350, and whose ferocity earned him the sobriquet of Okyem, or The Tiger. (Others called him "The One Who Could Not Be Done Away With".) The Tiger's successor, Nana Kuntunkununku, was the first to style himself King; he was known as "Obukafo" - a term which implies a man who outwits his enemies. Eventually Okyemfuo - Okyem's people - was corrupted to Akyemfuo, and "Obukafo" to "Abuakwafuo".

In the 14th century the Akyem Abuakwa inhabited Adansi, to the east of Okyeman. Three hundred years later, however, they migrated westwards; and their Stool, or throne, was named after Ofori Panin, who ruled in the new kingdom early in the 18th century. It was he who was first called Osagyefuo - a man who is valiant in delivering others from their enemies.

In their new home, the Akyem Abuakwa not only kept the Ashanti (to the north-east) at bay; in 1733 they greatly increased their domains by decisively defeating their rivals, the Akwamu, who retreated across the river Volta into what is now Togo.

From the 19th century, the Akyem Abuakwa have proved staunch allies of the British; indeed in 1826 their Amazonian Queen Dokua led her troops into battle at the side of the British forces which defeated the Ashantis at the Battle of Akatamanso. The ensuing peace treaty formed the basis of British dominance in the Gold Coast.

In the later 19th century many other tribes arrived in Okyeman, and were well received by the Akyem Abuakwa. The fertile soil could sustain a large population; and by the beginning of the 20th century cocoa production was the region's leading economic activity.

During the First World War the King of the Akyems, Nana Ofori Atta, was quick to provide reinforcements for the Gold Coast Regiment on active service in East Africa. The King gave £1,500 for the purchase of a reconnaissance aeroplane, which was duly christened Akyem Abuakwa in his honour. Afterwards he helped the Governor, Sir Gordon Guggisberg, in the Africanisation of the Gold Coast Civil Service, and was himself rewarded with a knighthood in 1928.

Yet the King, or Okyenhene, is a representative of tradition as much as of progress. The official symbol of Okyeman has remained a tiger, which bears a stool upon which rests a crown. Beside the stool an Asona snake identifies the ruling dynasty as members of the Asona family, while an Odade tree symbolises the forests over which they hold sway. Between the snake and the stool, there is a pan for gold prospecting.

The nomination to the successor of the Ofori Panin Stool is the responsibility of an official called the Okyenhemaa, and is guided by matrilineal principles, on the assumption that it is easier to be certain about a child's mother than its father.

Alex Okoampa Fredua Agyeman, who succeeded to the Stool as King Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II in 1976, was a nephew of the previous occupant of the Stool. He was born on February 22 1942, and began his education at various Presbyterian schools in Okyeman. Later he entered Prempeh College where, traditionally, the Ashanti kings are educated, and then went on to Accra Academy.

A bright student, he attracted the attention of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, whose regime sponsored him to read medicine in Bulgaria. The young man also studied in Czechoslovakia, and qualified as a doctor in 1970. He spent a couple of years in New York, before returning to work in hospitals in Accra.

He continued to practise after his enstoolment (though he dropped the title of Doctor, as being unsuitable to his position), and was able to make a start on the modernisation of the government hospital at Kyebi.

Devoted to public work, the Okyenhene sat on Land and Forestry Commissions (one of his ancient titles was Kwaebibiremhene, or King of the Forest). An attempt by the son of Nana Sir Ofiri Atta to de-stool him in the 1980s only proved his popularity.

The Okyenhene was president of the Ghana Ethos-Medical Foundation, and a trustee of the Ghana Society for the Blind. He was also a member of the Consultative Assembly which in 1992 drew up a new constitution for Ghana.

Such was his reputation that he was elected to two consecutive three-year terms as President of the East Regional House of Chiefs, and from 1998 as President of the National House of Chiefs, numbering more than 5,000 in all. He was also a member of the Council of State.

Yet he remained every inch an African king in his ability to carry off ceremonial grandeur. When he visited London he would don cloths of the costliest silk, and deck himself with gold ornaments - accoutrements which were set off by his superb dignity and grace.

