Dr Owusu Afriyie Writes: Oheneba Akyempimhene, The Consummate Gentleman

Manhyia was heaving with record crowds gathered to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the enstoolment of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

There was the seemingly endless parade of the chiefs. To my pleasant surprise, there appeared Oheneba Akyempimhene and his entourage carried high in his palanquin, sword in hand, dancing so majestically to the throbbing sounds of Fontomfrom.

The Manhyia appearance was a surprise to me, because a few weeks earlier I had driven to the gate of his residence to visit – to check on his faltering health and to discuss some urgent matter to do with a relative of his abroad who needed help.

I could not see him that Sunday because I was told he had gone to take a rest. So to see him actively participating in the historical anniversary event at Manhyia was a signal to me that Oheneba was regaining his health. And I was glad. The 25th anniversary Akwasidaekese was the last time I saw him.

My mother had passed a few weeks before and one of the first chiefs in Kumasi on my list to officially inform about her demise was Akyempimhene. But before I could perform that noble traditional ritual, the news of his demise struck like a thunderbolt in my heart.

My relationship with Oheneba goes back to our childhood days in Ashanti New Town, Kumasi.

Apart from the few years we spent together on the campus at Legon, we attended different educational institutions in our early life.

We were in rival elementary schools (Methodist Boys and St Joseph Catholic Boys) and rival secondary schools (Prempeh and Opoku Ware). And even at Legon, it was Sarbah and Akuafo Halls.

After university, he went to Tufts in America and I went to Cambridge in England. In spite of all these physical barriers, our relationship continued to blossom, as we matured into adulthood taking up our different professions and raising young families.

Growing up in those early years, nothing prepared us for the fact that one day “Naasei”, as we called him, would occupy one of the most prestigious and strategic stools in the Asante Kingdom – the Akyempim stool.

As fate would have it, his dear father then Barima Matthew Poku ascended to the Golden Stool in 1970 with the stool name Otumfuo Opoku Ware II.

It was Otumfuo who graciously enstooled his son Nana Osei Tutu (“Naasei”) as the 12th Akyempimhene in 1982.

It was a complete transformation for all of us around him and we wondered how he was going to cope with his new burdensome role and how we were going to adapt to his new status as a powerful traditional ruler.

Thank God, in no time he adjusted to the new situation he found himself in much to the satisfaction of all of us. And here is where his true nature was exhibited.

From where I sat, in spite of the almost dramatic transformation in his life literally overnight, the warmth, the glow, the humour, the generosity and the humility never deserted him.

I dare say that his new role rather strengthened our relationship. I was very much part of his wedding to Tina his dear wife, the naming ceremonies of the children and the marriage of their children when they attained adulthood.

We shared the griefs in the family together, especially the shocking sudden loss of his daughter Gifty and his struggle with ill-health.

Friendship
Through our long friendship, I became an adopted son of his mother, Oheneyere Lady Victoria.

The residence at Ridge in Kumasi became my second home.

During the summer holidays in London, we were all together at Knightsbridge and Willesden. Those were happy days together.

Oheneba visited me in Cambridge in the late 1970s when I was researching for my doctoral thesis.

It was a visit we both enjoyed enormously.

For three days, I took him around Cambridge, visiting museums famous for African art and artefacts, sitting in seminars and meeting eminent professors who had made their name in Social Anthropology through their research on Asante culture. The memory of that visit remained with us for many years.

It was such an honour to my family when the Akyempimhene was nominated to represent Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to chair the event in 2021 at the National Centre for Culture, marking the 20th anniversary of the passing of our father, Baffuor Osei Akoto.

As far as I can remember, that event happened to be the last public event that Akyempimhene participated in. Alas, his deteriorating health kept him away from public functions.

The passing of Oheneba Akyempimhene has denied Asanteman and Ghana of a personality whose God-given endowments have been applied in both the cultural and general development of the nation.

Oheneba da yie. We shall meet again on the day of resurrection.