Ashanti people install new king

07:56 a.m. Apr 26, 1999 Eastern

KUMASI, Ghana, April 26 (Reuters) - Businessman Nana Kwaku Dua was installed on Monday as king of Ghana's Ashanti people, one of the more influential of the traditional leaders of Africa, witnesses said.

Dua, the 19th in line dating back to a pre-colonial empire that built its power on gold, was enstooled, as the enthronement ceremony is called, in Ghana's second city of Kumasi in the presence of Ashanti elders and tributary chiefs.

Earlier, he emerged from 40 days seclusion during which courtiers and elders briefed him on his future role and duties.

Thousands of jubilant onlookers watched as he was carried through the streets of the city with dozens of royal guards in attendance armed with ancient guns.

Dua, 48, became the Asantehene, as the king is known, on April 1 after the Asanteman, the highest traditional body of the tribe, approved his nomination. He is the 16th occupant of the Golden Stool, the symbol of his authority.

Specialising in accountancy, personnel management and public relations, he succeeds Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, who died aged 79 after a short illness on February 25.

The Ashanti are a matrilineal society. His own mother, Nana Afua Kobi Serwaa Ampen II, who as Queen Mother or paramount woman in the tribe had the task of nominating the new king, chose him over six other hopefuls despite initial protests.

Experts say that under Ashanti tradition he was first in line as he was uncle to the dead king. The others were cousins.

The Ashanti empire held sway in the region in the 18th and 19th centuries but the Ashanti remain an influential force in modern Ghana, which won independence from Britain in 1957.