Wearing a multicolored toga, cloth crown and gold sandals, Chief Nana Kwa Bonko made an imposing witness yesterday at Brooklyn Federal Court. Bonko, 44, was flown to New York from Ghana by prosecutors to repudiate a Ghanaian woman's charges that she would be sexually mutilated in her African homeland for losing her virginity before marriage.
Regina Danson's assertions were central to her request for political asylum, which also included a claim that she was next in line to succeed her late mother as queen of Biriwa.
Bonko insisted that genital mutilation is not practiced in his region.
He said there has been only one queen of Biriwa - ever - and she was not Danson's mother. Bonko added that a village queen could not be selected from Danson's clan anyway, and that he had never met her.
Tale of pain and shame
The feds charged Danson, 33, with making false statements in a 1997 immigration hearing. She told the judge at the time that if she returned to Ghana, her elders would learn she was not a virgin and force her to undergo genital mutilation. Her lover would be killed as well.
"After that, I will have to live the rest of my life in shame," Danson said in a sworn affidavit.
Outside court, Bonko said his village had been harmed by her claims.
"I'm here to erase the bad image," he told the Daily News. "I want people to know we are civilized and humane."
With the jury out of the courtroom, Federal Judge Charles Sifton gave Bonko a free pass for the Brooklyn Museum of Art so the chief could take in an African art exhibit.
