St. Helena author receives royal honor in Ghana

Kitty Green's historical studies and books have enriched her life, but she received a crowning jewel recently when she became an honorary queen of a small kingdom in Ghana.

Green, a St. Helena Island native, was named a queen of the Buem people by Nana Aburem Akpandja IV, the Paramount King of the Buem people in the Volta Region of Ghana.

The title was bestowed to honor her work as a historian and because of her 1997 book, Lessons Learned from the Gullah Experience, she said.

In addition to publishing the book and being a historian, Green is the proprietor of Gullah Geechee Mahn Tours, a touring business she runs with her family out of her home.

Green said the two-week trip, which ended June 14, was an opportunity of a lifetime. It began suddenly and was almost over in a flash. Plans for the visit began in April, she said. By the end of May and Green, accompanied by her husband Clarence Green Jr. and daughter Seretha Tuttle, were already on a flight to Ghana. The trip was fascinating, she said.

"I was contacted by Daniel Ankrah assistant to the minister of trade in Ghana," she said. "Ankrah had read my book and passed it along to Nana Aburem Akpandja IV, the Paramount King of the Buem people in the Volta Region."

His rule encompasses 25 cities in Ghana.

From that point, the king invited Green to his ancestral home in Bodada.

"It was a chance to reconnect with my ancestral roots," Green said. "For all of us it was overwhelming, it was like coming home. I realize that America is my home, but this trip was a spiritual homecoming."

And it was a trip of great diversity and strong solidarity, she added.

"We went from a five-star hotel to the king's quarters, to a village. It was huge transition," Green said. "But all the people there, no matter what socio-economic class they were in, carried a distinct yet similar air of dignity about themselves.

"Those in poverty carried themselves with the same dignity and grace as royalty," she said.

Green, was given the title of Adjei, the name of the king's family, she said.

She was also honored with Kente cloth from the king and a small tract of land in the king's homeland, Bodada.

During her stay, she said, the family saw a growing need for reading, especially for children. It's something that isn't seen in America, she said.

"There's such a love for reading there," she said. "The youth just devoured our books and our magazines."

It is because of this strong desire that Green said she is trying to collect books and magazines for those children who are in need.

"I'm working on getting used books for the children and their library," Green said.

Tuttle said she was pleased with the recent trip and the discoveries she made. There was no other place, she said, where she could go that she fit in so perfectly. The trip was like discovering a piece of herself that was lost, she said.

"It was like being reconnected back to Africa. When you look at how African Americans were disconnected from their homeland because of slavery and you visit there (Ghana) it's like finding yourself ?‰ Many African Americans can only trace back to our great-grandmothers," Tuttle said.

Green said she intends to return to Ghana and that her experience was a positive one.