Inside Assin Kushea, home to West Africa's biggest palace

Tucked away in the Central Region of Ghana lies a town most people would never have heard of, were it not for two extraordinary distinctions.

Assin Kushea is Ghana's cleanest town, and it sits on the same ground as what is regarded as the largest palace in West Africa.

The man behind both achievements is Nana Prah Agyensaim VI, Paramount Chief of the Owirenkyi Traditional Area.

A Chief with a different vision

When Nana Prah Agyensaim VI ascended the throne, he made a quiet but defining resolution, solving one of Ghana's most stubborn problems — sanitation — and building a palace so grand it has become a tourist attraction in its own right.

On the sanitation front, Nana traced Ghana's littering problem not to laziness or indifference, but to an old, deeply ingrained habit.

"We as Ghanaians had the tradition of throwing leaves away when we used to eat from leaves. After you finish eating, the natural thing to do is throw the leaves away. In those days, it didn't matter because the leaves would decompose. So, we were not littering, but the habit of throwing had been ingrained in us.

"So, when this creature called plastic came, we put our food in the plastic, and after eating, we throw it away because that is the habit that we had inculcated in us. So, my problem was to stop the throwing away," he said.

That problem-solving mindset transformed Assin Kushea into the cleanest town in Ghana.

The Palace

Sprawling across 7.4 acres of land, the Assin Kushea Palace is a fortress of ambition and artistry.

The palace grounds feature a botanical garden, a zoo, a massive courtyard and several rooms filled with royal artifacts.

Dotted across the courtyard are statues of dogs, a nod to Nana's Aduana Clan, whose totem is the dog.

The palace walls are adorned with African proverbs, depictions of animals and birds, and an array of cultural imagery that tells the story of a people and their traditions.

Significantly, Nana Prah Agyensaim VI has stated that he does not intend to personally reside in the palace upon its completion. The structure is being built to promote tourism and put Assin Kushea on the map.

All of these and more were captured in an episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV, where the host of the program, Etsey Atisu, sat with the chief on the palace grounds to hear the full story of a ruler who looked at what he had, decided it was enough, and built something unforgettable with it.

Some observers believe that when completed, the Assin Kushea Palace may not just be the biggest in West Africa, it could be the biggest on the entire African continent.

Watch the video below:



FKA/AE