By tradition the obsequies of the Kings of Okyeman are extremely lengthy. King Osagyefuo died on March 17; the state funeral will not begin until August 9. Then for six days his body (sprayed anew each morning with gold dust) will lie in state in the Great Hall at Kyebi, while chiefs pay their last homage.

The custom of the Akyem Abuakwa is to consider that during the lying-in-state their late monarch is still present in the flesh, only suffering from a serious ailment for which his subjects need to go and console and sympathise with him.

Once he has been laid-in-state, his body will be guarded by seven of his guns of war, which are ritually fired in turn each morning before the hall is opened to the public for viewing. The seven guns are said to stand for the seven days during which God created the world. The firing of the first gun is heralded by a blast on the Owuo horn, the trumpet of death.

Each day's mourning begins with the king's chief ministers filing past his body, chanting war songs to the accompaniment of their pranpran drums as they bid the Okyehene a good day; video cameras are now banned from the ceremony to prevent any unfortunate commercialisation of such a solemn event.

The entrance to the Great Hall will be decked with trees, to give the impression of the forest. As the mourners pass the bed on which the corpse is displayed, they will place cuttings from their nails and strands from their hair in a brass pan.

When Nana Sir Ofori Atta died in 1944, a sub-chief believed to be one of his sons mysteriously disappeared in the course of the funeral ceremony. Eight relatives of the dead chief, including some of his other sons, were subsequently charged with the man's murder, which had supposedly been carried out so that the dead king would have a squire to accompany him into the unknown.

The suspects were tried and sentenced to death, though the appeals dragged on for more than two years. Winston Churchill advocated mercy, and the House of Commons proposed to debate the affair. But before this news reached the Gold Coast, three of the men had been hanged.

King Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II was married with six children. His successor will be nominated within 40 days of his burial. The most likely candidates are thought to be his nephews: Nana Atta Akeah, a lawyer in Accra; and Nana Kwame Boakye, an American insurance broker.

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THE ONLINE INDEPENDENT

HOMAGE TO THE MEMORY OF OSAGYEFUO KUNTUNKUNUNKU II, OKYENHENE
By Hon. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Member Of Parliament, Abuakwa

Strangely enough, ourfirst direct contact was a professional one- mine, not his. It occurred at the time of his enstoolment as Nana Kuntunkununku II, according to the distinguished Akyem historian, Robert Addo-Fening, the 33rd Okyenhene only the second of that name in 450 years after the 1st Okyenhene. I say strange because there were many links between us. We were of the same generation, he being only two years older. We were both descendants of the illustrious Ofori Panin stool of Akyem Abuakwa, he a royal, myself a grandchild. His step father, my uncle Yaw Boakye Ofori-Atta was an activist of the "domo" UP movement, and hence a frequent visitor to my father's house. His maternal brothers and sisters particularly Nana Poku and Ama Otiwa, the beautiful Letherimus were good friends and cousins.But, as fate would have it, we did not meet in our early youth.

I first heard of him, Kwadwo Alex, his name to all sundry even throughout his reign. During the later years of Nkrumah's rule in the mid-1960s when Ghanaian students in then Stalinist Bulgaria, became embroiled in a historic bar-room brawl in Sofia, the capital because of racist taunts from Bulgarian youth who were apparently upset that our compatriots were such magnets for the young girls of Sofia. He was one of them, a medical student at the University in Sofia, his good looks I am sure making him a special target for both the girls and the youth. I heard of him again when he returned home to practise medicine in the early 1970's as Dr. Alex Fredua Agyemang. I was also in my first job as a lawyer, but in faraway Paris. Even there, the stories of his continuing magnetism reached me. Then came the news which etched him firmly in my consciousness- the news that he had challenged, albeit unsuccessfully, his own uncle, Kwabena Marfo, later Nana Ofori Atta III for the right to succeed Nana Poku the redoubtable Ofori Atta II, who went to his ancestors in 1973. It was a signal of serious intent. He was prepared to forego the life of a fashionable, young doctor for the responsibilities of leadership of one of the great traditional states of the Nation. That was good news for our State. I was sure then that we would meet very soon.

And sure enough we did.

