Ghanaian family discovers royal links decades after settling in London

Keeping one’s family history is a huge part of Ghana’s culture and elderly persons in various households make it a point to transfer stories of their family’s lineage to the younger ones for posterity sake.

Having the ‘royal blood’ however makes it more distinctive, for which reason Ghanaian-born Promise Adamah was extremely shocked after finding out, several years after deciding to return to her homeland; Ghana from the UK, she had links to Ghanaian royalty.

She was handed some important documents in plastic bags by an aunt upon her return, documents she returned to her father in 2013.

The family discovered while going through the documents, that they were linked to royalty.

“My aunty gave me the documents, in plastic bags which I brought here and gave to my father. We lay the documents on the floor, I saw the documents and he was actually blown away”.

“My grandfather, Togbui Adamah II, I knew we were from the Royal family. Grandmother used to tell us stories, stories most of them I can’t remember now, about how my grandfather was a very strong ruler.”

“I had a chill right through my body. I had never seen anything like this before, I think that is why I was surprised at the same time happy and grateful. I wish my dad especially was here to see this.”, she said in an interview with BBC.



Promise moved to the UK from Ghana in 1963. Her grandfather had been ruler of the Ewe community in south-eastern Ghana. In 2013, during a visit there, Promise was handed some important papers. The Black Cultural Archives in London realized their importance, it put on an exhibition about the family’s regal history.

The exhibition highlights the importance of remembering family stories and histories.