Funeral of Asantehemaa begins today

Rites to see the late Asantehemaa join her ancestors begin on Monday, January 16 at the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the Asante Kingdom. The four-day rites in Kumasi begin with the laying in state of the late Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, whose death occurred on Monday, November 11.

She was 111. She will be laid in state from Monday to Thursday, when she will be buried at Breman in the Asante Kingdom. Monday will see filing past of the body by all chiefs in the Kingdom. Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II will be the last to file past, scheduled at 11:00am. Dignitaries from varying backgrounds are expected to file past on Tuesday, a day together with Wednesday on which chiefs and traditional heads outside the Kingdom will do theirs.

Residents have been warned not to go out between 6:00pm on the burial day and 3:00am on Friday, January 20. Manhyia says it will not be accountable to lives lost between that period. Essential workers of the Ghana Water Company, the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Ghana National Fire Service are, however, exempted. Mourners are expected to wear anything black for the rites.

Before the burial on Thursday, there will be a funeral church service at the St Cyprian Anglican Church in Kumasi and, then, a procession through the streets of Bantama. Nana Serwaa Ampem II was the 13th queenmother of the Asante Kingdom and she reigned for 39 years.

By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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