I returned home from France in 1975 to begin practice as a young lawyer in U.V Campbell's chambers. One afternoon in early August 1976, a year later, I was in chambers located in the kantamanto area of old Accra, when I heard a commotion in the street. I looked out of my window and saw an extraordinary delegation climbing up our outside staircase. My Uncle Willie (Pa Willie Ofori-Atta of legend, one of the Big Six and a senior figure in Dr. Busia's Progress Party Government), my uncle Aaron (Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta, long time Minister of local Government then of Justice in Kwame Nkrumah's CPP Government, and the last Speaker of the Parliament of the first republic) my uncle Kwasi Amoako (Kwasi Amoah-Atta, for several years Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana prior to being the closing Finance Minister of the CPP era) and my own formidable mother, their sister Yeboaku (Ist lady during the second republic and adynamic energetic Abontendomhemaa, in effect Queen Mother of Kyebi) were the persons solemnly walking upstairs. They had been recognised in the crowded street as they came out of their cars, hence the commotion. The visit, the first and only one of its kind, was in the wake of Nana Ofori Atta III's funeral.

I was astonished at the sight of them together and then excited at what they had to say. Uncle Willie did the talking. There was a crisis in the State. The attempt to enstool Kwadwo Alex as successor to his late uncle was being thwarted by the Okyenhemaa the Queen mother of Akyem Abuakwa, Nana Akosua Sakyiraa II.

In their unanimous view, Kwadwo Alex was exactly the sort of young, progressive personality the State needed to carry on the work of reform and progress initiated by their own late, great grandfather, Ohenepanyin, Kwadwo Dua, Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, the most illustrious of Akyem chiefs, Akosua Sakyiraa, however was determined on another candidate, Odehye Kofi Asante, a dignified, respected, elder royal, but of the Old School, She had taken legal action, to reverse the enstoolment of Osagyefuo Kuntunkununku II. A team of lawyers was being assembled for his defence . I was one of them, and they had come to inform me about this. A meeting in Kyebi was being convened the next day for the lawyers to go through the case with their client. I was to present myself accordingly. It was imperative that we win the case. It was obvious that a "no" or "maybe" was not available to me.

These were the great figures of my family and that was that. However, not only was I excited by what they had to say, I was also impressed by the show of unity their presence proclaimed.

They were the very people-Uncle Willie and my mother on one side , Uncle Aaron and Kwasi Amoako on the other - who with others, had been the main actors in the UP/CPP drama of the last twenty-five years in Akyem Abuakwa, dividing the State and our family in a bitter, protracted, almost fratricidal struggle for political control of the State. Their coming together to support the new, young, 34-year old king was a momentous event, which could only mean good times ahead for the State. I was determined to be part of the new era.

I presented myself at Kyebi, met the client, youthful and ebullient, and struck a friendship. After an initial skirmish in the Koforidua High Court, presided over by Apatu-Plange J., in a case in which I acted as junior counsel, and which has become a leading case in the law of judicial review, that of "The Republic V Akyem Abuakwa traditional Council, ex parte Sakyiraa II" reported in the second volume of the 1977 Ghana Law Reports, the matter was settled out of Court, and his enstoolment endorsed, as was the purported destoolment of the Queen Mother reversed

By then, we were friends. Along with several others , I came a frequent visitor to the Palace at Kyebi, where amid bouts of much merriment, occasioned in no small part by his excellent sense of humour, long, passionate, nocturnal discussions took place on the future of Okyeman. From them emerged his central conviction that the most effective way the chief of our times could maintain his relevance was in providing economic leadership for his people. As a doctor, he knew that poverty was a great harbinger of disease and ill-health. The war on poverty would, then, be his most important preoccupation.

The uncertainties of military rule - in the first three years of his reign, General Acheampong's SMC was overthrown in the palace coup of 15th July ,1978 and replaced by General Akuffo's SMC II, which was in its turn overthrown on 4th June 1979 by Ft-Lt. Rawlings' AFRC - made it difficult initially to promote his ideas. With the restoration, however, of civilian rule in September 1979 by the inauguration of the Third republic, whose PNP government was led by his good friend Dr. Hilla Liman, as President, he felt confident enough to come forward. At his instigations we formed the Akyem Abuakwa Development Finance Co. Ltd. to act as a holding company and the State's corporate vehicle for the various business ventures he intended to undertake for the state. He was its board chairman.

