The Return by Yaw M. Boateng

Author:Yaw M. Boateng [Boateng, Yaw M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781803288222
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Chapter Six

Otumfuor the Asantehene was very sick. For many weeks he had made no public appearance, and the faces of the fetish priests and attendants were grim. Few people loitered in the vicinity of the palace, and for good reason. For when the Otumfuor died, no immediate announcement was made till all the important chiefs had been summoned by the Bantamahene, and even then the news would be kept silent till the abrafo had captured a few victims to serve the deceased monarch in the land of the dead. The announcement of the death was accompanied by a curfew, and any one breaking this curfew was destined to serve in the land of the dead as well if caught.

Otumfuor Opoku II had not actively performed his duties as Asantehene for many weeks. The Bantamahene now took his place in court cases, and at one Adae he made the offerings in place of the king, who could not even sit up in bed. That was during a Wednesday Wukudae, and three weeks later, as the time approached for a Sunday Kwasidae, there was a great public outcry to see the king and to know if he was still alive or not. Maalam Fuseini paid an unexpected call on Jakpa and said that he had been asked by the Gyaasehene to pray for the king’s health. Perhaps Allah would grant them what the gods of Asante could not give. Jakpa fetched some goat skins, and the two Moslems prayed for many hours in Jakpa’s little courtyard. Several of the eunuchs looked on curiously.

On the Saturday evening preceding the Sunday of the Adae festival, there was continuous drumming before the palace till just before dawn. A crowd gathered before the gates, for what the drummers were saying was that the king was well and would play his part in the Kwasidae. The women sang till sunrise, and the combined noise of their singing and the drums kept Jakpa awake all night.

He went to watch the celebrations. As was usual during such activities, a large crowd had gathered to watch the public ceremony, but the king and his attendants were late in coming. Kofi, Jakpa’s servant, remarked that perhaps his illness had returned, but Jakpa was more optimistic. He knew that there was a special rite in the palace which only the king and a few attendants performed. There was a special house in the centre of the palace where the favourite stools of the deceased royal ancestors were kept. The Golden Stool of Asante was also kept there, and the ancestral stools were blackened with sacrificial blood. This place was considered the home of the ancestral ghosts or spirits, and they were more likely to be found there than elsewhere. The king, acting as a common servant (for what is he after all but the first servant of the ancestors?) would himself dish out food, meat and drink for the spirits, barefooted and with bare shoulders.

Jakpa’s guess turned out to be right, because after some time the king’s retinue made its appearance.

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