75,000 Mark 25th Year of Ghana King’s Rule
About 75,000 people, including royalty from throughout Africa, came to this West African country Sunday to help the Ashanti king, Otumfuo Nana Opoku Ware II, celebrate his 25th year on the throne.
The Ashantis belong to the Akan ethnic group, which makes up about 40% of Ghana’s 15 million people.
The all-day procession, known as the Grand Durbar, was held in the Kumasi Sports Stadium.
The entourage of thousands, many in gold-embossed silk and cotton gowns and togas, included priests and poets, hunters bellowing through rhino horns and elderly women sprinkling holy water.
The 75-year-old king, a British-trained attorney, is 15th in a line of direct descendants to the throne.
His people’s heartland in Kumasi, 160 miles north of Ghana’s capital, Accra, is full of gold and timber that has made them among the wealthiest and most powerful African ethnic groups.
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