The company entered into negotiations with a wide range of concerns, notably the German conglomerate, Wasag-Chemie, one of whose subsidiaries was interested in the exploitation of the alluvial gold deposits of the Kyebi area and who provided the key project manager in the person of Johann Gunther, an experienced mining hand. The result of the negotiations was the establishment of a joint venture company, Ghana Wasag Co. Ltd. to undertake the gold project. I acted as his lawyer, accompanied him on all negotiations including one in London, and can readily testify to the considerable energy and drive he brought to the realisation of the project.

Misfortune, however, dogged it in two ways. In a tragic throwback to the 19th century, the German, Johan Gurther, died of malaria in Kyebi. Then came the coup of 31st December 1981, and with it, the upheavals of the early 1980s. The project was then effectively aborted. Bitterly disappointed, he resolved nevertheless to preserve when times normalised. So he persisted in attempting to develop projects for the exploitation of his state's abundant natural resources, including its extensive deposits of bauxite ore, which lie to this day untouched. Alas to his deep regret, these various undertakings stubbornly failed to materialise and prosper.

He was a thougthful, courteous man and a patriot. In 1990 not only did he write a treasured letter, a letter of gratitude for the role I played in the organisation of that year's Odwira, but he also paid me the compliment of being temporarily his Okyeame, his spokeman in English, when Robert Mugabe, famous freedom fighter and President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, together with then chairman Rawlings of the PNDC, dropped into Kyebi by helicopter to participate in the Odwira, a temporary status which evidently surprised the PNDC chairman. In his speech before that august audience, long before many others had taken up the theme, the Okyenhene spoke up clearly for the restoration of civil, democratic rule in our country, something which came about three years later.

Unfortunately, in the last years our paths did not cross much . Events in Kyebi and the dynamics of my own evolution as one of the principal figures of the NPP, indeed of the opposition and finally as NPP Member of Parliament for Abuakwa, the constituency in which was situate his ancient royal capital, Kyebi, put our relations on a more distant formal level devoid of much of the informality of the earlier year. It was a pity, but that is in the nature of things.

Like all his subjects, I was proud of his regular bouts of public service - his participation in the proceedings of the Consultative Assembly that drafted our national Constitution, was "very positive" in the view of a sound judge like Hon. Yaw Osafo Maafo, a fellow member of the Assembly, his tenure of office as President of the Eastern Regional House of Chiefs was a success and his ultimate achievement, the Presidency of the National House of Chiefs, an office he would have adorned with his customary grace and dignity but for his sudden, dramatic, untimely departure at the young age of 57, barely five months after his election, a departure which has so shocked the State and indeed the entire Nation

History will judge him and his 23 year reign, as she will all of us here and our period of public service. Whatever her verdict for me, it is enough for the moment, to recall a gracious humorous, elegant ,handsome king who strove manfully to bridge the gap between the modern and the traditional within the complexities of his great chiefly office.

I take this opportunity to extend my deepest condolences to the chiefs and people of Akyem Abuakwa and Okyeman in general for our great loss, and, in particular to the Abusuapanyin, Opanyin Kwabena Akowuah and the members of the Royal Asona Family of Kyebi, the Kyebi Executive of Ankobea, Apesemaka ne Kyidom under the leadership of the Abontendomhene,. Barima Owoahene Akyeampong, the Abontendomhema, Nana Yeboakua, the Ahenemma and Etwienananom of the Ofori Panyin Stool, the Amantuommiensa led by Barima Apagya Ofori, Apapamhene and the Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Council, led by its Acting President, the Adontenhene, Osabarima Kena Ampaw II, together with the other divisional chiefs of the State, the Nifahene,Osabarima Agyemang III, the Benkumhene, Osabarima Awuah Kotoko II, the Oseawuohene, Osabarima Atwere Bediako II, the Gyasehene, Osabarima Dakwa Woe II, the Takwahene, Osabarima Frempong Manso II and the Otweresohene, Osabarima Ofosu Kwabi III.