Update:
Chinese man, Sun Qiang, who had been enstooled as a development chief (Nkosuohene) of Kwahu-Abetifi, a town in the Eastern Region of Ghana has stepped down from his title.
He resigned on the grounds of ‘excessive conjugal pressure’ from widows and single women.
Here’s the background to his story:
The title Nkosuohene is often given to non-royals, who could be politicians or tourists engaged in development. In Kwahu-Abetifi, this title was conferred on a Chinese man, and some Ghanaians are not so enthused over the development.
Per custom, Sun Qiang, following his enstoolment, was given a traditional stool name — Barima Kofi Ayeboafo. The name Ayeboafo in Ghana literally means “one who has done something to benefit others”.
A grand durbar was held at the Kwawu-Abetifi Palace on Saturday to officially unveil Sun Qiang as the newly enstooled Nkosuohene of the traditional area.
The Nkosuohene title was created in 1985 by the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, “as a catalyst for development in Kumase [capital of Ghana’s Ashanti Region] and beyond,” according to George M. Bob-Milliar in the academic paper, Chieftaincy, Diaspora, and Development: The Institution of Nkosuohene in Ghana.
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Bob-Milliar adds that “since the 1990s, hundreds of African Americans and some white Westerners have been honoured with various royal titles.”
Basically, this is not the first time a foreigner has been given such a title, however, the selection of a Chinese man still comes with mixed feelings for several people as the Chinese have been accused of slowly taking over the continent.
Why was the Chinese man made chief in Ghana?
Becoming a chief is known to be a privilege that is extended mainly to only people of royal blood or those who have grown up within specific jurisdictions but the enstoolment of the man from China is one of the rare exceptions.
China is one of the most infrastructural developed nations in the entire world and it is hoped that Sun Qiang would exhibit strategies of his home country to develop his Ghanaian community.