For the Attention of the Rich and the Highly Educated Citizens of Kumawuman

After years of cogitation about the lukewarm attitude by the rich and the highly educated subjects of Kumawuman as regards the ongoing Kumawu chieftaincy dispute, I have decided to publish my views about them. I find their attitude selfish and a let-down not only to our ancestors who went to war wiping sweat from their forehead and spilling their blood to acquire their offspring (us) the stool lands but also, to posterity.

In case the rich and the highly educated ones who hail from Kumawuman or have ancestral connection to the locality never knew their history about the status of Kumawu within Asanteman (Asante Confederacy), they could avail themselves of my copious publications on the Ghana internet news portals on that subject. Mysteriously however, most of them, if not all, have cultivated that attitude of nonchalance; sitting and watching while Kumawuhemaa Nana Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah and the seemingly puppet “Kumawuhene” Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua by their inward-looking, supporting Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to lay claim to Kumawu stool lands.

For what Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah, that woman who could well be a disgrace to the womb that conceived her, could earn as selfish and myopic as she is, she is colluding with Asantehene and his band wagon of criminals to sell or lease Kumawu stool lands only to keep the proceeds for themselves at the expense of the locality and the people. Although most of these rich people have in private declared their disagreement with the path taken by Asantehene and Kumawuhemaa; they are not showing any practical support to reverse the criminal course taken by Asantehene, the Ceremonial Head of Asanteman. Any Asantehene by convention has absolutely no right of ownership to Kumawu stool lands or the right to needlessly interfere with Kumawu chieftaincy issues let alone, impose a royal or a person of their choice on Kumawuman as their paramount chief contrary to what Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is criminally seen to be doing.

Should I ask these rich men and women to take a walk around Kumawu especially, the administrative and traditional headquarters of Kumawu District and Kumawu Traditional Area respectively, to see how erosion has devastated the area? When you walk through the town, not on the principal streets but in the lanes behind houses, you will see the extent of damage erosion has caused to the landscape. Once, I soliloquized, saying, does Kumawu contain such great number of rocks under the surface soil which were never known to me when I was growing up as a child?

Where I used to walk and ran at night during my childhood and student life, I cannot do it anymore today. This is because it will not take me a second to trip and fall on the protruding sharp stones to break all my teeth or wound myself. In those days, one could not see such sharp stones sticking dangerously out of the soil but because of erosion, that has become the order of the day. Some houses have become like the hanging Garden of Babylon; erosion has gotten them out of their foundations only to see their foundations about one metre or more above the ground level.

If there was any responsible chief with the love of the locality and the people at heart, such would not become the fate of Kumawu. We currently have visionless traditional leaders who for the quench of the pangs of their stomach, are supporting Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Kumawuhemaa Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah and the so-called criminally-imposed “Kumawuhene” Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua to usurp not only the birthright of the Ananangya royal family but also, appropriate to themselves the stool lands and the wealth of Kumawuman.

For the attention of the rich and the highly educated persons who originate from Kumawuman by ancestry, do you not feel ashamed when you tell your friends and work colleagues that you come from Kumawu; a place without public toilets but with children defecating in their backyards? This gives rise to periodic deadly outbreaks of cholera and typhoid fever due to the contamination of the nearby streams that had served as our source of drinking water. It is just until a few months ago that some towns and villages have had access to potable water (pipe borne water) owing to the ministerial intervention by Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the admirable son of the soil and a man of integrity.

It is just one or two rich people from Kumawuman who have demonstrated their worries about Asantehene using his supposedly overlordship of Asanteman to deprive Kumawuman of the ancestral lands and properties bequeathed to us. The rest are like a pastor who although is rich, only prays for a needy, sick and famished person taken to him and asks the person to go in peace as God will provide his needs. Why cannot the pastor out of his riches part with a little money or food to help the needy and the sick? Is such a pastor doing the work of God? This reminds me of the biblical story of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:30:36 - 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Because of the neglect of Kumawuman with the attendant lack of public toilets, no potable water and other essentials of life, the rich and those in high-paid jobs living in Kumasi and Accra, have cultivated a self-humiliating attitude but which in their eyes is noble. Whenever any of their relatives die or they die, they want them to be laid in state in Accra or Kumasi. Their body is only conveyed to Kumawu for burial. They rush back to the big city where they lived to perform the final funeral rites. However, this was never the case in the 1960s when I was growing up. What has changed for the past three decades for our rich men and women to adopt this weird attitude?

If I had my own way, I would appeal for the rich and the highly educated ones to identify with the genuine course of liberating Kumawuman from the dishonest desires by Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and his accomplices of whom Kumawuhemaa Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah, Dr Yaw Sarfo (“Kumawuhene” Barima Sarfo Tweneboa Kodua) and Asanteman Council figure conspicuously.

Some people think the ongoing chieftaincy issue is a family matter hence we had better leave the Ananangyas to battle it alone. No, that will be an erroneous notion. Kumawu stool lands are at stake. Asantehene has dubiously claimed ownership of it and subsequently mortgaged part for loan and using the rest for his project in which a Norwegian royal is a major sponsor and shareholder. The land does not belong to the Ananangyas even though they are the eligible Kumawu paramount royals. They are only overseers of the land for the common good of the entire people of Kumawuman. Why should we then sit down for Asantehene to come for the land because of the complete stupidity, selfishness and short-sightedness of Abenaa Serwaah Amponsah and Dr Yaw Sarfo?

It is only normal that I call on the rich and the highly educated Kumawuman subjects to identify with the noble cause of rescuing the lands from Asantehene and his cohorts to get Kumawuman back on her feet or else, God who is already in control will use ordinary people like Rockson Adofo and the like, poor and needy of course, to fight to liberate Kumawuman from the criminalities in perpetuation by Asantehene and his accomplices.

Those who have been undermining the Member of Parliament for Kumawu Constituency for the attainment of their selfish motives, I will rather advise them to channel their efforts into fighting to rescue Kumawuman and our lands from the insatiable greediness of Asantehene, Kumawuhemaa, Dr Yaw Sarfo and their accomplices. This will be nobler than the lies they have been perpetrating all for the hidden motive of satisfying their stomach.

I leave the following two quotes for the rich and the highly educated ones from Kumawuman to muse on them. . “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph”, said Emperor Halle Selassie of Ethiopia. Mark Twain on the other hand said, “In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his course succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot".

I shall request the poor, who although are good ones, to keep to their faith. Never abandon the good course you have taken to. There is light at the end of the dark tunnel and as God is in control, we shall soon emerge victorious after many years on uncertainties. God has already defeated Asantehene, Kumawuhemaa, Dr Yaw Sarfo and their accomplices (Asanteman Council) in the spiritual realm. We are only waiting to see it materialise for all eyes to see.

Those helping are known. Nonetheless, majority of the rich are paying lip service. They should realise that “Enye anotohunu na ye dek3 Basil asoro”. A soldier walks on his stomach. Simply declaring their support in private only by word of mouth is not enough, I must state it clearly to them without mincing words.

The battle is still the Lord’s.
Rockson Adofo