Plau indigenes, diasporans to collaborate to enhance development

Divisional Chief of Plau in the Yilo Krobo Traditional Area of the Eastern Region and the Divisional Queenmother, Manye Narkuor IV together with the elders on Sunday, February 05, 2023, held a royal naming ceremony for 14 Diasporans at the Plau palace in Somanya.

The ceremony was organised to honour the foreigners who hail from California in the United States of America but are currently undertaking various tourist activities in the country.

To royal naming ceremony for ten women and four men with indigenous Krobo names was to encourage and facilitate development in the Plau Divisional area and also tighten the bond and connection of the Diasporans to Ghana.

The visitors were treated to colourful traditional Ghanaian culture, drumming and dancing.

A traditional purification rite known as Djrahmi was performed on the royal returnees by slaughtering a ram to welcome them into the Plau royal family.

They were also decorated with gifts including beads as well as a royal family affirmation by the Plau division to its newly named children.

Speaking at the ceremony, Nene Tetteh Djabah Agblezee IV, Divisional Chief of Plau welcomed the Diasporans whom he said had traced their roots not only to Ghana but specifically to Yilo Krobo and Plau adding that the choice of the team to visit Ghana was a step in the right direction.

According to him, the people of Plau were ready to offer their new members lands if they decided to relocate to settle in the area.

“Our relatives, our wives and mothers who have been domiciled abroad over the years have traced their roots back to Yilo, specifically Plau. We held a discussion and I’ve accepted them. I have named them and they are now part of us,” said the chief.

The traditional leader explained that though the team knew of their origin as being Africans, they were able to trace their roots to Ghana and specifically Plau due to the peaceful and friendly nature of the people which is their identity as well.

The induction of the group into Plau and their subsequent naming was the first of its kind but Nene Agblezee believed that more Diasporans would in the coming years trace their root to the area.

He hoped that the new union would facilitate the development of the area as he urged the new indigenes to attract investors to the area.

According to him, the union between the two sides could facilitate inter-marriages and exchange programmes, adding however that investing in educational infrastructure remained his priority. He said, “Investing in education remains my focus, they can open schools here and charge moderately.”

Nene Agblezee called on the people not to see the Diasporans as strangers but rather welcome and accept them as their brothers and sisters from Plau.

55-year-old Madam Rose named Nana Abena Serwaah who led the foreigners to Plau noted that though Ghana has rich cultural heritages across the country, many visitors to the country only visited the likes of Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast, adding that it was her hope to marry other visitors to other areas that did not get attention.

“My goal is to marry people from the diaspora to those places that don’t get much attention…what I’m expecting is that there’ll be an exchange of culture. We have been disconnected from our tradition, our culture, our rituals, our basic ways of life so the Plau division in exchange can share those things,” she said.

Disclosing her intention to invest in developmental projects in the Plau area, she noted: “One of the things we gained while being away is education and we earn dollars there so being able to bring the dollars to a village or a smaller city and work of developmental projects is what I have in mind.”

Nana Abena Serwaah was hopeful that the positive feedback about Plau which they would give back in the states would encourage other investors to come down to undertake similar projects.

She expressed her gratitude to the divisional chief of Plau and his people for their warm reception and acceptance and urged for a perpetual marriage between the people of Plau and their brothers and sisters from the diaspora.

The Diasporan also called on fellow Diasporans to open their doors to enable them reach out to and lead them to their ancestral roots and urged other traditional leaders to facilitate the integration of diasporans into the Ghanaian culture.

Another member of the group, Miss Jacalyn Ellison, 51 named as Manye Dede Djaba I was as part of the occasion, decorated as queenmother of the group back in California.

She noted that many Diasporans are prepared to return to their roots to contribute their quota to the African developmental agenda and expressed her commitment to her new identity.

They were all given birth certificates to show their new names.