By Nana Sifa TWUM
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, according to the good old book The Bible, and employed man to have dominion over everything. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28
God, the Father who created and owns the whole of the universe, including His children, has the whole of the universe (His Kingdom) as an inheritance for us to keep. From the beginning of life, he apportioned sections for selected people to rule.
He created domains all over for people to dwell; and each of these domains ought to have leaders called kings. At the beginning of time, He was the immortal King of His people; but at a point, He yielded to the persistent request of man to have a mortal king.
Kingdom is formed of two English words, ‘King’ and ‘Domain.’ In fact, every king has where he rules – a territory if you like. The territory is what is referred to as a domain. So, it becomes king and domain – kingdom. The king’s domain is his kingdom.
In the world today, there are several kingdoms. Kingdoms are powerful and resourceful in their own rights.
The Ashanti Kingdom, for instance, is extremely rich and powerful. The Ashanti people, an ethnic subgroup of the Akan-speaking people, established their state around Kumasi in the late 1600s and now have people in other parts of Ghana paying allegiance to the King.
The Ashantis were known for their metalworking skills and control over the ivory and gold trade. Today, it commands a vast geographical area with hundreds of chiefs traditionally leading millions of people who pay allegiance to the King.
So far, there have been sixteen kings who have ascended to one of the most prestigious thrones around the globe, The Golden Stool. The current occupant, His Majesty, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is twenty-five years on the throne this April.
In January 1999, I was posted from Koforidua to Kumasi as the first Regional Correspondent for the then TV3 Network Limited, now Media General. In April of the same year, precisely 26th, the then Barima Kwaku Duah, who at the time was 49 years old, was enstooled at a colourful and extremely rich cultural event as the 16th king of the Asante Kingdom.
He was traditionally named after one of the powerful and wise kings of the kingdom, Osei Tutu I, who is believed to have founded the modern Asante Kingdom. Hence, his stool name Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The Golden Stool, known otherwise as the ‘Sika Dwa Kofi’ in the local dialect, is the royal and God-given throne of the good people of Asante. It is also deemed as the very definitive symbol of power and unity among these powerful people.
It is also widely believed that this stool descended from the sky and landed on the lap of the first Asante king, Otumfuo Osei Tutu I. Above all, it was and still is the symbol of extraordinarily traditional leadership emblem for the Asante Kingdom of this country. That was said to be the beginning of a mighty kingdom warring to conquer several territories. The continuation now with the second Osei Tutu is to fight wars against commotion, poverty, illiteracy, disunity, injustice and underdevelopment.
A few months into his enstoolment, I had the privilege of meeting him one-on-one at his private residence, courtesy of the then Chief Executive of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club, Mr. Herbert Mensah. (Now it isn’t easy to reach him if I want to. People around him have mounted a solid invisible barricade and one cannot get to the affable king that we know).
The informal chat we had and the words of wisdom I heard were a clear indication of an excellent and positive omen for the good people of his kingdom and Ghana in general.
Within weeks, he laid out plans to bring a dramatic change within what he had inherited. His popular saying, “In the olden days, kings led their people for war but today, we have to lead the people for development”, became so much popular and well-acclaimed. The response from the people, including those outside his kingdom, was the showering on him the accolade “King Solomon”.
Sooner than later, the entire nation witnessed the establishment of the famous Otumfuo Educational Fund to provide assistance and support to brilliant but needy school pupils and students. Today over thirty thousand students at all levels of education from around the country have benefitted from this enviable package, which has helped change the lives of many people in Ghana, especially in rural Ghana.
The foundation has been supporting five thematic areas of national development, mainly Education, Health, Culture & Heritage, Water & Sanitation as well as special projects in diverse ways as its thematic areas over the past 24 years.
New school buildings have been built while several old and dilapidated ones have been rehabilitated. Some schools in Ghana have received tremendous learning and teaching aids under the fund, with teachers being encouraged and motivated by providing basic needs and teacher award schemes.
As the Chancellor of the Kumasi-based university, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, for several years, he has helped in developing infrastructure and facilities as well as human resources for the enhancement of teaching, learning and training,
For him, “it was an opportunity to serve and, indeed, have nurtured and moulded the KNUST to be one of the best science and technology learning institutions in Ghana and a world-class one”.
In the health sector, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has instituted a health fund to pursue a primary healt care plan to finance the reduction of maternal and infant mortality, glaucoma and other eye diseases. Greater part of this is the launching of a US$10million ‘Heal Komfo Anokye’ project, a fundraising campaign for the renovation and modernisation of the main blocks of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, the current state of which he has described as apologetic and embarrassing.
The Serwaa Ampem AIDs Foundation for children under the leadership of his wife, Lady Julia Osei Tutu, to help children who have become victims of the HIV/AIDs pandemic is also commendable.
Residential quarters for nurses and other paramedical staff have been provided, and a general health campaign in co-operation with the state agencies has been stepped up in the rural areas.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has blended wisdom, education, knowledge and tradition to reshape the focus of chieftaincy not only in Ghana, but also around the globe. For the first time in the history of Ghana, the king of the Asante Kingdom led eminent chiefs from Ghana to parade the rich culture of the nation and the Ashantis in particular and also engaged business groups in London in the United Kingdom and Atlanta in the United States in the year 2003 at the first-ever trade and investment fair on Ghana outside Ghana in these two powerful as well as business and economic hubs.
Many traditional and political leaders have engaged him to tap his effective and forward-looking leadership tactics and strategy.
The King has summoned chiefs under him for questioning on illegal mining, illegal logging and unauthorised sale of lands. He has distooled some chiefs who have engaged in these nefarious activities.
His lecture at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) as the Guest of Honour at the MFA and Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies, USA, for example, was one that hugely projected the Ghanaian chieftaincy institution and its shift in old concepts, as well as exhibiting the incredible African values.
To the whole world, the king who has positioned himself emphatically to “fight for development and peace” delivered an exceptionally brilliant lecture on ‘Chieftaincy and Development in Contemporary Africa: The Case of Asante’ to the admiration of his audience, who applauded him with a very long-standing ovation and the extolled applause said it all.
I cannot say it all in this piece, but posterity will forever be grateful to him. He has ultimately and holistically changed the old face of chieftaincy – which was to rule and lord over – to a new dimension of chieftaincy, which is to lead and ensure peace and development.
