Nungua is a fishing community in Accra
Dr. Bortei Doku, from the Nungua Amanfa Clan, a clan that has never wielded the position of Nungua Mantse, has been calling himself Nii Borketey Laweh, XIV, parading as the Nungua Mantse, and repeatedly asking the Government to recognize him as such.
This is very unsettling, chaotic, and absolutely wrong. Dr. Bortei Doku did the same thing several times under Rawlings' military and civilian regimes, albeit with lesser intensity than he is currently doing. The Government should sincerely and swiftly step in with an order with teeth that bites, barring him from perpetuating these unlawful and divisive, Town-wreaking acts.
With deepest constraints, and to avoid needless politicization, this appeal deals solely with the current situation, by raising pivotal questions:
How could a clan that has never held the position as the Mantse (Chief) of Nungua suddenly claim to be the Mantse Clan in total disregard to Constitutional provisions on chieftaincy, including Nungua's traditional and customary mores? And how could there suddenly be a Nii Borketey Laweh XIV, when there has never been a Borketey Laweh XIII, let alone Borketey Laweh I to XII?
Pursuant to Dr. Bortei Doku's entreaties, there is in circulation a document issued by a Nyemitei Committee in the late 1980s, empowering the Gborbu Wulormo (deity), a sub Wulormo, to sign Nungua's important documents with the same powers as the Nungua Mantse's. Too many articles have been written on Nungua to require belaboring the issue. It suffices to mention only that Gborbu is a word carved from the word "Gboiabii", meaning children of our guests. Gborbu Wulormo means the Priest of our guests. The word "Amanfa", in turn, means "WoMaa Afa", literarily meaning stay on "part of our land."
The Mantse Group (Sanshi) -- Kweiwe, Ayiku We, and Adjin We (the three exclusive Mantse-power holding families), and the Moi We (akwashong/head warrior) and Odaateitsewe (gatekeepers/town's spokespersons)-- welcomed the Amanfa Clan to stay on part of the Town as their brothers and sisters, as they (the Sanshi people) did to other Ga Towns. The Mantse has been the principal signer of Nungua's important documents, which he did with any of the Town's Elders, including any of the heads of the deities and or traditional leaders.
The inescapable question then is how did a clan which never had the authority to sign Nungua documents as the principal signer, suddenly get the power not only to do so, but also elevating it over the ultimate Nungua-power-wielding authority and all the other subsidiary authorities? The politics that led to this, that needs no replay here, is sickening to the Highest Heavens. And how could the powers that succumbed to the ploys that registered that distortion in Nungua's constitutional set up, with conscience, sit unconcerned when that newly created signatory is mendaciously paraded by Dr Bortei Doku as the principal signer of Nungua documents, with powers superior to the Mantse's that existed centuries before the formation of the political group that animated and fostered the illegal and unconstitutional signing practices of the Town?
In the 1970s, Dr. Bortei Doku's main punch line argument was that the Mankralo was the highest authority in Nungua, with powers surpassing the Mantse's. Contrariwise, The Mankralo had never wielded such power. In fact, the Mankralo, a Sanshi position, had always been and continues to be subsidiary to the Mantse’s.
Dr. Bortei Doku's ploy in the 1970s culminated in a proceeding in which the Late Honorable Peter Ala Adjetey, counsel in a needless Mankralo litigation case, straightened up the facts and records by first asking why each of the 2 contestants and their respective factions (from Amanfa) sought the approval and blessing of the Nungua Mantse, Nii Odai Ayiku IV, to make him the ultimate choice for Mankraloship.
The Mantse's, Nii Odai Ayiku IV's, resolution of the issue speaks volumes on the matter. His choice, Nii Ago Neehwang, instead of Mr. Guy Neehwang, Dr. Bortei Doku’s-supported candidate, carried the day, reflecting clearly, truthfully, and unequivocally the real and actual historic power structure of the Town.
Equally, if not more importantly, the Hon. Adjetey hoisted other unequivocal crystallizing cementing facts. Specifically, he asked about the history of the Mankralo's position in Nungua's political hierarchy. The stark response disclosed that Mankraloship was a position in Sanshi held by Nii Shipi of Kwei We, until recently. The first ever Mankralo from Amanfa was installed by Nii Mantse Tawiah when the then Mankralo from Sanshi passed.
