BASES ESTRATÉGICAS

The process of selecting a chief is lengthy. When a chief dies and is buried (the funeral is performed after a chief is installed), the queen mother (Ohenema), elders of the royal family and Abusuapanyin (head of family) confer and subsequently, the queen mother makes a nomination.

24 See for example CIA – The World Factbook - Ghana.

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This is because the Ashantis have a matrilineal system. Not all families have queen mothers.

Many houses or gates may comprise the royal family, and each gate is entitled to the throne. So each gate presents a candidate. Besides the family heads of each gate, the stool also has an overall family head. It is this Abusuapanyin and the other Abusuapanyins who deliberate over the selection of the candidate.

The Abusuapanyin initiates the process by announcing a vacancy and inviting

applications, irrespective of whether candidates are royals or not. The non royals are rejected.

Royal candidates may even be as many as ten, and the Abusuapanyin selects one. If the stool has a queen mother, she selects the candidate taking into consideration the character of the person.

Before then, all eligible candidates would have brought drinks (schnapps) and money (these two correlate with the magnitude of the stool) to an intermediary in the royal family expressing their desire to be considered. Occasions arise when there is disagreement on the nomination of the queen mother, but this is ultimately resolved when Otumfuo, the Asantehene (Ashanti king) adjudicates on the matter. A leading traditional ruler put it this way:

Nobody in the family should either say “I don’t want it” or “I don’t support it.” You can’t say it, but you can advise her on the person’s true blood relation; Abusuapanyin might say “Ohenema, you better be careful, this person doesn’t belong to us or our family. Even though we celebrate things together with them, that person is not a member of the royal family.” And if the queen mother decides that she will nominate that particular person, then the Abusuapanyin can swear the ‘great oath’ on her, that you better stop, because…that person …is not a true blood of the royal family. That case will go to Otumfuo, and Otumfuo will adjudicate on it and find out exactly if that person is a true blood of that royal family or not. If that doesn’t happen – if nobody tells the queen mother or advises the queen mother that this person is not a true blood – then the queen mother’s nomination will hold. The nomination will then be given to Gyaasehene,

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who in the Akan system is the custodian of all the properties of the stool, including the royals.

And he, because he knows the royals, all the properties of the stool, he can also advise the queen mother, “Nana, you better be careful because I haven’t heard any history about these people belonging to your family.” (It) will only be an advice; he cannot swear an oath on the queen mother. But because he is an elder, he can also advise the elders to be careful because the person the queen mother is nominating is not a royal. If nobody says anything, the Gyaasehene accepts the nominee, there’s no problem. (Kumasi July 8, 2010)

Typically then, the queen mother nominates one of the candidates and presents the name to the Gyaasehene, who in turn presents the name to other kingmakers (sub chiefs), who are eligible to be considered elders of that stool. It is the duty of the kingmakers to also investigate the background of the candidate to find out whether he has been in prison and is an ex convict, is a drunkard, etc. If the queen mother did her homework well, the kingmakers will normally accept the nominee. They are not concerned about the true blood relation between the nominee and queen mother, but the character only. The true blood should have been settled at home. The character of a potential chief must be above board. As one traditional ruler indicated,

In the Akan system, there are certain restrictions or taboos – a nominee must not be deformed, must have clear eyesight, must be a person with good behavior, must not have been sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction, so many of them, and you must not be a womanizer, you must not be a thief…So they will decide on that and if nobody can bring out a charge that this person has done this, then he is accepted. (Kumasi July 8, 2010)

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Following the acceptance, the kingmakers present the nominee to his group. Acceptance by the kingmakers is the election. This election is normally by consensus. In the event that there is some dissension within the kingmakers, a majority vote confirms the election of the candidate.

Otumfuo has divided the Asante kingdom into groups – Kronti, Akwamu, Gyaase,

Ankobea, Kyidom, Mawere, and Nkuosuo. The appropriate group will also investigate the mode of selection. Having satisfied themselves that the family duly selected the nominee, the group would request for customary drinks, after which a date is scheduled to present the candidate to Otumfuo. If Otumfuo is pleased with the choice, he will direct that the candidate be sent to a place, where the candidate is initially tutored about certain issues regarding the stool – the dos and don’ts – before the candidate is requested to offer appropriate customary drinks and ‘money drink.’ The kingmakers take a portion and present Otumfuo’s share to him.

Next, the candidate is sent to a gathering of the kingmakers and the state, where he would be requested to offer appropriate customary drinks. The representatives of the candidate or preferably, the elder through whom the candidate initially approached to express an interest in the stool, pay the equivalent of the drinks in cash. A linguist²⁵ pours libation with one of the bottles of schnapps brought along by the candidate, after which the candidate is outdoored through the community with showers of praise from the citizens, especially the women. Then back to the palace, where the candidate dressed in black to signify that he is mourning, is given a sword to swear an oath of allegiance to the elders – that he will abide by any advice offered by the elders, he will see to the development of the community and promote the welfare of the people. The elders then in turn swear one by one to the candidate. A date is then scheduled at which the Otumfuo is formally informed about the success of the mission. A portion of the

25 A traditional chieftaincy norm in most parts of Ghana is that citizens communicate to chiefs and vice versa through a linguist.

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‘customary drinks’ and drinks are presented to the Otumfuo, through the appropriate linguist; for instance, if the stool is in the Nkuosuo division, it is the linguist from the Nkuosuo division. It is during this presentation that Otumfuo schedules a date when the candidate will swear to him at Manhyia (the Asantehene’s palace).

