Breakfast at the chief’s

When a paramount tribal chief in Ghana invites you to come for breakfast at his palace, it’s an offer you can’t really refuse.  

And when you agree to have beer with it, it’s also difficult to change your mind. Our invitation came during our last live edition of World Have Your Say from the twin cities of Sekondi-Takoradi in the west of Ghana. 

The chief, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, was taking part in the programme in his role as chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the tournament in Sekondi-Takoradi, home to one of the venues. His palace turned out to be a large, relatively modern, one-story house, surrounded by high walls, in Sekondi where a brand-spanking new, 20,000-seater stadium has been built for the tournament by the Chinese at a cost of $38 million.

Change of dress

While he was wearing jeans and a shirt for the programme, he met us in his living room dressed in traditional green robes, hung over one shoulder, and leather sandals.He sat down on his chief’s stool, but at first he didn’t address us. Protocol demanded that he initially speak through his “linguist”, an older man, also dressed in robes. Once that formality was over, the linguist went to get the beer – a choice of lager or 7.5 per cent-strong Guinness.Ros, who had said the previous evening that he would have Guinness, now wanted tea – something the chief was quick to pick up on and challenge. Ros reverted to his original choice. I opted for tea from the start and didn’t waiver.Chief’s don’t stand

During the programme Ros asks people who want to speak to stand so that the rest of the audience can see who’s talking, but when he asked the chief one of his entourage told Ros, “Chief’s don’t stand”.

He’s been chief of the Essikado traditional area in Sekondi for 10 years and presides over around 70,000 people.

The chieftaincy passes through the female line and he inherited the position from his mother’s brother, Nana Kobina Nketsia IV. There are around 200 chiefs like him in Ghana.

He says one of his roles is settling disputes and that sometimes judges contact him about cases they are unable to deal with, but that he refers marital problems to his mother. The chief says the poor and hungry also come to him for help.

The chief hands on power at death or through abdication and can be deposed if an elder removes the chief’s sandals and his feet touch the ground, something which should never happen to a chief.

There is a hierarchy among chiefs and lower ranked ones must doff the shoulder strap of their robe to their more senior brethren. He says the respect shown to him is respect for his position and not him as a person.

The chief on politics

He talks about Marx and the political economist Adam Smith, then says chiefs don’t get involved in party politics, but that he has sympathies for the Concept Party. It’s one of a number of apparently contradictory statements the chief makes.

He studied at North London Polytechnic in the late ‘70s and now teaches history at the local university, but then says that many Africans who are studying under an education system inherited from their former colonisers are being “miseducated”. He says he is re-educating himself.

He adds that one of our Nigerian colleagues is a “white man with black skin”.

The chief says that he wouldn’t normally speak in public, but that he made an exception for our programme as he is a friend of the boss of the local station, Skyy Power FM, which co-produced it. Then he tells us about appearing on Nigerian television.

The chief on Bush

He says he could meet President Bush who is visiting Ghana later this month – “It would be easy to arrange” – but says he doesn’t want to.

He respects the former British Labour Party leader Michael Foot, and would like to meet the former Labour MP Tony Benn, and didn’t like the way Britain was going under Thatcherism when he lived there.

African leadership

Asked why in the past Ghana has not always looked after new infrastructure, such as stadiums, he says, “We don’t see the continent as belonging to us. It belongs to a leadership sometimes cut off from us”.

As we leave a number of people are waiting outside on the veranda where he happily poses for photos.

It was one of the most unusual, but satisfying breakfasts I’ve ever had.