A lot of issues unraveled as to who the successor of Nana Sike I should be.
After the installation of Nana Sike II as the heir aperant to the throne of Bowiri Kwamekrom, some of the clan members believed he is not the rightful heir and decided to take legal action against his installation but did not emerged victorious.
I want to take you to the past and bring to light why the successor was chosen.
This is how the history began, Ogyakpa Kojo was a great warrior who lead the entire Bowiri Community to war against the Ashanti empire and had victory over them. He was a man full of mystery and was always at the forefront of the community in all that they do. One of his mysterious moment was when he shot a single gunshot that killed seven and injured many warriors of the Ashantis during a war. During the same war, Ogyakpa Kojo vanished from the war scene and landed on a rock in the great shrine at Bowiri Amanfrom called ‘’Kutuatu’’. His footprint is still there on the rock till this present day.
He gave birth to eleven (11) children and out of the eleven (11) children, he had only one male child who bears many names (i.e Attuh, Segble and Sike). One would asked, why just a man bearing so many names? The answer is simple, Attuh was the main name given to the only son by his father Ogyakpa Kojo, the rest are names that emerged out of some happenings. I will say in the present day, both Segble and Sike are nicknames.
After the war, Ogyakpa Kojo was the first person to carve African black stool at Bowiri Amanfrom and named it, Bediaku (Yebeᶑi ᴐku), meaning we came to won battles. During the time after the carving of the stool, Ogyakpa Kojo did not want to enstool his one and only son as Nana Badiaku. He therefore decided to choose his sister, Kaaka’s son, Akwasi(Ogyakpa Kojo’s nephew) who became the first person to be enstooled as Nana Badiaku.
There was a time when three clans brought their African black stool together and perform sacrifice to them. It was a norm that after performing sacrifice to the stool by a clan, others should wash the dish that was used in performing the rite. When Attuh the one male child of Ogyakpa Kojo was asked to do the dish wash, he decided not to do as the norms specified. His reason was, how can the other people who are strangers asked he, the son of the stool owner to wash the dishes which was used in performing the rite to the stool. He told them that if they would not wash the dishes which was used in performing the sacrifices, they should leave it there, which was translated from the Bowiri dialect as ”Sikena” and that was how come he got and havethe name of the stool of Bowiri Kwamekrom as Sike.
When Attuh refused to do the dish wash, one of the member of the other clan who was an Ewe exclaimed “Attuh gblẽ se la lo” which laterally means “Attuh go contrally to the norm” and hence the name Segble. That was how Attuh got his names as Sike and Segble.
Attuh later left Bowiri Amanfrom as his father was aged as he (Attuh) uncounted some maltreatments from his relatives at Bowiri Amanfrom and sojourned at Abohire with Teglesu family who were his relatives. During his stay at Abohire, there was some misunderstanding that erupted which made him migrated and again sojourned with some hunters to establish the old Kwamekrom. After some time with the hunters, he decided to burn their hut in other to build his own with the sense of accommodating the hunters and to have rulership over them as they went for hunting. He deceived the hunters that the cause of their burnt hut was as a result of a fire outbreak that occurred when he was smoking pig meat.
After thorough investigations by the hunters, they realized the fallacy in the report Attuh gave and they also decided to burn Attuh’s newly built hut. This lead to a conflict that made Attuh to invite his friends to come and assist him battled the hunters. After a short while, Attuh and his friends succeeded in defeating the hunters and drove them away, where he finally had full rulership over the village.
Here are the names of the children of Attuh (Sike Segble): Komla Bofour who’s son is the legitimate Mankrado of Bowiri Kwamekrom, “Mankrado Atukpawo Enest”; Kormla Asamoah who’s great grandson is now the newly enstooled chief of Bowiri Kwamekrom, “Nana Sike II”( Godwin Asamoah) and Antwi who was the last headman before the enstoolment of Nana Sike I.
When Attuh arrived in old Kwamekrom, he resided at where the current Bowiri Senior High Technical School is located under a tree called Papawu. It was under this tree that the name “Papawu Asi” which was later miscalled as ᴐpasi (under the Papawu tree) emerged. The only surviving son of the land who witness the migration of the people from the old Kwamekrom (Papawu Asi) to the present day Kwamekrom is Mankrado Atukpawo Enest in the year 1933. He has the sole inherited obligation as the Mankrado of Bowiri Kwamekrom to choose the rightful candidate to enstool Godwin Asamoah(great grandson of Kormla Asamoah) as the next chief of Bowiri Kwamekrom.
That was exactly what the elders together with himself does by chosen the right candidate to be enstool as a new chief of Bowiri Kwamekrom.
But it is obvious that, greedy men want to subvert the will of the gods and God. In all if you know your history then that you know where you are coming from – Nana Sike II.
Long live Kwamekrom, long live Nana Sike II.
THANKS FOR READING.
Credit: Nana Sike II, Chief of Bowiri Kwamekrom.