Some sub-chiefs of the Nungua Stool yesterday 4th August 2022 held a press conference to respond and to bring sunshine and clarity to bear on what they described as a confused state of mind or a calculated subtle attempt on the part of the Gborbu Wulomo to usurp the authority of the Nungua Mantse, King Odaifio Welentsi III.
Nii Afotey Gbetse VI, Nungua Asoprotsonaa Mantse who addressed the press stated that the recent incidences and happenings within the Nungua Traditional area under the instigations of the Gborbu Wulomo to foment trouble and attempt to rewrite the history of the good people of Nungua will not be countenanced.
Nii Gbeste VI said, “there are two main SIGNIFICANT issues we would like to address wholly and put to rest any kind of doubt or ambiguity in the people’s mind and as it may be harbored or entertained also by the Gborbu Wulomo”.
About a week ago, something happened that has become worrisome to the people of Nungua, especially Nungua Mantse and his Elders. the issues is that last Thursday, after all our festivals and celebrations of the year, the chief sets aside a day where he and his elders and ‘Asafoatsemei’ will lead the indigenes of the land to the royal cemeteries of Nungua to perform rituals on the tombs of the departed royal ancestors to thank them and to ask for more blessings and protection for the people of Nungua. After that the chief returns to the palace in a palanquin ride through some principal streets in display of joy and happiness of a successful year of being able to feed themselves and their ancestors.
“That’s the only thing we went about doing two weeks ago. After visiting the two royal cemeteries, whiles the chief and his entourage were in procession in his palanquin ride, the police approached him and told him that the Wulomo’s goons have laid ambush for him to prevent him from performing that last ritual we call ‘Odwura’ which literally means cleansing” Nii Ghetse VI narrated.
So as soon as the chief descended off his palanquin to ascertain the security threats the police had informed him about, these thugs started pelting stones and petrol bombs at the procession. So, the peace loving chief quickly decided that to avoid any kind of needless blood shed he and his entourage will return peacefully to avoid any catastrophe or casualties because he loves his people.
This sad event has become a grave worry to the people of Nungua for the disrespect shown their Chief by the Wulomo and his people. He said, “It is quite shocking for the Gborbu Wulomo to put up such a violent show to prove that he is actually the one who has the right to perform that rites. But unfortunately he is either pretending not to know or someone is feeding him with wrong history or perhaps both because in our Ga Adangme traditions, from Ga Mashe to Osu, Tema, Kpone and all the other traditional areas we have various chief priests(Wulomei) and we also have chiefs who sits as President or Presides over traditional council meetings with his Vice and as per the norm or tradition the Wulomo also sit in as an ordinary Council member as established from of old and as it exist in all the various Ga Dangme states” he explained.
He added that “quite apart from that there is Nyametei Commission report which clearly spell out the role and portfolio of Gborbu Wulomo in which it states clearly that for peace to prevail in Nungua the Wulomo should be added as one of the signatories to the alienation of Nungua Stool and also be made a member of the Nungua Taditional Council and that is it, it ends there.”
“In our Nungua case, the Gborbu Wulomo is not the only priest we have, we have several of them in our various Quarters like Sienshi which is the royal Quarter having several priests or Wulomei like Charwey Wulomo, Osabu Wulomo, Mokwe Wulomo, Abli Wulomo and Totole who is the caretaker of the Oshwe Shrine and the Nungua Chief himself is the High Priest of the Oshwe shrine. The other side is the Manafa Quarter which also has the Ofu Wulomo and the Gborbu Wulomo.”
“Now they say the Chief is according himself the title of shitse which the Gborbu Wulomo and his people don’t want to accept because it’s rather the Gborbu Wulomo who is the Shiste of Nungua for his major contribution to Ga Adangme according to Ofu Wulomo who was captured on video declaring Gborbu Wulomo as the Shitse of Nungua, hence the chaos and all these confusion. But I want to explain for the clarity and understanding of all that it’s never the case of anybody’s contribution to the Ga Dangmes or to Nungua makes anybody Shitse otherwise Mac Dan who has and is still doing marvelous for the Ga Dangme state would have been called Shitse-mli-shitse–mli-Shitse( great grand landlord).”
