When introduced to Nana Oduro Fikyiri, the Asante chief of Ensnonyame-ye, a remote village of 650 people, he was told that I came from Queen Elizabeth’s home town, a “symbolic explanation”.
Though Ghana is its own republic, the Asante region still has a king, Osei Tutu II, who governs over a set of nobles, who themselves oversee local chiefs.
As Mr Yamoah added: “The monarchy is something similar to what we have in Ghana, where we have the Asante kings, we have the tribal kings and chiefs – that type if system is not new to us.”
Mr Oduro Fikyiri, now 66, recalled the Queen’s first visit to the newly independent state in 1961, which she undertook while rejecting safety concerns in the midst of political tensions in the country, and danced with the new President in a symbolic farewell.