Word: kumasi
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...Africa is the Ashanti, whose 2,000,000 tribesmen last week proudly anointed a new king, Nana Opoku Ware II. It was the first time in 35 years that the ceremony, perhaps the most magnificent tribal ritual in all Africa, had been conducted. TIME Correspondent James Wilde went to Kumasi in central Ghana for the fete and wrote this report...
...Ashanti Queen Mother and the tribal chiefs' council had decided that he would succeed his uncle as King. "I had my tickets, my traveler's checks, everything," he says. "But when I was caught by the net, I had no choice." As Asantehene, he may leave Kumasi only with permission from the council and is forbidden by tribal taboo ever to be alone. "We are all bound to serve the Golden Stool," he says piously, "one way or another...
...reasoning is that United Party agents would have done the job completely and blasted the statue to smithereens, which would have been an ill omen in fetish-conscious Ghana; the fact that the statue was only damaged, on the other hand, is a good omen for Osagyefo. In Kumasi, one Nkrumah flunky admitted to planting dynamite in the car of a United Party member in order to implicate him in a plot against the state...
Last week, Kumasi police arrested some 200 "criminals," most of whom were coincidentally United Party members. Jails are reportedly so full that prisoners must sleep sitting upright...
...Queen serenely continued her tour. In the northern territories, tribal chiefs put on dazzling ceremonial durbars for the royal visitors. At Tamale, muscular, nearly nude warriors in bikini-brief grass skirts performed the End of the Harvest dance. The most spectacular ceremony was the Ashanti durbar laid on in Kumasi before 35,000 people, including some 150 major and minor chiefs. Host for the ritual was the Asantehene, Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, King of Ashanti and the most important chief in all Ghana...