That FIRST EVER Mankralo appointed in Amanfa was Nii Hwang, by Nii Mantse Tawiah; the second was Nii Alabi Dzenge, the immediate predecessor of Nii Ago Neehwang. With these facts in place, the Honorable Adjetey asked Dr. Bortei Doku and his cohorts how the Mankraloship, only recently conferred on the Amanfa Clan by the goodwill of the Sandhi, could suddenly claim greater power than the Mantse's that actually placed the Mankraloship in the Amanfa Clan, in the first place.
With this revelation, clarification and cementing of the facts, Dr. Bortei Doku and his cronies switched their argument to say that Gborbu is the highest authority in Nungua. But that does not hold. Gborbu, again from Gboiabii, like the other deities in Nungua, the Osabu, Tsawe, Abli, and Totorli (Sanshi) and Owufu (Amanfa), are all under the Sanshi's head deity, the Oshwe, headed by the Nungua Mantse. How can a subdeity suddenly become the head deity? The distortions should be stopped forthrightly because they are regressive, divisive, and bereft of anything upon which the Town can develop to meet the challenges of our times.
Dr. Bortei Doku's overtures and manipulations swayed Flt. Lt. Rawlings to issue an EI to oust the Mantse. The EI was unconstitutional because the Grundnorms of Ghana, the Establishment Proclamation Decrees (Military Constitution) that legitimized Rawlings' coups in 1979 and 1981, respectively, PRESERVED the Chieftaincy institution as it was before the coups. Under those Grundnums, the Government’s role in chieftaincy was SOLELY to gazette and degazette Chiefs after the proper customary procedures for enstoolment or destoolment by the appropriate customary authorities have been met. Unsurprisingly, the Government rightly did not implement the EI.
Indeed, the Attorney General even declined to enforce it, presumably because of its unconstitutionality, culminating in a default being entered against him and the Government. The Mantse thus continued to wield his Mantse authority. Nonetheless, Dr. Bortei Doku is distorting the facts and stretching logic by stating that the EI's topplement of the Mantse made him the Mantse of Nungua. This defies logic and rationality, and he should be ordered to stop perpetuating those illegal pursuits, failing to do which steep penalties (penalties that bite) should be applied. Unbalanced politics, notwithstanding, enough is enough! Nungua should be rid of the mendacious politics that has culminated in lawlessness and unguarded disposition of its land for no purpose other than to propagate the divisiveness and enrich lawless land sale contractors.
The Mantse, as previously noted, comes from Sanshi--Kwei We, Ayiku We, Adjin We (the Mantse houses) and Moi We (akwashong/army commander/head warrior) -- and Odaateitsewe (gatekeepers/town's spokespersons). The Amanfa Clan has never, ever, held Mantseship. The truth, which is irrefutable, is enshrined in the names "Amanfa" maa afa, and "Gborbu," gboiabii. ["gboi" means visitors or guests; "abii" means children. "Gboiabii" thus stands for children of our guests]. Over the years, all Nungua people have seamlessly become one people, no one is a guest, guest's offspring, or otherwise. This, however, provides no basis to change or distort the Nungua constitutional/traditional and hierarchical structure.
With your indulgence, what has already been noted is hereby recapped to dispositively reinforce the truism: Gborbu, for Gboiabii, is a deity, which like the other deities, the Osabu, Tsawe, Abli, Tortorle (Sanshi) and Owufu (Amanfa), are all under the Oshwe (Sanshi) Wulormo.
All of us Nungua citizens are brothers and sisters, and we should live in love and unity and eschew the hatred-filled overtures that Dr. Bortei Doku and his ilk keep fomenting and resonating in our affairs. Such regressive activities do nothing but set us apart; impede and retard our development; destroy our heritage; marginalize Nungua; and, to some extent, Gas, generally, in the affairs of the Country, intensely compromising our heritage and ethnicity. May God bless us all.
By Dr. Nii Otu Quaye
