Paramount Chief of the Awiaso Traditional Area, King Kaku Aka III has added his voice to the call by President John Dramani Mahama to seek reparatory justice from the British colonial administration on the perpetuation of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in Ghana and the rest of Africa .
He observed that the damning effects of the slave trade call for proper restitution as it contributed to Africa becoming “a backward continent”.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by Egya Annor Kwasi, spokesperson to King Kaku Aka III and copied to the media at Awiaso in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region.
President Mahama is leading a global movement for reparatory justice,championing the cause as the African Union’s Advocate for reparative justice.
The President’s advocacy,”frames reparations not just as financial compensation, but as a critical pursuit of truth,dignity and the restoration of African historical memory”.
King Kaku Aka III who is the third successor in the divine right of kingship to Nzemaland, declared that “the President’s move is in the right direction as it will be another landmark to atone for the sins of Europe against Africa”.
The traditional ruler said “forcibly transporting the active workforce in Ghana and the rest of Africa as slaves to Europe and the New World, through the connivance of some Chiefs, led to a breakdown in the moral, spiritual and economic strength of the continent”.
He commended his first forebear, Awulae Annor Blay, whom King Kaku Aka I succeeded as founding fathers of the Nzema Kotoko Kingdom and for the latter to stick to his “gun” and refusing to sign the bond of 1844 which served as a caveat or blueprint for the perpetration of the infamous slave trade and resisting British colonial administration.
King Kaku Aka III observed that the colonial administration distorted historical and monarchical records of Ghana adding that the British colonialists ” lacked the moral right to install Paramount Chiefs in the Nzema traditional areas after the capture and execution of his forebear.
According to him, the caretakers of the Nzema Kingdom “blindly” followed the orders of the British Colonial Administration to the “detriment of history, culture and tradition to ascend a throne they did not belong just for the sake of greed”.
King Kaku Aka III asserted that ” if the reparation from slavery Ghana and the rest of Africa seek to demand from the colonial masters in recent times is anything to go by, then King Kaku Aka I who refused to sign the bond of 1844 and opposed the servitude and bondage of his people,committed no crime and his office must be reinstated.
Readers may recall that King Kaku Aka I who founded the Nzema Kotoko Kingdom became the first Overlord of Nzemaland by earning the accolade,” The Great Nzema King ” in most of the elementary history books authored by Mr F.K.Buah, former Headmaster of the Tema Secondary School( TEMASCO).
King Kaku Aka III reminded a section of Ghanaians who seem to forget history and tradition that ” under no circumstances could a political administration forcibly enstool an alien Chief who had no allodial right to ascend any throne of a family he did not belong.
He said even the national and the Regional House of Chiefs did not reserve the mandate to install any Chief under the constitution because they were not part of the kingmakers of the royal family.
He said most of the chieftaincy disputes in the traditional areas today emanated from the colonial masters as they usurped the powers of traditional rulers who enjoyed the divine right of kingship only to replace them with people who were not the rightful heir to the thrones.
King Kaku Aka III noted that even though ” a breach of this monarchical absolutism and political legitimacy conferred on the King occured in the Western countries following the English Civil wars, the French and American revolution, it was high time sovereign nations maintained their original history, culture and traditions to avoid the wrath of posterity”.
The traditional ruler said history seemed to be distorted in the recent past because people had “stolen” stools which did not belong to them and were not interested in any historical records and antecedents.
” To this end,most of our history books which taught our children to reconstruct the past to understand the present and pave the way for the future,have been removed from the school curriculum and library shelves”, he pointed out.
King Kaku Aka III therefore appealed to the National House of Chiefs to go through the historical archives in connection with who had the legitimate and divine right to be gazatted as Overlord of Nzemaland to put an end to a-long-standing disputes and litigations over land and succession cases.
