Ghanaians flock to Ashanti king's funeral

02:05 p.m Mar 25, 1999 Eastern

By Jeff Koinange

KUMASI, Ghana, March 25 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mourners turned out in Ghana's second city of Kumasi on Thursday for the funeral of the king of the Ashantis, one of Africa's most prominent traditional rulers.

Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, heir to the powerful pre-colonial Ashanti empire and ruler of Ghana's Ashanti people for 29 years, died on February 25 aged 79.

``It's virtually the whole Ashanti people. Everyone is in black and red, the traditional (mourning) colours of Ashanti,'' one mourner told Reuters. ``Everything is closed because everyone is mourning,'' he said.

Officials said the king was to be buried in private at midnight on Thursday in the royal mausoleum in Kumasi after a state funeral. His body, in a coffin draped with Ghana's flag, was to travel to its final resting place on an army gun carriage.

Vice-President John Atta Mills attended the afternoon church service and funeral in place of President Jerry Rawlings, who was in France on a state visit.

The king, a paramount chief, ruled through a network of lower ranked royalty. All turned out for the funeral.

The pre-colonial Ashanti empire drew its power from gold and held sway in the 18th and 19th centuries in an area of West Africa largely occupied today by Ghana.

Former colonial power Britain took more than 100 years to subdue the Ashanti armies but the Ashanti people remain an influential force in Ghana, which won independence in 1957.

Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, who lay in state for four days, was the 18th Asantehene or king of the Ashantis. A London-trained lawyer, he died after a short illness.

The Ashanti are a matrilineal society and the new king will be chosen by the Queen Mother, the paramount woman in the tribe in consultation with fellow senior Ashanti women.

The selection process will not begin until after the burial of the dead king. ``Our custom, until the king is buried, is to assume that he is not dead,'' the Ashanti mourner said.

Sources close to the Ashanti people said that frontrunners to succeed him included Nana Kwaku Duah, son of the current Queen Mother, and Nana Akwasi Agyemang, the mayor of Kumasi.

Two other likely candidates were Osei Yeboah, a medical doctor, and his bother, David Yeboah, a surveyor.