ASANTEHEMAA GOES TO BREMAN
Mortal remains of the late Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem has been interred at the Breman Royals Mausoleum in Kumasi.
This was at about 12 midnight
yesterday after it had been temporarily kept at the Bantama Royals Mausoleum
near the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where some rituals and customs in line
with Asante Tradition had been performed.
Earlier yesterday, the Anglican
Diocese of Kumasi held a Requiem Mass at the Manhyia Palace to repose the soul
of the late Asantehemaa, Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem, to God.
The Mass, which
preceded the final journey of the late Asantehemaa to her ancestral world, was
heavily patronized by dignitaries from across Ghana and beyond.
Among them were
the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his wife, Mrs. Rebecca
Akufo-Addo, Vice President Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia and his wife, Samira,
former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kuffuor, Members of
Parliament, some members of the Diplomatic Corps among others.
The brownish-coloured
casket embossed with the official seal of the Asantehene, containing the late
Asantehemaa’s mortal remains arrived at the Royal Ceremonial Grounds at the
Manhyia Palace in a Palanquin at exactly 1.30 pm.
It was accompanied by a long
retinue of subjects of the Manhyia Palace with the Chief Mourner and
Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, also in a palanquin, alongside the pallbearers
while the surviving son of the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware, the Akyempimhene,
Oheneba Adusei Poku following in the rear in line with Asante tradition.
A
tribute read on his behalf, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who is also the biological son
of the late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem, described the late Asantehemaa as not
a mother to him alone, but to many others and that with her transition into the
ancestral world, many people have lost a mother and a worthy example.
Otumfuo
Osei Tutu described also Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem as an epitome of royalty
in style and expressed gratitude to her for her unflinching support in the
choice of Lady Julia Osei Tutu, an Akyem, as a wife, despite an initial fear of
a rejection.
Lady Julia Osei Tutu, also in a tribute read for her, expressed
appreciation to her late mother In-law for wholeheartedly accepting her into
the Asante Royal family despite her family background.
The Anglican Diocese of
Kumasi of which she was a member, also in a tribute, noted that the late
Asantehemaa lived a life that was dominated and guided by the accepted
Christian virtues.
In a Sermon, a former Bishop of the Kumasi Methodist
Diocese, Right Reverend Professor Osei Sarfo Kantanka, consoled the bereaved
Asantehene to take solace in the fact that the late mother lived a fulfilled
life worthy of praise and emulation.
The late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem was
born in 1905 into the Oyoko Royal clan of Kumasi to Nana Yaa Birago and Oheneba Kwadwo Af)do.
She
succeeded Nana Ama Serwaa Nyarko in November 1977 as the 13th
Asantehemaa and reigned for 39 years.
She was the second longest reigning
Asantehemaa after Nana Konadu Yiadom who reigned for 41 years.
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