Visit of Nana Nketsia V to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Ghana regional leader visits post celebration

The paramount chief of the Essikado Traditional Area in Ghana, got a taste of Fort Leonard Wood recently.

Nana Kobina Nketsia V came to Fort Leonard Wood to share in Black History Month festivities. He has been to the United States three times before, but never to mid-America.

Nketsia is the chief of a region of Southwestern Ghana that contains the third largest city in the country.

He stressed the fact that he was part of an ethnic group, not a tribe. The word tribe has negative connotations in Africa, Nketsia said.

As chief, Nketsia serves as the "father of the community." He must meet all kinds of needs for his people, like food and shelter.

The symbol Nketsia has for his state is the mother hen and her chicks, because the mother hen would die for her chicks.

Ghana has both elected officials and traditional chiefs. Nketsia is among the latter.

"We have a duality of the modern structures and the traditional structures," Nketsia said. "Everything is based on one's