On the appointed date, the candidate arrives with his delegation and swears with the sword he used previously (there are many different kinds of swords); this sword will be amongst many at Manhyia which the candidate draws and swears. The linguist will inform the candidate about all the necessary customary rites regarding his stool. The equivalent of this is paid to the linguist before the candidate swears to Otumfuo, after which he offers thanks in the form of envelopes to many recipients, from Otumfuo even to the police. The envelopes may be accompanied by goats and drinks. Otumfuo and Nananom (the assembled chiefs come to recognize the nominee as the incoming chief) then welcome the candidate. After completion of all the ceremonial rites, the candidate then retires to his community, where the Gyaasehene, linguist, queen mother, kingmakers and all who are permitted to enter the ‘stool house’ at night perform certain rites as well. It is during that period that the candidate is placed on the stool three times to signify that he is now a chief. Depending on the candidate’s status – if he is qualified to swear with the highest sword, same as the one Otumfuo and some divisional chiefs use – the Otumfuo would have presented him with a goat (otherwise, the candidate would have to secure his own goat); it is this goat that is slaughtered in the ‘stool house.’

The following day, the candidate is ‘carried;’ he may not necessarily be carried in a palanquin if he has no money for that. Any time the candidate could afford, he would be carried in a palanquin to a gathering, and when seated, the candidate is welcomed again. The Otumfuo may personally go over to welcome the new chief, or he may send a delegation for that purpose.

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This opens the way for the candidate to be sent to his appropriate group, where he reports to them, and then he retires to his house. The next day, the candidate dressed in white, will now be welcomed by his family to signify his new status as a chief. Then the candidate finds an

appropriate time to thank Otumfuo, after which he is assigned to his seat at Manhyia where he can place his stool during meetings.

In the selection of a chief in Ashanti or Asanteman traditional area, the role of the queen mother is key, as in most Akan areas. She has an arduous task of determining the best out of the suitable candidates. This can be inferred from what one Assembly official said,

According to custom, from the Akan point, we are maternal. So, it is a son of sisters, for example, in some areas, it is the son of the first daughter or any of the daughters. So within the royal setting, the women – the sons of sisters or cousins – are the eligible ones in the Akan custom. Some go to the extent of nominating the first son of the first

daughter. So if that daughter doesn’t have a son, then the next daughter’s son will be the next in line. So it’s actually a selection of sons of sisters or first cousins, more or less, within the royal family…The queen mother determines who is eligible. As I’m saying, they have to pick one among those. If the first son is seen credible, then they don’t have a problem. Then it’s so obvious, they just pick him and he becomes their (chief).

Otherwise, maybe the third or the fourth one is more industrious, more responsible; he takes care of home affairs and things like that. Because if the first son for example, has gone to live abroad for so many years, he doesn’t even come home, maybe even married to a white woman or a foreigner – virtually lost his roots, we cannot go and bring such a person and make him chief. That’s the way it works. That is why it is not automatic.

(Kumasi June 30, 2010).

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It was the contention of Kumasi community leaders that queen mothers sometimes found themselves in a fix. In order to avoid disagreements from their nominations, they put forth their own sons, which could generate conflicts as well. Speaking to the same issue, Kumasi Assembly members described the evolution of disagreements, and the subsequent role of Otumfuo.

Interestingly, the current king, Otumfuo, is the son of the queen mother, but this did not create any confusion when he was nominated.

Where there is disagreement on the suitability of the nominee, the matter is forwarded to the Otumfuo. A committee is set up, and at that hearing, each side is made to present the history of their line of succession. The report of the committee is then presented to the Otumfuo. The ruling from Otumfuo is considered final. For instance, it may be that the nominee is indeed from the family, but history will show that his ancestors were originally not from the community.

What happens is that citizens of Asanteman are hospitable people, who easily integrated members of their clan hailing from other places outside of Asanteman like Dunkwa or

Kyekyewere. In due course, over a long period, there was a blurring of the true descendants of the royal clan, and an opportunistic descendant of the integrated clan may then wish to contest the throne.

Some other anomalies may arise because in the past, children could be given for partial adoption by the royal family, in that when such children were of age, they would have to go back to their original parents. However, such children were considered part of the royal family, and their descendants may then equally desire to sit on the throne. Another conflictual situation arises when there are no males to inherit the throne. Typically and traditionally, the Asantes have a matrilineal line of succession, and in situations where there is no maternal son, a male from the paternal side could be requested to be a substitute. The descendants of such a chief may

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then also insist on their right to the throne. The desire to allow a paternal son to reign because of his wealth or status (e.g., a doctor) may occasionally have been the case in the past. Rather than being a one-off case, the descendants point to this ancestor to claim a right of place to the throne.

Another interesting issue that came out during the focus group discussion was that there are two categories of chiefs in Ashanti kingdom: – those who swear allegiance direct to Otumfuo and serve him, and those, who, despite having sworn the oath of allegiance to the Otumfuo serve under the queen mother. This scenario arises because the queen mother is custodian of her own lands, and has chiefs who minister to her. Indeed, the Kumasi Member of Parliament I

interviewed believes ‘queen mother’ is a misnomer; the appropriate title he preferred was

‘queen.’ In sum then, for a smooth selection of a chief in Asanteman traditional area, a range of actors determine the customary line of succession. However, the role of the queen mother and Abusuapanyin matter most, and it is the bargaining and negotiation between these two key actors, followed by the negotiations of these two on hand and with the kingmakers on the hand, that eventually leads the community to accept to recognize a chief. Is the process the same in the case of Cape Coast, another Akan traditional area?