General News of Friday, 1 July 2005

Source: GYE NYAME CONCORD

Asantehemaa dances to Otumfuo?s new baby

FOLLOW-UP CHECKS into last Wednesday?s report by this paper that the wife of Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II had delivered a baby has confirmed that the new baby girl was delivered in London, UK.

Both baby and mother are reported to be holed up in the UK.

The delivery of the new baby, this paper gathered, threw the seat of the Asante Kingdom, Manhyia, into wild jubilation with the grandmother of the child and Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem, leading the traditional celebration together with a host of other queen mothers.

The baby girl is the first child of the royal couple since the ascendancy of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to the Golden Stool some six yeas ago. She is however the third child of the Otumfuo. The other two children, sources say, are currently schooling outside the country.

By Asante custom, the new baby becomes the ?Ahenkan? (the first child born to a chief after his installation).

Reports say when the news reached Manhyia about the safe delivery of the new royal, the Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem, who is also the mother of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, led a procession of many Manhyia staff to do the traditional celebrations.

Manhyia, according our source, has set in motion preparation for a grand royal ?outdooring? in anticipation of the safe arrival of Lady Julia Osei Tutu and her new born baby from the United Kingdom.

Lady Julia Osei Tutu -formerly Amaning- is a graduate of the Ghana School of Law, used to work with ECOBANK before getting married to the Asantehene.