The obnoxious authoritative attitude of the Kumawuhemaa is in no way of subsiding but rather on the ascendency. I love that. This becomes a challenge to me; a contest that I surely must win. Her stubbornness and intransigencies bordering on sheer ignorance, selfishness, greediness and stupidity, do invigorate me to come out boldly on her with historical facts to lay bare her worthlessness after all. What the vanity of a selfish life? It is said", "Nothing ventured, and nothing came". If she is looking for trouble, she is promised to certainly have it in abundance to her regret. She is then admonished to gird up her loin for the historical onslaught that will sooner be unleashed on her. She can be that pugilist "Lady-Tyson" and self-styled "Kanawu"; she will in no way be able to withstand the fire of the narration of the Kumawu royalty history as will be told eventually. Her Ankaase royals and she will be depicted as ignoramuses proved beyond all reasonable doubts to be, had, and have been, illegitimate Kumawu royals all along. They could probably be genuine royals if they had resided up North, in the "Fulani land", the land of their ancestry birth. This reminds me of the lyrics of a song, "This is the land of my birth. This is the land of my birth. This is Jamaica land, Jamaica land, the land of my birth". Fulani land is the land of their ancestry birth, if they care to know. They should then swallow their vain pride to behave like any other ordinary person with common sense and love for fellow human beings.

One "Opanin" Kwasi Anane, a one time secretary to the Kumawu Traditional Council during the reign of Barima Kwame Afram, is on record to have divulged the following secret or information. He is alleged to have said that, one day a man came to the Kumawu royal palace to make an offertory of a bull (cattle) to the chief. Barima Kwame Afram shouted at the man saying, "Take it away. Have you come with it, purporting to tell me or remind me of my history?" (Fa nantwie no ko. Wo re aba se wo re bekyere ma se). Why would he say this if it has not to do with the fact that he has Fulani ancestry? The Fulani are good cattle herders. Is it also the reason why beef is a taboo to ………? Kumawuhene, do you now know your matrilineal history? How then dare you say that the Ananangyas and the Odumases are slaves?

I have never been interested in the acrimonious categorization of human entities into royals, slaves, superiors and inferiors, based on their skin colour, their place of birth or their place of origin. I would then not have cared much about their descent if the queen had not sparked off the debate evoking that the rather genuine "Ananangya and the Odumase" royals are slaves. How dare she say that? How and where did she come by that history? Curse is to the mouth that said that and the womb that conceived her. Has she forgotten about the miserable story or history surrounding the introduction of her forebear, "Ayo", into the Kumawu royal palace? She has a research work to do on this. She can be assisted by the combination of the intellectual knowhow of all the supposed Ankaase royals. I have taken them to a history duel where the golden rule is, "the winner takes all". This is, "Either it passes or it breaks" situation.

The queen is on record to have recently said that, "The Ananangya royal candidate vying to occupy the Kumawu paramount throne is without personality". And that, she will do whatever in her power to ensure no Ananangya nor Odumase royal, occupies the seat as long as she lives. It is not in her time that the throne should go to Ananangya, she says. Good one there! In whose time should the paramount seat be allowed to revert to the true royals? If all present and future Ankaase queens do hold that charlatan's view, then the Ananangya and the Odumase royals have been dispossessed of their bona fide royalty by the illegitimate Ankaase usurper royals for good. The Holy Bible says at Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, "There is an appointed time for everything and there is a time for every event under heaven. A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant……, There was a time for the illegitimate Ankaase royals to usurp the Kumawu paramount seat, and there is a time for the true Ananangya royals to reclaim their birthright possession. Now is the time, be it known to that quack queen.

Going back to the core of my writing, personality itself is not a criterion of a good traditional leadership. There is more to it. "Beauty is only skin deep, but ugliness cuts across the bone", so they say. If I had my own way, I would recommend the ugliest person on earth to ascend to the paramount seat of Kumawuman was the person a true, honest, dynamic, dedicated, competent and far-sighted royal. A visionary legitimate royal who will work assiduously to ensure his subjects are never short-changed on essential developments will be more preferable to the one with the opposite qualities. I will rather choose an ugly God-fearing chief with the stated good qualities over the most handsome evil chief who is an embezzler; myopic in the execution of his duties, a nation wrecker, and a womaniser who will shamelessly preside over the dilapidation of his traditional area as has recently been the case in Kumawuman. The queen and her Ankaase royals have no point raising the issue of personality as is being propagated by her, and sadly, her emissaries roaming aimlessly in Europe and the Americas.

The God's appointed Kumawuman paramount chief-in-waiting from the Ananangya royal family is not only handsome but also, possesses all the good qualities as is expected of a noble chief. If Kumawuman had had his kind for all the while that the Ankaase royals had been enthroned, Kumawu especially, would be rubbing shoulders with Kumasi in all spheres of life and development by now.

I learn that the queen has vowed to kill herself should the throne go to the Ananangyas in her time. She has looked for trouble, and she will have it. I have personally never gloated over the demise of anyone but the queen is not better than or different from the tens of dozens of people dying from preventable diseases in Kumawuman on monthly basis. So, if she chooses to poison herself in the all likeliness of an Ananangya true royal ascending to the Kumawuman paramount stool, then so be it. "He who pays the piper calls the tune". She has looked for trouble and it is her sole prerogative to decide how best to pay the ultimate price for her folly. If she stupidly decides to take her life, shame. I would rather have her live to compare their Ankaase bastardize reign to a development-wise one by a selfless Ananangya royal.

Don't be selfishly greedy, dear Ankaase royals. Don't let yourselves be dragged into the abyss of shame by the gluttony of the queen, the Krontihene alias "Tikenenkenen", and a few self-seeking supposed intellectuals but who are hollow in substance. Be it known to you that Kumawuman will be more appreciative of an ugly but sincerely dynamic chief from the Ananangya royal family than a handsome, corrupt, and useless chief from the Ankaase illegitimate royal home. The queen's analogical fear of the illegitimate son of Abraham by Hagar been driven away to give way to the legitimate son of Abraham by Sarah, is frankly baseless. She fears the Ankaase royals will be banished from ever ascending to the Kumawu paramount throne. Should this hallucination of hers be enough reason to keep the Ananagyas and the Odumases at arm's length from the throne? Who are those strategized to preventing the Ananangya royals from the throne? They are rather the illegal Ankaase royals. Shame on them! The fight to liberate Kumawuman from the thievery of the queen and her kindred continues unabated.

John Fosu