Opinions of Tuesday, 26 August 2014

Columnist: Adofo, Rockson

Asantehene Becomes the Domineering Kingmaker of Kumawu

Not long ago, and to be more precise, on 24th February 2014, the Kumawu Aduanahene, Nana Sarfo Agyekum II, was mocked by some Ashanti chiefs. Before the Asanteman Council, where there were about one thousand people gathered to witness the arbitration and declaration of verdict on the Kumawu and other areas’ chieftaincy disputes, Kumawu Aduanahene was treated like a disgusting rag in public.

He has been a true royal, descending from the same one source (Sene Fontom) as Barima Tweneboah Koduah, the originator of the Kumawu Koduah stool. For the sake of those Ashanti chiefs completely deficient in knowledge of Kumawu chiefship history, Kumawu Aduanahene is a genuine royal unlike those that they were seen vehemently supporting.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II had better learn Kumawu history properly before making factually erroneous mistakes in public, in Asanteman Council meetings. It was not the late Barima Otuo Acheampong, Kumawuhene, who created the post of Kumawu Aduanahene, but rather the late Barima Kwame Afram. Please refer to the “Ashanti Law and Constitution” written by R. S. Rattray and published in 1929. Read the chapter on Kumawu. In 1929, the post of Kumawu Aduanahene had been created. When did Otuo Acheampong become the chief of Kumawu to have created that position as alleged by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on 24th February 2014 before the Asanteman Council?

Moreover, with any new creation of positions, certain laws and traditions are amended accordingly. Is it therefore any wonder that certain functions were conferred upon the Aduanahene as he claimed which may be unfamiliar with Asante customs as operate elsewhere?

If he cares to know, he had better go back to learn about what Okomfo Anokye said about our relationship to the Akyims. Has he not flouted that obligatory request by marrying an Akyim woman? I will not delve into that but just to hint him on a traditional request backed by the performance of tradition amid invocation of gods and curses to strengthen its establishment.
Kumawu Aduanahene is the Head of all the Adunana groups or families in Kumawuman. This is to inform whoever cares to know. He is not simply the Head of his own “Odumase”Aduana royal family, but all, with Ananangya and Ankaase (?) inclusive.

Who made, and when at all was Asantehene made, the principal kingmaker of Kumawu with such authoritative powers as he shamelessly displayed before Asanteman Council on 24th February 2014? Was he not usurping the rights, uniquely and traditionally reserved for, real Kumawu kingmakers, by himself imposing a person of his choice on Kumawu as collusively supported by all the other chiefs seemingly walking on/with their stomach?

I am really sorry to state that upon all the advice given to Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, amid castigations, he still behaves the known stubborn person as he was during his stay in Canada and the United Kingdom in the 1980/90s.

Don’t mess with the Kumawu people because they are ever ready to give you a bloody nose. If you are doing all these, with the hope of gaining ownership of the one million (1,000,000) acres of land you dubiously arranged to sell to some Norwegian royal family member and company, and to get a half of Kumawuman money now sitting in the Bank of Ghana, then you had better think twice.

I am personally telling you today that I, Rockson Adofo, the Defender of the Defenceless, the Son of Kumawu/Asiampa, will not allow you to cheat the Kumawu people as you intend. With the current deplorable state of Kumawuman, especially Kumawu, without toilets and children defecating anywhere, in their backyards, I will not stay quiet for you to carry out your dubiously selfish acts on my people.
You can walk with/on your stomach, crawl on your stomach, but you cannot be allowed to cheat the poor, but innocent, people of Kumawu. This is the first salvo I am firing and I hope it will give you something to think about.

You have no authority over Kumawu. You were given the respect to arbitrate their chieftaincy dispute but you seem to be an unfair arbitrator; rather choosing to WALK WITH YOUR STOMACH!

I do not hate Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as erroneously the belief of some people. However, I detest his seeming preposterous actions bordering on cheating people and taking them for fools.

“If he refuses to learn history, geography will teach him a lesson”, courtesy to Mr Edward Adusei Pianim, once the School Prefect at Kumawu Tweneboah Koduah Secondary School in the 1970s.

Who are the advisors to Asantehene, I want to know?

The fight to liberate Kumawu from some complete rogues, the enemies of Kumawuman, continues unabated.

PEOPLE WILL UNDERSTAND ME BETTER IN FUTURE, PROBABLY, POSTHUMOUSLY.

Rockson Adofo