“In Ga, when we say ‘shi’ we are referring to land and every town lies on a land and the land obviously has landlords or owners and anywhere you go within the African traditional settings especially in Ghana the Chiefs are the landlords and never the chief priest who serves the Stool”. Asoprotsona Mantse explained.
Below is the rest of the text as captured in his statement:
Over here in Nungua, we have various nicknames for the various Wulomoei Charwey Wulomo is referred to as Charwey-Otromei, Osabu is also Osabu- Olatei oo and Abli is Abli-kwakwa and Oshwe is Oshwe yaado(where the through Shitse really comes from).
When you go to the Gborbu shrine Village there is particular shrine there that is called Shitse and that shrine is worshiped only by the Chief(Nungua Mantse). There’s never once in our history that any Gborbu Wulomo has ever worshiped the Shitse at the Shrine Village. So if the Wulomo doesn’t even accept the fact that the Chief is the Shitse or landlord, the only shrine referred to as Shitse at the Gborbu Shrine Village is worshiped exclusively by the Nungua Mantse and non other.
All of these physical explanations aside, in the spiritual terms, at occasion where our priestesses are in their elements and doing their dances, they always refer to every Wulomo as lasulor(fire starter) and refer to the Chiefs as Shitse(landlord) and I want this to be clear to Nuumo Ofu Wulomo that you don’t earn the Shitse title by your contribution to the Ga Dangme state but rather an age old title reserved exclusively to the Nungua Mantse and non other.
We also have one of our sub chiefs in Nungua called Osabarima Agyeman which obviously tells you that the name has Akan origin but, when you are living you learn and you learn from best practices and known establishments which doesn’t necessarily change one’s culture or identity
That aside, we will urge or challenge anybody, in fact we do both to encourage any well-meaning indigenes of Nungua with creative ideas of coining a new name to be adapted for that last ritual performance of the Kplejoo otherwise we urge everybody to keep quiet and save us the peace we have in Nungua
In fact, this is not the first time a Gborbu Wulomo and his people from the Manafa or Amanfa had attempted to scuttle or distort our history with violent approach to usurp the powers of the Nungua Mantse. They tried that in 1938, 1978 and today 2022 they have repeated the same thing.
We are by this calling on the State security heads i.e IGP, National Security Minister, Minister for Interior and all who matter to immediately step in to forestall future disturbances which may lead to serious consequences because wewere equally ready to face off with them but for our peace loving Chief who stopped and calmed us down for the sake of peace in Nungua.
The Gborbu Wulomo is just the Chief Priest and that is all he is and the Nungua Mantse is the High Priest and Shitse of Nungua by virtue of his exclusive worship of the Shitse shrine at the Gborbu Shrine Village.
Much the same way as the reason why we celebrate Obene in Nungua only and no other part of Ga Dangme is because the Borketey Lawei’s people whom we welcome as visitor’s into the Nungua land several years ago whose descendant are the Manafa or Amanfa people came with their own Obene festival or celebrations and we never stopped them because we wanted them to feel at home and they do that without any interruptions from any quarters and we even partake in the celebration.
Another thing about the mandzwinano corrupted to Odwira or purification is that it’s the sole prerogative of the occupant of the stool to purify because the Chief also doubles as Oshwe Wulomo so he has the right to perform purification rites at the royal cemetery to ask for blessings and protection for himself and his subjects without qualms.
Lately, we have watched and noticed with great worry, the way and manner the Gborbu Wulomo carries himself about, his lifestyle and the kind of costumes that he wears amongst other things shows that he really doesn’t care about preserving our tradition and culture. We wish to remind him that the Gborbu Wulomo sits on a white Stool otherwise known as asesegwa not gold plated armchair as a chief because it’s a taboo or sacrilege for a Wulomo to adorn himself with gold ornaments. This is certainly an American Wulomo not the one we are used to in Nungua.
We are by this press conference once again drawing the attention of State security heads i.e IGP, National Security Minister, Minister for Interior and all who matter to immediately step in to forestall future disturbances because we are more than capable of handling these goons who do the bidding of the Gborbu Wulomo. We have videos of the Gborbu Wulomo and his henchmen celebrating in the room when his goons were pelting stones and petrol bombs at Nungua Mantse and his entourage and this video is annoying enough to spark massive confusion in Nungua and therefore we are once again urging the Security agencies to take a critical look at these developments.