The Paramount Chief of the Nsein Traditional Area, Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, has marked this year’s Kundum Festival at a colorful ceremony at Nsein.
The Festival also coincided with the dedication of a beautiful one-storey-building to serve as the Palace for the traditional area.
A special church service led by the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, Dr. Paul Kwabena Boafo, was held in honour of the dedication.
The Diocesan Bishop of Sekondi, Rt. Rev. Kwesi Ansah, the Very Rev. Solomon Sobeng, Synod Secretary of the Sekondi Methodist Church and Superintendent Minister of the Freeman Methodist Church, Kwesimintsim, joined the Presiding Bishop to dedicate the Palace to the Glory of God.
Preaching on the theme “Building on the Rock”, Most Rev. Paul Boafo observed that this year’s Kundum Festival was with a difference, given that it was being marked with the blessings of God as was experienced with the shower of rain in the morning.
He was grateful for the invitation extended to him to participate in the festival.
Turning his attention to the Palace, Most Rev. Boafo told the Omanhene that for deciding to dedicate the edifice to the Glory of God, “may God grant him (Wulae) long life.”
Commending the Omanhene for leading in putting up such a beautiful edifice as a palace, there was no doubt that it had uplifted the Nsein area, and every member would want to be identified with it.
“This edifice has shown the world that we have different kinds of leaders. The beauty of the edifice would travel the whole breadth of the globe; the traditional ruler who sees development as part and parcel of his people.”
Most Rev. Kwabena Boafo continued that the beauty of the edifice would be that which was inscribed in the heart and minds of the people who would come and go out of the palace.
He, however, cautioned that the palace should not be a place where people would be scared to visit when an invitation is extended to them, but a place where people would be eager to visit when an invitation is extended to them, knowing the Omanhene and the elders stood for justice.
“There should be fairness, good governance and justice in your rulings. That is where beauty would become beautiful,” the Methodist Presiding Bishop counselled.
On his part, Rt. Rev. Kwesi Ansah said he had never in his life witnessed a dedication of a palace to the Glory of God, so for Awulae Agyefi Kwame to do so spoke of the kind of character and his faith in God.
AWULAE AGYEFI KWAME II
Awulae Agyefi Kwame II has been on the stool for 56 years and is the longest serving Paramount Chief in the region. He is mostly referred to as ‘Ebusuapayin” by his colleague paramount chiefs, given his long service as a Member of the Western Regional House of Chiefs (WRHC).
Addressing the Kundum, Agyefi Kwame indicated that when he imagines the tender age at which he was enthroned, and where he had reached now, it was the blessings of God.
This is because, he never, in his life, imagined that a time would come when he would invite the church to dedicate his palace to the Glory of God.
He told the Kundum celebration that when he ascended the throne, his elders left him two rooms and a big hall as a Palace. Knowing where he was coming from, he was never bothered.
However, his headache was how to leave a legacy after sitting on the stool for so many years. “56 years as Omanhene, I was worried what legacy I was going to leave.”
More worried was when he served as Chairman of the Research Committee of the National House of Chiefs (NHC), because, he travelled across the length and breadth of the country and could see the befitting palaces his colleague chiefs had built.
For this reason, he, together with his elders, decided to build a new palace by way of levying the indigenes. This idea, he said, did not work.
That did not deter him, and he still went ahead and together with his elders and a priest, a sod cutting ceremony was performed for the building of a palace two years ago, after starting and solicited support from individuals, including Ghana Gas. The gas company came to their aid after doing a needs assessment and decided to foot 70% of the entire cost of the building.
Present at the celebration were George Mireku Duker, Member of Parlianent (MP) for Tarkwa Nsuaem, Kobina Okyere Darko Mensah, Western Regional Minister, George Sipa Yankey, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gas, and Awulae Angamtuo Gyan, Omanhene of Gwira and Vice President of WRHC.
Corporate Ghana, including Ghana Gas, Adamus Resources, and Ghana Rubber Estate Limited (GREL) made a cash donation in support of the festival.
