Kumawuhemaa & Krontrehene in Dilemma

of "Eda wo kon ho a aduenum,wo yi to h3 a 3ha"

Kumawuhemaa is not that invincible after all. She is only great at running her mouth intimidatingly. Underneath that public self-portrayal of monstrosity is a complete coward. She is intimidating but when challenged, standing toe to toe with her, craning each others neck, and yelling in equal measure, she recoils timidly into her shell as does the tortoise when poked. She insults and accuses some royal family members of slavery. They are illegible to ascend to the Kumawuman paramount throne according to her warped assertion. I should think what she asserts is rather an assumption as unfolding events bear contrary testimony to her claim. But note, "Initial assumptions are not always correct". She thought the Ananangya and the Odumase royal families she falsely accused were going to chokingly swallow her nonsense without putting up any challenge. Now that they have put up a daring challenge, she has backtracked, though the retreating path is not as smooth as imagined but quite undulating. She has burned all the bridges behind her although a saying goes, "Do not burn your bridges behind you", as they may be useful when you decide to retreat when the battle gets tough and evasion becomes imperative. "Se na wanoaa" Nana Hemaa, as said by Atakora Manu in his song titled "Soko Soko". You are not that Iron-lady fighter I have heard of. You are consequently relieved of your Lady-Tyson's title.

Her confusion and faintheartedness are manifested in her inability to respond to the "Asantehene's Great Oath" so invoked on her by Nana Nti Kwakye, the Head of the Ananangya royal family. Her failure to accept or challenge the oath so invoked by Nana Nti Kwakye in opposing her allegation that the Ananangyas and the Odumases are slaves, indicates to any rational being that she is in a dilemma. Whichever way she goes, she is the loser. What a no-win situation she has accidentally out of greediness thrown herself into, hence the Akan saying, "Eda wo kon ho a aduenum, wo yi to h3 a 3ha". She should simply swallow her pride, throw in the towel and say, "I am sorry", though sorry is said not to buy one a bread. As mentally blind and devoid of common sense but full of venomous greed as she has always been, she rather prefers hiding behind the smoke screen of some libidinal friendship to the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to procrastinate the case. This action will be short-lived. It will dissipate into the thin air without any trace same as morning dew disappears with the rising Sun. Time will tell. Time alone will tell how vulnerable, weak-minded and ignorant the queen and her team of cheats are. They are bound to fail by taking to that racetrack of deceit. And time has told how the Ankaase royals are not any genuine royals after all.

Before the public narration of the Kumawuman royalty history, I can conclude from the ducking attitude of the queen that she is guilty in advance. "Silence means consent", so the popular adage goes. Her unresponsiveness to the oath concludes her illegitimacy as a royal. Oh, what an irony, the pot calling the kettle you are black. I challenge the queen or any of her supporters to take me to contest to proving who is a genuine royal and who is not. This is what I have been waiting for all this while hence these incessant prodding. All her actions of offer of sex and bribe in attempt to influence people of substance to decide the case in her favour are nothing, but a wild goose chase; S.O.S cries of a cornered soul. I have a strong premonition that the Kumawu Krontrehene will soon reap the sour fruits of the bad seeds he sowed just after the demise of Barima Asumadu Sakyi II. Firstly, he defrauded Kumawuman by illegally authorising the withdrawal of millions of old Ghana Cedis from the Bank accounts of Kumawu Traditional Council. The said money was shared among Kumawuhemaa, Saanahene, Saamaahene and him. Secondly, he has been selling Kumawuman stool lands and pocketing the money as though he was the new paramount chief instead of seeing himself as just an Acting chief. He deprived a poor Kumawu inhabitant of his wife. He wooed this married woman with money. This Kontrehene was poorer than the proverbial Church mouse ("Asore dan mu akura"), when he returned from his teaching station to be installed as the Krontrehene. I wouldn't delve into his precarious state of poverty in order not to reveal his total hopelessness to the point of tarnishing his reputation. I know he is not the only one suffering from poverty in Ghana. Some are worse than his former state. I only detest his blatant desire for corrupt practices and his utter dishonesty.

He was against the chronic corruption and greediness as ingrained not only in the personality but also, the administration of Barima Asumadu Sakyi II. Little did anyone know that his detestation of corruption, his hidden or unexpressed animosity towards the chief emanated from jealousy of not being offered level ground to partake in the corruption? He saw his chance come to making ill-gotten wealth with the demise of Barima Asumadu Sakyi II and his fraudulent association with the queen. As the queen had intended to connive with him to fast-track the enthronement of the successor paramount chief by avoiding traditional procedures, he saw that as a chance to make money. She offered him lots of money to woo him to her side. With more money accruing to him from that unholy alliance with the queen, he saw his newly found self-sufficiency in wealth as enough persuasive force to seduce a certain beautiful woman married to but a poor man.

Anyway, the long and short of the story is, "What goes around, comes around". When you throw a ball against the wall, it bounces back to you. "And the evil that men do, leaves after them" This Kontrehene, alias "Tikenenkenen", will soon lose his wife in the same way as he usurped her from her legally married husband. I have a feeling that God has answered that poor man's prayer. Kontrehene will soon be taken away from the woman to be hidden against his will by the laws of the land. By the time he is liberated, the woman may be gone, having been snatched by another wealthier man, a "Burger" to be precise, and flown to the USA.

It must be noted that this Kontrehene also seconded the queen when she said the Ananangyas and the Odumases are slaves. I will personally take him on, on this particular issue. But the good news is he will soon taste the bitterness of the concoction he has forced down the throat of many.

What a regrettable dilemma? Look how far and into what hot waters corruption has taken these two traditional leaders. "Eda won kon ho a aduenum, won yi to h3 a 3ha". This is the wages of greediness.

John Fosu