The one-week observation of the late Asantehemaa, Nana Konadu Yiadom III, is currently taking place at the Manhyia Palace.
Preparations are well advanced for the ceremony at Bogyawe, within the Palace grounds, where the Asantehene, occupant of the Golden Stool, is expected to take his seat at midday.
Cultural and traditional displays are at their peak, as mourners and observers continue to throng the palace to witness the solemn rites.
Paramount Chiefs are arriving to pay their respects, while fetish priests and priestesses from across the Kingdom perform rituals at the forecourt of the palace.
Heavy security has also been deployed to ensure safety and order throughout the event.
Biography of the Late Asantehemaa Nana Konadu
Nana Konadu Yiadom was born in 1927 at Benyaade Shrine at Merdan, a small town located at Kwadaso, Kumasi, in the days of the restoration of the Asante Confederacy.
She was born to Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II, Asantehemaa, who reigned from 1977 to 2016. Her father was known as Opanin Kofi Fofie, known popularly as Koofie or Keewuo, a carpenter by profession from Besease near Atimatim in Kumasi.
At a very tender age, just when she was a little over a year old and being breastfed, Nana Konadu Yiadom III, Asantehemaa, was separated from her biological mother and given to her aunt (mother’s sister), Nana Afia Konadu, at Ashanti New Town (Ash-Town), a suburb of Kumasi.
Nanahemaa never had any formal education, but she underwent a rigorous and quality informal education, learning a lot of things that were not taught in the classroom.
She was initiated and underwent puberty rites together with her niece, Nana Abena Ansa, in their early teens. She married Opanin Kwame Boateng, a blacksmith by profession from Aduman in Kumasi.
She is religious, kind-hearted, calm, fair and firm, hardworking, very humble, unassuming, and accommodating. In the mid-1990s, Kwaku Firi Bosomfo, the priest of Kwaku Firi, prophesied through Baffour Akoto, a Senior Linguist of Asantehene, that Nanahemaa would be Queen of Asante someday, and surely, it came to pass.
Nanahemaa has achieved a lot and has been recognized as such. Through her constant generosity in doing God’s work, the Saviour Church named a school after her, Nana Konadu Saviour School.
She has exhibited a high level of equity, justice, and fairness, and all cases brought before her have been settled amicably to the satisfaction of both parties involved. In celebrating her 5th Anniversary as Asantehemaa, she made a huge donation to the mothers at the Mother-Baby Unit (MBU), Pediatric Emergency Care Unit (PICU), and Pediatric Emergency Unit (PEU) and paid for all the medical bills and expenses for new mothers at the Mother-Baby Unit (MBU) at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Manhyia Government District Hospital.
Nanahemaa has started a vigorous campaign and instituted an annual event to encourage mothers to breastfeed their young ones. The main reason she made a generous donation to the Mother-Baby Unit at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Manhyia Government District Hospital.
